Harmeet Dhillon Resigns as DOJ Civil Rights Chief

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who remade the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division for President Donald Trump, resigned Thursday as the first high-profile DOJ exit after Republicans lost the House and Senate.

Dhillon told Fox News Digital she informed White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles about three weeks before Election Day that she had “accomplished everything” she came to Washington to do and wanted to return to private practice.

“I wasn’t asked to resign,” Dhillon said. “I resigned three weeks ago, and Susie asked me to please wait until after the midterms.”

In a November 5 resignation letter addressed to Trump, Dhillon wrote that she told Wiles in early October she would leave the Department of Justice after the 2026 midterm election and return to private practice.

“Serving you and your Administration has been the greatest honor of my lifetime,” she wrote.

Attorney General Todd Blanche said he accepted the resignation, writing that Dhillon “defended the civil liberties of every American and enforced the law without fear or favor,” according to Fox News and NBC News.

Dhillon was nominated in December 2024, confirmed by the Senate, and sworn in as assistant attorney general for civil rights in April 2025.

Her roughly 19-month tenure redirected the division toward ending what she called unlawful DEI practices, protecting girls’ sports, election monitoring, parental rights in schools, religious liberty, and a new Second Amendment section — priorities she listed in the resignation letter.

“Ending unlawful and discriminatory DEI practices at major institutions across the country,” protecting “women and girls’ sports from biological males,” “the largest election-monitoring effort in the Department’s history,” and “the Division’s first ever Second Amendment Section” were among the wins she claimed.

“We changed it, and that’s what we came here to do. And it’s done,” Dhillon told Fox News Digital.

The Associated Press and NPR also reported the resignation of the Civil Rights Division chief after the midterm wipeout, framing her exit against that overhaul.

The transformation brought heavy turnover inside the division, with roughly 300 attorneys departing during Trump’s second term, according to recent reports cited by Fox News; Dhillon said she recruited more than 130 lawyers.

Civil-rights advocacy groups blasted her record. Stacey Young of Justice Connection called Dhillon “the most destructive, lawless, and hateful head of the Civil Rights Division in DOJ history,” NBC News reported.

Former Biden-era Civil Rights Division chief Kristen Clarke said Dhillon “abdicated her responsibility to enforce our nation’s federal civil rights laws,” according to NBC News.

Dhillon said the decision was hers alone after moving to Washington following family losses to “serve my country.” “My decision, my choice,” she said. “It’s time.”

She is scheduled to speak Thursday at a CPAC-linked retreat at Mar-a-Lago, NBC News reported, as Democrats prepare subpoena power in the new Congress.

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