Justice Department Civil Rights Chief Harmeet Dhillon Resigns, Telling Fox News She Quit Three Weeks Ago and the White House Asked Her to Wait Until After the Midterms
Fox News Digital says Dhillon submitted her letter Thursday after about 19 months leading the Civil Rights Division. She says she told chief of staff Susie Wiles weeks before Election Day that she had 'accomplished everything.' Attorney General Todd Blanche accepted it.
The head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division is leaving, and she says the timing is not about the election results, Fox News Digital reports.
What happened. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon told Fox News Digital in an exclusive that she is resigning. Fox says her letter is dated Thursday, Nov. 5. Her account, as Fox quotes it: "I wasn't asked to resign. I resigned three weeks ago, and Susie asked me to please wait until after the midterms." Susie Wiles is the White House chief of staff.
Her reason. Dhillon told Fox she had told Wiles three weeks before Election Day that she believed she had "accomplished everything" she came to Washington to do and wanted to go back to private practice. She said she moved to Washington after the deaths of her husband and father to "serve my country." Her words on the decision: "My decision, my choice. It's time." On the division's changes: "We changed it, and that's what we came here to do. And it's done."
The department's response. Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote on X that he accepted her resignation. Fox quotes him saying she "defended the civil liberties of every American and enforced the law without fear or favor."
The record. Fox says Dhillon was nominated in December 2024 and confirmed in April 2025, and that her roughly 19-month tenure turned the division toward DEI and race-conscious policies, religious discrimination, transgender participation in women's sports, Second Amendment rights and election integrity. Fox also reports that roughly 300 attorneys left the division during Trump's second term, according to recent reports, and that she says she recruited more than 130 lawyers.
Congress and pardons. Asked whether she would testify if a Democratic-led Congress subpoenaed her, Dhillon said executive privilege would limit what she could discuss and that she would take legal advice. Asked whether she expected a pardon, she said she had never discussed one with the president and believed she had done nothing that would require it.
Why it matters here. Her exit comes two days after Republicans lost the House and Senate, and Democrats have promised subpoenas for the administration. We have covered those promises and the Republican arguments over the loss.
What we could not check. We read Fox's report, not the resignation letter. The staff turnover figure is Fox's summary of other reports, and we did not verify it. The Wiles account is Dhillon's; Fox does not quote the White House on it. Fox marks the story as developing.