Harmeet Dhillon resigns as head of Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division; Jesus Osete listed as acting chief

Harmeet K. Dhillon has resigned as assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. As of Friday, Nov. 6, 2026, the division’s website lists Jesus A. Osete as acting assistant attorney general.¹

Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the resignation Thursday, Nov. 5, in a post on X that said, “Today, I accepted the resignation of Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon,” CBS News reported. Blanche wrote that she had “enforced the law without fear or favor,” according to CBS.² The Associated Press, in a report published by PBS NewsHour, said Dhillon announced her departure on social media the same day, calling the job “the honor of a lifetime.”³ Neither report gave an effective date.²³

Osete was sworn in as the division’s principal deputy assistant attorney general on Aug. 7, 2025, according to the Justice Department.⁴

Dhillon’s account

CBS News reported that Dhillon wrote in a resignation letter to President Donald Trump that she had told White House chief of staff Susie Wiles in early October that she planned to step down after the midterm elections. The letter said, “While I am leaving this post, I will continue fighting for our country in the years ahead,” according to CBS.²

The Hill reported that Dhillon told Fox News she had not been asked to leave and that Wiles had asked her to wait until after the midterms. The AP reported that Dhillon told Fox News Digital she wants to return to the private sector, and quoted her as saying, “My decision, my choice.”⁵³ A White House spokeswoman, Lauren Bis, told CBS that Dhillon did a “fantastic job.”²

Confirmation

The Senate confirmed Dhillon on April 3, 2025, by a 52-45 roll call vote, with three senators not voting.⁶ Attorney General Pam Bondi swore her in April 7, 2025.⁷

Division actions in department records

Justice Department press releases issued during her tenure include these actions:

• May 21, 2025: The division said it would seek to dismiss its lawsuits against the Louisville, Kentucky, and Minneapolis police departments, close those investigations and retract earlier findings of constitutional violations. It also closed investigations of, and retracted findings against, police in Phoenix; Trenton, New Jersey; Memphis, Tennessee; Mount Vernon, New York; Oklahoma City; and the Louisiana State Police.⁸
• July 9, 2025: The department sued the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation under Title IX over girls’ athletics.⁹
• Sept. 25, 2025: The department sued California, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania for statewide voter registration lists, citing the National Voter Registration Act, the Help America Vote Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1960.¹⁰
• Oct. 19, 2026: The department announced an agreement with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on antisemitism and admissions policies, running through Dec. 31, 2028.¹¹
• Nov. 3, 2026: The department said it was sending about 1,000 monitors and observers to all 50 states for Election Day, Nov. 3. Dhillon called it “the largest monitoring effort in DOJ history.”¹²

The AP reported that more than three-quarters of the division’s workforce at the start of Trump’s second term had left. Stacey Young, who leads a network of former Justice Department employees, criticized Dhillon’s tenure in comments to the AP and The Hill.³⁵ CBS reported that the department had lost 27 of 31 lawsuits seeking unredacted voter rolls.²

What the records do not show

SignalData could not open Blanche’s or Dhillon’s posts on X or Dhillon’s resignation letter; their words above are as reported by CBS News, the AP and The Hill. No Justice Department release on the resignation was posted on the Civil Rights Division’s news list as of Friday.¹

The division’s website does not say when Osete became acting head or whether a nominee to succeed Dhillon is planned. Its archived profile of Dhillon still lists her service as “2025 - Present.”¹¹³