Vol. II, No. 156 From Our Region to Yours
Politics

Harmeet Dhillon Says She Resigned Three Weeks Ago and Was Asked to Hold It Until After the Midterms

The head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division left Thursday, two days after the election. She told Fox News Digital the White House asked her to wait for it.

By 2 min read

A pair of tall, closed aluminum doors with a diamond lattice pattern and two ring handles, set into the limestone wall of the Justice Department building. Carved panels on either side read "United States of America" and "Department of Justice," flanked by two metal light fixtures and a row of round planters.
The Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in Washington. The doors work in both directions, on a schedule. Photo: Gregory Varnum / CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

WASHINGTON — Harmeet Dhillon left the Justice Department on Thursday. By her own account, she left three weeks ago. The paperwork waited for the election.

Dhillon is the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. Attorney General Todd Blanche announced her resignation on X. “Today, I accepted the resignation of Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who led the Civil Rights Division with conviction the past 18 months,” he wrote, NPR reported.

Blanche also said she “defended the civil liberties of every American and enforced the law without fear or favor,” according to CBS News and ABC News.

The timing

Dhillon told Fox News Digital that she was not forced out. “I wasn’t asked to resign,” she said. “I resigned three weeks ago, and Susie asked me to please wait until after the midterms.”

Susie is Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff. The San Francisco Chronicle also reported the account.

Dhillon told Fox News Digital she had “accomplished everything” she came to Washington to do. She said the timing was not dictated by Republican losses. She plans to return to private practice, Fox News and Bloomberg Law reported.

So the resignation existed. It simply was not allowed to happen yet. Washington has a word for this. The word is Thursday.

“We keep them in a drawer,” said a White House aide known to this bureau only as Deep Throat Lozenge. “Resignations, apologies, the budget. Nothing leaves the drawer during an election.”

He was asked how many resignations are in the drawer now. He said the drawer was not available for comment.

The election

Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress on Tuesday. They take over in January, along with the committees that hold the hearings.

Dhillon is the first senior administration official to leave since the midterms, NPR reported. She is also, by her account, the first to have left before them.

The division

Dhillon was confirmed by the Senate and took over the division in April 2025. Roughly 300 attorneys left the division during her tenure, NPR and Fox News reported. CBS News put the exodus at more than 75 percent.

Its priorities moved toward religious liberty, gun rights and investigations of universities, NPR and Bloomberg Law reported. Bloomberg Law noted a new Second Amendment section.

Those departures did not wait for an election.

What comes next

No outlet had reported an acting head of the division by Thursday afternoon. None had reported a date for her last day.

The Justice Department will now find someone to run its civil rights office. That person may wish to resign at some point. The White House has a drawer ready.

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