Harmeet Dhillon is resigning as Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Fox News and Bloomberg both reported the move Thursday, making her the first senior DOJ official out the door after Democrats’ midterm gains.
🚨 BREAKING: Harmeet Dhillon, the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, has RESIGNED, per Fox
She’ll reportedly be returning to California to work in her private practice.
Great job transforming the Civil Rights division, @HarmeetKDhillon. Can’t wait to see what’s next. https://t.co/Q3gmV7B3uz
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) November 5, 2026
Bloomberg said she had already told allies she planned to leave after the elections and return to private practice. An announcement was expected as soon as Thursday. Fox sources confirmed the resignation to correspondent David Spunt. No final day or official reason has been stated. She had signaled the exit earlier. In an August Bloomberg interview she said she intended to go back to her California-based Dhillon Law Group once her government service ended.
Dhillon was sworn in in April 2025 after Senate confirmation on April 3. President Trump nominated her in December 2024. She arrived at a Civil Rights Division that had long treated the statutes as a progressive operating manual. Roughly 300 of the division’s roughly 400 attorneys left during her tenure. She described it as a self-purge. The lawyers walked rather than implement the president’s executive orders on ending DEI practices, cleaning voter rolls of ineligible names, and enforcing religious liberty. She replaced them with attorneys from conservative advocacy backgrounds and kept the cases moving.
BREAKING: DOJ assistant AG for civil rights Harmeet Dhillon has resigned following Democrats’ midterm sweep, according to Fox News.
The announcement comes as Secretary of State Marco Rubio is also considering resigning, according to The Independent.
“Former officials said the [DOJ] is bracing for multiple other top political appointees to exit in the lame duck period before the New Year,” Bloomberg reports.
Up to five cabinet members are reportedly considering leaving the Trump administration.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 5, 2026
Under her leadership the division stood up a dedicated Second Amendment section. It pressed states on voter registration records, pursued immigration-related matters, and investigated alleged antisemitism on college campuses. The old career staff left in large numbers. Dhillon said on conservative media that they quit when told the office would follow the laws as written and the priorities the American people voted for. She called the departures self-deportation and moved on to hiring.
The Civil Rights Division had been one of the bureaucracy’s most protected shops. Career attorneys stayed through multiple administrations and shaped enforcement toward preferred outcomes. Dhillon treated it as an office that answers to the elected president and the statutes Congress passed. That produced the largest personnel clearance the unit has seen in recent memory. She is heading back to private practice. Former officials told Bloomberg the department is already bracing for more political appointees to exit before the new year.
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— The Whatfinger News Team: Sgt L and Sgt K with Grok on edits
