Todd Blanche confirmed on 5 November that Dhillon is leaving as head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, after Democrats won control of Congress in the midterms.
US Attorney General Todd Blanche said he had accepted Harmeet Dhillon’s resignation as the assistant attorney general leading the Civil Rights Division. His November 5 statement confirmed her departure from the federal division responsible for civil rights enforcement.
The US Senate confirmed Dhillon in April 2025. Before joining the Justice Department, she was a campaign lawyer for President Donald Trump, ran her own law firm and served as vice-chair of the California Republican Party. She also worked on lawsuits contesting the 2020 election results.
Under Dhillon, the department dropped many cases alleging racial discrimination in voting, housing, employment and education. It also pursued university discrimination claims involving alleged preferences for minorities in admissions and alleged antisemitism against Jewish students, the Guardian said.
The division sued more than two dozen states for voter-roll information and lost every case. Scores of career lawyers left during Dhillon’s leadership; she subsequently recruited dozens of attorneys with backgrounds in conservative advocacy.
Blanche said Dhillon had led the division with conviction for the past 18 months and had defended civil liberties and enforced the law without fear or favor. Stacey Young, a former division lawyer who leads the Justice Department alumni group Justice Connection, called Dhillon destructive and lawless. Young said division lawyers had been redirected from protecting vulnerable communities to targeting them.
Dhillon is the first high-ranking Justice Department official to leave after Democrats won control of Congress in the 2026 midterms. Democrats are expected to use that power to aggressively investigate executive agencies, including the Justice Department.
In an August interview, Dhillon had said she planned to return to her California-based firm, Dhillon Law Group, after her Justice Department tenure, Bloomberg Law, which first reported her departure, said.
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