WASHINGTON (AURN News) — The head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division resigned two days after the midterm elections. Attorney General Todd Blanche said he accepted Harmeet Dhillon’s resignation Thursday. More than three-quarters of the division’s staff at the start of President Donald Trump’s second term have since left, The Associated Press reported.
Under Dhillon, the department dropped proposed agreements that would have put police reforms in Louisville and Minneapolis under court supervision. Dhillon argued those agreements went too far in taking control away from local officials.
Her division also went to court to demand detailed voter records from states. Blanche praised Dhillon’s record.
Kristen Clarke, the NAACP’s general counsel and a former head of the Civil Rights Division, accused Dhillon of walking away from major civil rights cases. In the NAACP’s statement, Clarke said the group would continue to demand that Dhillon’s successor “respect the agency’s sacred mission, enforce the law fairly, and protect our civil rights.”
