The resignation is now confirmed. Attorney General Todd Blanche announced on Thursday that he has accepted Harmeet Dhillon's resignation as assistant attorney general for civil rights — settling the question this story opened when her plans to step down were first reported.
"Today, I accepted the resignation of Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who led the Civil Rights Division with conviction the past 18 months," Blanche wrote. "She has defended the civil liberties of every American and enforced the law without fear or favor." He thanked her for her dedicated public service and wished her every success in her future endeavors.
Dhillon's own account changes the timeline. She told Fox News she had in fact resigned last month, before the midterm elections, and stayed on only because Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, asked her to remain until the election was over. In her farewell post, she called the job "the honor of a lifetime": "We ushered in the downfall of illegal DEI, we fought to protect women and girls' sports, and so much more. I want to thank President Trump for giving me this opportunity. I look forward to what's next!"
She is the first of the senior Justice Department officials to go since the Democrats' midterm sweep — U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones in Miami followed on Friday — and no successor for the Civil Rights Division has been named. The division she leaves behind decides how the federal government enforces civil-rights law for every American worker, parent and voter: the election monitors sent to polling stations, the DEI rules struck down in schools and workplaces, and the protections for women and girls in sports that she made the centre of her tenure. Who holds that office next decides whether that work continues.
— Previously posted on Thursday, November 5, 2026 —
First posted on Instagram · @profilopolitics
Harmeet Dhillon plans to step down as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, the first senior Justice Department official to leave after the Democrats' sweeping midterm wins, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. Dhillon, who was confirmed by the Senate in April 2025, has told allies she will leave the department after the midterm elections, according to four people familiar with the matter, and her formal announcement is expected as soon as Thursday.
Dhillon, a former Republican Party official and campaign lawyer for President Donald Trump, has vastly transformed the Civil Rights Division since taking charge. The division shifted toward conservative causes, including religious liberties, and formed a new Second Amendment section, while abandoning key priorities from the Biden era. The division has launched more than 100 investigations into university admissions practices, and Dhillon recruited dozens of new attorneys with backgrounds in conservative advocacy to work on litigation over state voter rolls, immigration and alleged antisemitism on college campuses.
The overhaul came as hundreds of career attorneys left the division. Earlier reporting put the departures at more than 250 attorneys since January, roughly 70 percent of the division's personnel, after Dhillon steered it away from its historic priorities such as voting-rights enforcement and investigations of unconstitutional policing.
Dhillon has previously said she planned to return to her California-based law firm, Dhillon Law Group, after her time at the Justice Department. She told Bloomberg reporters and editors in an August roundtable that she planned to return to the firm, which has been managed by her brother, Mandeep Singh Dhillon, in her absence and is now much smaller than it once was. "In terms of private practice, when the president is done with me, I loved being a lawyer in private practice," she said at the time, adding that she planned to take what she learned at the department and "continue to help plaintiffs."
Dhillon would be the second Senate-confirmed Justice Department official to depart in recent weeks, following Patrick Davis' resignation from the Office of Legislative Affairs last month. Former officials said the department is bracing for multiple other top political appointees to leave in the lame-duck period before the New Year. Dhillon and Justice Department spokespeople did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and the department has not confirmed her plans.