Harmeet Dhillon has resigned as head of the Justice Department’s civil rights unit, becoming the first top DOJ official to resign following Democrats’ massive midterm victories.
Dhillon, who has significantly transformed the Civil Rights Division since her Senate confirmation in April 2025, had told allies she would leave the department after the midterm elections, according to four people familiar with it.
Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed in a message on X that he accepted Dhillon’s resignation. He credited him with leading the division “with conviction over the last 18 months”.
“She defended the civil liberties of all Americans and enforced the law without fear or favor,” Blanche said. “The Ministry is grateful for his dedicated public service and we wish him every success in his future endeavours. »
Trump’s staunch ally leaves behind a civil rights divide that has shifted to conservative causes, including religious liberties and the formation of a Second Amendment section. Following the mass exodus of career lawyers from the division, it recruited dozens of new attorneys from conservative backgrounds to work on disputes over state voter rolls, immigration and allegations of anti-Semitism on college campuses.
Former officials said the department was preparing for the departure of several other senior political appointees during the lame duck period leading up to the New Year. Dhillon would be the second Senate-confirmed DOJ official to depart in recent weeks, following the resignation of Patrick Davis from the Office of Legislative Affairs last month.
Dhillon, a former Republican Party official and campaign lawyer for President Donald Trump, previously indicated during an August roundtable with Bloomberg reporters and editors that she planned to return to her California-based law firm, Dhillon Law Group, after her tenure at the DOJ.
The company, which was run by his brother Mandeep Singh Dhillon in his absence, is now much smaller than it once was, Dhillon said at the time.
“In terms of private practice, when the president was done with me, I loved being a lawyer in private practice,” Dhillon said, adding that she plans to take what she learned from her time at the DOJ and “continue to help plaintiffs.”
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