DOJ civil rights chief Harmeet Dhillon resigns after Republican midterm losses
Archived — this story has rotated out of today’s deck. It is kept here in full.
The gist
Harmeet Dhillon resigned as DOJ assistant attorney general for civil rights after Republicans lost the House and Senate.
She is the first senior DOJ official to leave after the midterm wins.
Background
Harmeet K. Dhillon is the assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, born in Chandigarh, India, and raised in London, The Bronx and Smithfield, North Carolina. A conservative attorney, she founded the Dhillon Law Group and the Center for American Liberty, with a practice focused on First Amendment, civil rights, and campaign and election law, and was nominated by President Donald Trump in December 2024. When she took over the division in April 2025, she vowed to radically reshape the unit and its mission. Her departure follows this week's midterm elections, in which Republicans lost control of both the House and Senate.
How it unfolded
- Dec 22, 2023The Office for Civil Rights agreed in a letter to open an investigation into whether UNC Chapel Hill responded to alleged harassment of students based on national origin, such as shared Jewish ancestry, consistent with Title VI.
- Apr 3, 2025Harmeet Dhillon was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.
- Apr 7, 2025Dhillon was sworn in as AAG by Attorney General Pam Bondi.
- Oct 19, 2026The Justice Department announced a voluntary university-wide settlement agreement with UNC Chapel Hill resolving Title VI investigations into antisemitism and race discrimination.
- Oct 31, 2026The North State Journal reported the DOJ settlement with UNC Chapel Hill, requiring mandatory training, student group discipline and barring use of race as a "proxy" in admissions.
- Nov 5, 2026Harmeet Dhillon resigned as the Department of Justice's assistant attorney general for civil rights, sources told Fox News, after Republicans lost the House and Senate in this week's midterm elections. Bloomberg reported she planned to step down, the first senior DOJ official to resign following Democrats' midterm wins, with her official announcement expected as soon as Thursday.
Key terms
- DOJ
- Executive department of the U.S. federal government that enforces federal laws and administers justice.
- midterm elections
- US general elections held near the midpoint of a president's four-year term, when all House seats and about a third of Senate seats are contested.
- Title VI
- A section of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 that bans discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in federally funded programs.
Source: Wikipedia
Who’s saying what
- Official
- Dhillon said Title VI requires that all students, regardless of ancestry or race, receive equal treatment at federally funded colleges and universities, and that policies tolerating antisemitism or favoring certain racial groups frustrate a color-blind justice system.
- Official
- Education Department Office for Civil Rights Assistant Secretary Kimberly Richey called the UNC Chapel Hill agreement an important step in upholding civil rights laws and restoring public confidence in higher education.
- Caution
- CBS "60 Minutes" host Lesley Stahl asked whether the point of noncitizen-voting investigations is to sow distrust about the whole election system, noting very few noncitizens end up voting.
- Support
- Dhillon responded that the point is the opposite, that the distrust is already there, and that such crimes are being prosecuted now for the first time in volume, adding that the Biden administration prosecuted 13 people for noncitizen voting.
Still unverified
Fox News attributed Dhillon's resignation to "sources"; Bloomberg said she told allies she would leave and that her official announcement was expected as soon as Thursday, citing four people familiar with the matter.