by Andrew Rice
Harmeet Dhillon, the Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, resigned Thursday in the agency’s first departure since the midterm elections.
Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed Dhillon’s resignation in a post on social media. Her departure follows widespread Democratic wins to take back control of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.
“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,” Blanche wrote. “The Department is grateful for her dedicated public service, and we wish her every success in her future endeavors.”
Dhillon was sworn into the position in April 2025. She helped lead the Justice Department’s efforts to deploy a historic number of election monitors and pursue alleged instances of noncitizen voting across the country.
The Justice Department deployed more than 1,000 election monitors to all 50 states on Election Day. Dhillon said the efforts were to ensure election integrity throughout the midterms.
“You can be confident that the DOJ will be there with eyes and ears and we may take legal action afterwards,” Dhillon said in a video posted to social media.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from the Justice Department to segregate 20,000 ballots in California over fears of noncitizen voting. Department officials told The Center Square concerns over mail-in ballots tied to individuals with criminal history remained top of mind throughout the lawsuit.
“What undermines confidence is noncitizens voting,” said DOJ spokesperson Kiersten Pels. “Eligible citizens are not affected. We asked counties to set aside these ballots, not cancel them, until citizenship is confirmed.”
Senior Democratic leaders said they would use subpoena powers in Congress to investigate the DOJ and other federal agencies.
“We now have hundreds of cases in which federal judges have excoriated the Department of Justice for lying in court and for disobeying court orders,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD-08), said in an interview with Bloomberg Government.
Dhillon’s replacement will need to be appointed by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
Prior to joining the DOJ, Dhillon founded the Dhillon Law Group, a practice focused on First Amendment, free speech, civil rights and election law matters, and the Center for American Liberty, a nonprofit that pursued civil liberties claims. She previously worked at several major law firms after graduating from the University of Virginia School of Law and clerking for Judge Paul V. Niemeyer of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Dhillon also served as a Republican National Committeewoman from California.
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Andrew Rice is an apprentice reporter at The Center Square. Executive Editor of The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network Christina Botteri contributed to this report.
Photo “Harmeet Dhillon” by Harmeet Dhillon.
