Harmeet Dhillon, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, has resigned, Attorney General Todd Blanche announced Thursday.

“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 in a post on X. “She has defended the civil liberties of every American and enforced the law without fear or favor.”

Dhillon had told administration colleagues before the midterm elections that she intended to leave, and she had grown increasingly frustrated that she had not been promoted to deputy attorney general or another higher post as she expected, multiple sources told MS NOW.

She had significant tension with Blanche and Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward and had complained about both to White House officials, according to the people.

Dhillon had chafed at being blocked by Blanche and Woodward in taking a higher-profile and leadership role in election-related cases that were important to President Donald Trump. Blanche assigned his new deputy attorney general, Trent McCotter, to be the public face of those battles, according to two people familiar with Dhillon’s complaints. Dhillon had directly complained to the White House about Woodward and urged unsuccessfully that he be demoted from his post as associate attorney general, they said.

Under Dillon’s tenure, the division filed more than two dozen lawsuits seeking state voter rolls, sued elite universities over claims of antisemitism and discrimination, and refused to investigate the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot to death Renee Good in Minneapolis in January, prompting a mass resignations of Justice Department prosecutors. The office also tried to charge former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson over her testimony about the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

Dhillon had shared her intent to leave with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, according to a senior administration official who spoke with MS NOW on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel matters. Wiles had privately urged Dhillon to put off her resignation until after the midterm elections.

“Serving my country as AAG for Civil Rights has been the honor of a lifetime,” Dillon said in a post on X after the announcement. “We ushered in the downfall of illegal DEI, we fought to protect women and girls’ sports, and so much more … I look forward to what’s next!”

Still, the timing of Dhillon’s departure is seen by some White House leaders as an embarrassment for the administration, given the drubbing the president took in the midterm elections, with a historic wave of Democratic wins and the flipping of the House and Senate to Democratic control.

MS NOW has reached out to the Justice Department and the White House for comment.

The head of Justice Connection, a group of former Justice Department employees, including many who were pushed out of the department during this Trump administration, issued a statement criticizing Dhillon’s tenure and noting that three-quarters of the career attorneys left the Civil Rights Division during her leadership.

“Harmeet Dhillon has been the most destructive, lawless and hateful head of the Civil Rights Division in DOJ history,” Justice Connection Executive Director Stacey Young said. “Dhillon wielded the enormous power of the Justice Department to threaten universities, state and local officials, and election workers in spurious cases that rarely won in court.”

Young added that Dhillon shuttered investigations into police departments that showed a pattern of violating citizens’ constitutional rights and “refused to open investigations into ICE-related shootings, even as deaths and injuries continued to rise.”

Kristen Clarke, NAACP general counsel, said of Dhillon: “Instead of protecting the civil rights of all Americans, she abandoned cases, purged the work force and weaponized the Division to target institutions to achieve illegitimate, partisan goals. As a result, hate crimes, police violence, voter suppression, and discrimination has gone unchecked in all corners of the country.

Lisa Rubin contributed to this report.

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