Politics1 min read

Harmeet Dhillon, who led anti-Israel campus protest crackdown, resigns

By · Via Middle East Eye · Published by Everything Blog

In short

Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the departure alongside resignations from other senior officials, including the head of the National Security Division. During her time in office, Dhillon spearheaded federal actions against universities over student demonstrations while dropping ongoing civil rights probes into racism and sexism. Her office also led an unsuccessful push to obtain voter registration records from approximately 30 states.

Key points

  • Midterm election defeats for the Republican Party triggered a wave of high-level Justice…: Midterm election defeats for the Republican Party triggered a wave of high-level Justice Department resignations.
  • Dhillon directed federal actions targeting dozens of universities nationwide over pro-Pal…: Dhillon directed federal actions targeting dozens of universities nationwide over pro-Palestine student-led demonstrations.
  • The leadership turnover follows an aggressive department campaign targeting political opp…: The leadership turnover follows an aggressive department campaign targeting political opponents that previously cost several reluctant prosecutors their jobs.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

Several senior US Justice Department officials have resigned, including Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon who was one of the department’s leads in the administration’s efforts to crack down against anti-Israel protests on college campuses.

US Attorney General Todd Blanche, a former personal lawyer for Trump, announced on Thursday that he had accepted the resignation of Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon.

According to Democracy Now, Dhillon spent her 19-month tenure "gutting" civil rights, and diversity, equity and inclusion protections in education, and led the campaign to target dozens of universities nationwide over student-led pro-Palestine activism and campus protests.

It added that under Dhillon, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division stopped investigating accusations of systemic racism and sexism.

Dhillon was also directly involved in unsuccessful attempts to obtain voter registration lists from some 30 states ahead of this week's midterm elections that dealt heavy defeats to Trump's Republican Party.

In her resignation letter, cited by US media outlets, Dillon said that she submitted it in October and agreed to remain in her position until the election.

Blanche…

Politics