Harmeet Dhillon, the Republican attorney who reshaped the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, resigned Thursday. Her exit came just two days after the midterm elections handed Democrats majorities in the House and Senate.
Attorney General Todd Blanche said on X that he had accepted the resignation, crediting Dhillon with defending Americans' civil liberties and enforcing the law without fear or favor. Dhillon, also writing on X, described the post as the honor of a lifetime and pointed to her fights against what she called illegal DEI and for women's and girls' sports.
The timing means a Democratic-controlled Senate is likely to weigh her successor. Stacey Young, executive director of the group Justice Connection, urged incoming senators to use their full advice and consent powers on the next assistant attorney general.
Under Dhillon, the division moved away from its traditional role of protecting minority rights and toward advancing President Trump's agenda. It brought lawsuits alleging discrimination at elite universities and dropped police reform efforts.
Ahead of the election, her office sued 30 states and Washington, D.C., seeking their voter registration lists. Federal judges tossed 27 of those suits.
Her office also tried to indict Cassidy Hutchinson, the former Trump administration official whose testimony to the House Jan. 6 committee described Trump's conduct during the Capitol attack. Separately, it charged journalist Don Lemon and protesters over a protest at a Minnesota church, relying on a law historically invoked to shield reproductive health facilities.
The division also chose not to pursue a use-of-force inquiry after an ICE officer fatally shot Renee Nicole Good in Minnesota this year.
Dhillon spent years as an election lawyer for the GOP and made frequent appearances on conservative media before Tuesday's vote to promote the division's work. She was scheduled to speak Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Committee's Circle Retreat and Gala, held in the Donald Trump Ballroom at the Mar-a-Lago Club.
Civil rights advocates greeted her departure with sharp criticism. Young labeled her the most destructive, lawless and hateful leader in the division's history, accusing her of bringing weak cases against universities, state and local officials, and election workers that seldom succeeded in court.
abdicated her responsibility to enforce our nation’s federal civil rights laws and destroyed the crown jewel of the Justice Department.
Kristen Clarke, NAACP general counsel and former Civil Rights Division chief
Kristen Clarke, who ran the division under President Biden and now serves as general counsel to the NAACP, accused Dhillon of abandoning cases, purging staff and turning the office against institutions for partisan ends. Clarke said the NAACP would press for a replacement who enforces the law fairly.
