Harmeet Dhillon has stepped down as head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, becoming the first senior Trump administration official to leave following the Democrats’ “blue wave” in the midterm elections.
Dhillon, a former Republican Party official and attorney who represented President Donald Trump’s campaign, was chosen by Trump for the position after his 2024 election victory.
During her tenure at the DOJ, she redirected the civil rights division away from its traditional focus on vulnerable communities and toward conservative priorities. More than three-quarters of the division’s lawyers left during her time in charge.
After her resignation became public, Dhillon said she had submitted it roughly three weeks before the election and had not been forced out.
Trump’s White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, “asked me to please wait until after the midterms,” Dhillon told Fox News.
Democrats won sweeping victories in the House and Senate on Tuesday and have vowed to launch aggressive investigations into the Trump administration.
The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division is expected to rank high among their targets, with Dhillon likely to have faced intense questioning from lawmakers.
The department has pursued several key administration priorities, including expanding gun rights and dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies.
Attorney Harmeet Dhillon speaks at a Turning Point USA event in 2022. Dhillon was the first top Trump official to resign in wake of Democrats’ historic House and Senate victories
Harmeet Dhillon, then-Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the Department of Justice, posted a photo with President Donald Trump. Dhillon resigned from DOJ Thursday
The division was also assigned responsibility for election integrity initiatives, including efforts to crack down on illegal voting operations.
The agency faced scrutiny after delaying the launch of a civil rights investigation into the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis earlier this year.
Democrats are expected to examine those shootings, along with immigration-related actions by the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security, as part of their investigations next year.
Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed Dhillon’s departure after 19 months at the Justice Department.
“She has defended the civil liberties of every American and enforced the law without fear or favor,” Blanche said.
Dhillon is set to return to her California-based private practice, Dhillon Law Group. Her brother, Mandeep Singh Dhillon, has managed the firm since she joined the DOJ.
A group of former Justice Department officials told Our News Outlet in a statement Thursday that Dhillon had “decimated” the division’s more than 70-year mandate.
“Harmeet Dhillon has been the most destructive, lawless, and hateful head of the Civil Rights Division in DOJ history,” Stacey Young, executive director of the Justice Connection, said Thursday.
Kalshi, the online prediction market, is taking bets on who could be the next administration official to leave.
Special Presidential Envoy Ric Grenell is considered the most likely next departure.
Kalshi users put the odds of Grenell leaving at roughly 60 percent, followed by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth at 51 percent.
Chief of Staff Susie Wiles ranks third, with an estimated 47 percent chance of leaving.
Wiles, the powerful White House chief of staff, is being privately blamed for the Republicans’ midterm losses, as Our News Outlet previously reported.
Yet she appears to have pulled back from the brink.
According to multiple insiders, Wiles is expected to survive the upcoming White House “purge” by engaging in a distinctly Trumpian game of “4D chess.” The strategy reportedly involves setting the president’s leading Cabinet members—particularly Vance and Rubio—against one another while quietly securing her own position.
