Harmeet Dhillon has stepped down as assistant attorney general for civil rights after a turbulent stretch that remade the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. Attorney General Todd Blanche said Friday he had accepted the resignation.

Dhillon said she told White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles in early October that she planned to leave after the midterms. She stayed through Election Day at the administration's request and then submitted her letter.

Blanche praised her for defending civil liberties and enforcing the law without fear or favor. Dhillon called the post the honor of a lifetime and said the division had fought what she described as illegal DEI practices and had moved to protect women's sports.

A sharp turn at Civil Rights

In about a year and a half Dhillon redirected the division toward cases on antisemitism campus speech parental rights and gun rights. She also led a large election-monitoring push and pressed states for voter registration lists. Federal judges dismissed most of those list cases.

Civil rights groups said she abandoned core voting and police-oversight work and used the division for partisan fights. Kristen Clarke of the NAACP said Dhillon had purged the workforce and weaponized the office. Stacey Young of Justice Connection called for the next Senate to scrutinize any replacement.

What comes next

Dhillon is the first senior Justice Department official to leave after Democrats won both chambers of Congress on Tuesday. No successor has been named. Incoming Democratic leaders have already signaled tough confirmation fights for Justice Department picks in the new Congress.

The division still has open matters on universities election rules and gender-identity policies in schools and sports. Those files will fall to whoever takes the job next and to career lawyers who remain.