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WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump tapped Harmeet Dhillon, a Republican lawyer known for championing conservative causes and the GOP national committeewoman for California, to lead the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.
Trump announced Dhillon’s nomination as assistant attorney general, writing on social media that she has “stood up consistently to protect our cherished Civil Liberties.” Trump lauded Dhillon’s track record of taking on Big Tech companies, her defense of religious freedoms, and “suing corporations who use woke policies to discriminate against their workers.”
During the first Trump administration, Dhillon gained prominence as a Republican advocate in liberal San Francisco. She argued on behalf of Trump supporters, who said they were attacked by protesters and that their conservative beliefs were causing them to be persecuted.
In 2016, she sued the city of San Jose, Calif., on behalf of Trump supporters who were attacked by counterprotesters, saying that city officials’ “inaction was colored by political viewpoint considerations.”
Dhillon also represented a Google employee who was fired after he circulated a memo arguing that men are naturally better suited for tech jobs than women due to biological differences. Google paired “open hostility for conservative thought” with discriminatory policies that harm white men, she wrote in a lawsuit against the tech giant.
“The nomination of Harmeet Dhillon to lead this critical civil rights office is yet another clear sign that this administration seeks to advance ideological viewpoints over the rights and protections that protect every person in this country,” said Maya Wiley, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
During the Covid pandemic, Dhillon filed multiple lawsuits challenging California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s stay-at-home orders on behalf of business owners who wanted to remain open and religious leaders who wanted to hold services. As opposition to pandemic restrictions grew, Dhillon’s advocacy earned her national media attention and tightened her ties to Trump.
More recently, Dhillon has defended ex-Fox News host Tucker Carlson in a gender discrimination lawsuit brought by a former producer. She currently represents a California woman suing Kaiser Permanente over gender-affirming care she received as a teenager and later regretted.
Wiley added, “Dhillon has focused her career on diminishing civil rights, rather than enforcing or protecting them. Rather than fighting to expand voting access, she has worked to restrict it.”
In 2020, Dhillon served as the co-chairwoman of Lawyers for Trump, a group of conservative lawyers lending their services to the Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results. Three years later, she mounted an unsuccessful run to replace then-RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. Most recently, she led the Trump campaign’s election integrity team in Arizona during the 2024 general election.
If confirmed, Dhillon would replace Kristen Clarke, the first Black woman to lead the division. Dhillon’s nomination is historic in its own right — if confirmed, she would be the first Republican woman to lead the division and the second Indian-American.
Dhillon, born in India and a practicing Sikh, is also on track to be the first Sikh American to hold the position, which the advocacy group The Sikh Coalition described as a “historic occasion.”
The group added, “accurate representation of the community matters — including in the halls of power.”
The nomination adds Dhillon to a growing list of Trump’s lawyers and allies who have been tapped for key posts at the Justice Department: his impeachment lawyer Pam Bondi for attorney general, his criminal defense lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove as her immediate deputies, and his appellate lawyer D. John Sauer as solicitor general.
Conservative allies have spent the week cheering Dhillon’s nomination, expressing optimism that she will lead the division away from the priorities of the Biden administration.
“Under Biden, they did a whole of government approach to try to institutionalize woke DEI policies and impose them on the American people through the civil rights division of DOJ,” said Roger Severino, a vice president at the conservative Heritage Foundation who spent seven years as a career lawyer in the civil rights division.
“It’s hard to think of anybody more qualified than she is to tackle these issues,” he said.
Dhillon’s nomination also gained support from Mark Geragos, a prominent Los Angeles criminal defense lawyer and Democrat who teamed up with Dhillon to challenge California’s stay-at-home orders amid the pandemic.
“The civil rights division is going to be better off for having her there. Very few people on my side of the aisle will agree with that and I think they’ll be surprised,” said Geragos in an interview with NBC News.
Beyond her personal work for Trump, members of Dhillon’s firm have also represented the president-elect and his campaign in various legal disputes. David Warrington, partner at Dhillon Law Group and general counsel for the Trump campaign, was named as Trump’s pick for White House counsel last week. Warrington has also represented Trump in civil lawsuits stemming from the Jan. 6 riot.
Most prominently, Dhillon and Warrington were part of the legal team representing candidate Trump during his early 2024 fight to stay on the ballot after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled he was ineligible due to a provision of the 14th Amendment that bars insurrectionists from holding federal office. That dispute went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ultimately issued a unanimous ruling allowing Trump to remain a presidential candidate.
Chloe Atkins reports for the NBC News Investigative Unit, based in New York. She frequently covers crime and courts.
Daniel Barnes reports for NBC News, based in Washington.
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