Trump’s ally and DOJ civil rights chief resigns after embarrassing midterm losses

Donald Trump’s chief of the storied Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice has resigned, marking the first top administration official to leave the administration after Republicans suffered brutal losses in midterm elections this week.

Harmeet Dhillon — who steered the agency away from critical missions like protecting voting rights, police oversight and combating racial discrimination during her 18 months at the Justice Department — submitted her resignation Thursday.

“She has defended the civil liberties of every American and enforced the law without fear or favor,” Attorney General Todd Blanche announced Thursday.

“The Department is grateful for her dedicated public service, and we wish her every success in her future endeavors,” he added.

Dhillon, an attorney who supported the president’s efforts to reverse his election loss in 2020 and joined his “election integrity” team in 2024, had refocused the Civil Rights Division to investigate transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s sports, “anti-Christian bias,” and institutions with diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, among other culture war issues that departed from the department’s core mission to combat discrimination and protect the rights of historically marginalized groups.

Under her leadership at the Justice Departments “crown jewel,” the Civil Rights Division dropped lawsuits intended to protect voting rights and instead pivoted to aggressive federal intervention in election administration, with the agency’s pivotal Voting Section turning into an arm of the administration’s attempts to obtain sensitive voter data and investigate alleged voter fraud.

She mounted the largest-ever deployment of election monitors in Justice Department history, sending more than 900 election observers to polling locations in all 50 states, a move that voting rights advocates condemned as unconstitutional voter intimidation.

“Election integrity has been one of the top priorities for this Administration and this Division,” Dhillon said in a statement on Monday, one day before polls opened, announcing the deployment. “I am very proud we are deploying the largest monitoring effort in DOJ history, and pursuing transparency for elections in an assertive and nondiscriminatory manner.”

Earlier this year, Dhillon’s office also announced that the Justice Department was abandoning investigations into allegations of police misconduct, constitutional violations and civil rights abuses in the wake of high-profile police killings.

She experienced a mass exodus of hundreds of career officials and government attorneys who resigned or were forced out under her watch. More than 75 percent of the division’s staff left the agency within the last two years.

“Harmeet Dhillon has been the most destructive, lawless, and hateful head of the Civil Rights Division in DOJ history,” according to Stacey Young, executive director of Justice Connection, a group of former Justice Department officials speaking out against the administration’s upheaval of the agency.

“Americans’ civil rights don’t enforce themselves. For almost 70 years, the Civil Rights Division brought to fruition the civil rights laws that Americans demanded. Dhillon decimated it,” Young said.

The Independent has requested comment from the Justice Department.

This is a developing story