Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, resigned from the Justice Department on Thursday, leaving her role that included spearheading the Trump administration’s efforts to combat antisemitism on college campuses.

Her departure had been largely expected after she indicated to Bloomberg in August that she intended to return to her California-based law firm, Dhillon Law Group, following her government service.

Dhillon told Fox News Digital that she resigned three weeks ago but was asked by White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles to wait until after the midterm elections, and submitted her official letter of resignation on Nov. 5.

Confirmed in April 2025, Dhillon led much of the Civil Rights Division’s focus on combating antisemitism, including filing lawsuits against the University of California, Los Angeles and Harvard, as well as reaching settlement agreements with Columbia University, Cornell, Brown, Northwestern and other schools over their alleged failures to protect Jewish students.

Dhillon told Jewish Insider in October 2025 that she made a priority of combating antisemitism while protecting free speech. 

“I am a firm believer in free speech, and I think the way I see it on a campus setting is that a campus is not just an ‘open free speech’ zone,” Dhillon said in the interview. “Where someone’s so-called free speech is obstructing the main purpose of the facility or the area, and obstructing the right of students and employees of the university to be able to get to their classes, teach their classes, enjoy their classes, or there’s a level of othering and obstruction and picketing and misery that makes it impossible for people to enjoy a peaceful educational setting — that’s where it becomes problematic.”