Over Two-Thirds of Lawyers Leave DOJ Civil Rights Unit in Exodus

Roughly 70% of attorneys at the Justice Department’s civil rights division are leaving or were reassigned in recent months, according to multiple people familiar with the departures, as Trump administration officials elevate ideological priorities over its historic missions.

The recent or upcoming departures of more than 250 of the division’s approximately 380 lawyers since President Donald Trump took office follows efforts by political leadership to refocus its resources toward conservative priorities, including anti-Christian bias and gun rights. Established in 1957 during the civil rights movement, the division has historically enforced anti-discrimination laws in voting, education, housing, and other areas.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, the political appointee leading the division, has said she is “fine” with career attorneys leaving the division and signaled plans to hire new lawyers to replace them who are willing to enforce civil rights that are in line with Trump’s priorities.

“What we now need to do once the dust settles and people are off the books, is, we are looking at resumes of lawyers who want to do that work,” Dhillon told conservative commentator Glenn Beck in late April. “I don’t care what their politics are, it is not relevant. I do care that they’re willing to take direction and zealously enforce the civil rights of the United States according to the priorities of this president. They’re not surprising, they’re literally on the Internet in executive orders. And the statutes are there as well.”

Since Dhillon was sworn roughly a month ago, the division announced new mission statements for its various sections that focused on Trump’s executive orders against transgender women in sports, eradicating anti-Christian bias, and fighting antisemitism. Dhillon previously worked as Trump’s personal attorney and previously argued conservative positions in cases involving religious liberty, treatment for transgender minors, and censorship on college campuses.

Despite the departures of most career attorneys, Dhillon announced May 3 on social media that the division had opened an investigation into whether prosecutors at a Minnesota county attorney’s office engaged in a pattern of discrimination by considering racial identity in its decision-making process for plea deals.

Under her leadership, the division has also changed its position in a pair of federal cases in Georgia to no longer argue in favor of imprisoned transgender people receiving gender-affirming care and terminated a settlement related to sewage problems in a primary Black county in Alabama.

The department renewed its deferred resignation offer to employees last month, allowing them to go on paid leave for several months before formally separating.

The Guardian reported earlier that roughly 70% of the division had left or been reassigned.

A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment Monday on the departures.