It wasn’t long after the White House announced the firing of Pam Bondi as attorney general that rumblings began in certain conservative circles: Should Harmeet Dhillon, the conservative lawyer from California, be elevated to the top post at the U.S. Department of Justice?
Dhillon has led the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division since April 2025 — quickly reshaping the division referred to as “the crown jewel” of the Justice Department because of its work to ensure equal rights for all.
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As the assistant attorney general, she’s demanded ballots and other election materials from places where the Trump administration has alleged voter fraud and gone after employment practices meant to promote diversity, equity and inclusion. She’s shrugged off the exodus of more than 100 career lawyers from the Civil Rights Division under her leadership.
All of that has put Dhillon on a political pedestal for some conservatives who quickly launched a campaign advocating for her promotion at the Justice Department, whether to helm the department outright or to a higher position.
“Harmeet Dhillon always seemed to me to be the obvious AG,” right-wing commentator Mike Cernovich posted on X the day Bondi was axed. “If this isn’t locked down, she’s definitely someone most supported by the base.”
“Harmeet Dhillon would be an exceptional Attorney General,” activist Scott Presler said on X that same day. “She’s an excellent communicator, transparent, (and) has been at the forefront of election integrity — suing states for their voter rolls to ensure that only American citizens can vote.”
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Dhillon declined to be interviewed for this story, and the Justice Department did not respond to questions about reports in some conservative outlets that she is set to be promoted to associate attorney general.
She has posted on social media her support of Todd Blanche, the man whom President Donald Trump picked to serve as attorney general — for now. But the frequent Fox News guest has also reposted praise — from Trump and others — of her work at the Civil Rights Division.
Dhillon’s allies and former colleagues back in California, meanwhile, aren’t so mum.
They paint the Bay Area Republican as a stalwart Trump ally who — from that lens — is one of the most effective department heads in the administration. Dhillon, they say, is a zealous advocate for her clients, someone who demands quality work not just from those under her but from herself as well.
“The more I got to know her, the more I realized she’s probably one of the smartest people I’ve ever met,” said Shawn Steel, a Republican National Committee member who has backed Dhillon for multiple posts within the party in California.
“She is actually legally smart and politically savvy and media savvy,” said Garrett Fahy, a Newport Beach attorney who has worked with Dhillon on election integrity work. “A lot of lawyers have one or two of those qualities but are not all three of these.”
Born in India, Dhillon emigrated to the U.S. as a child, her family ultimately settling in rural North Carolina. She’s an avid knitter and social media poster, where she drew criticism earlier this year for casually using a slur that refers to people with intellectual disabilities.
But she made her mark in both legal and Republican circles through her own law firm and the legal nonprofit she founded, the Center for American Liberty.
Dhillon’s firm sued UC Berkeley, challenging policies it said unconstitutionally discriminated against speakers with conservative views. She’s also represented right-wing social media personality Andy Ngo, who alleged he was attacked during dueling demonstrations in Portland, and challenged a Colorado law that allows public schools to use a student’s chosen name, a policy meant to help LGBTQ+ youth.
The nonprofit challenged COVID-era shutdown policies that impacted certain professions and indoor worship services in the Inland Empire.
“What a spectacular success,” said Steel, who attended Dhillon’s Justice Department swearing-in last year.
“She’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever met, highly focused but at the same time, really articulate,” Steel added. “She has the president’s complete trust. … I have tremendous respect for her.”
Still, Dhillon has her detractors — particularly those who fall on the other side of the aisle, politically speaking.
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, writing on his Substack, castigated Dhillon for not doing more in her division to probe the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis during the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations and subsequent protests.
Dhillon, the former Clinton administration official said, is also using the Civil Rights Division “to carry out the Trump regime’s war on prestigious universities,” using charges of antisemitism as a ruse, pointing to her time at Dartmouth College as an example.
At just 16 years old, Dhillon attended the New Hampshire Ivy League school. There, she served as editor of the conservative Dartmouth Review when it ran a satirical column widely considered to be antisemitic in its comparison of the college’s president, who was Jewish, to Adolf Hitler. Dhillon, at the time, defended the piece as an effort to highlight “liberal fascism” and said she was “very disturbed about the response to it.”
“Harmeet Dhillon is no advocate for civil rights,” Reich wrote. “She’s a legal hack for Trump’s cruel agenda of attacking Americans trying to stop ICE and Border Patrol agents from doing their worst, of seeking to destroy academic freedom in American universities in favor of Trump’s narrow view of what should be allowed, of undermining equal opportunity for people of color, and of prosecuting anyone … with the courage and integrity to stand up against Trump’s despotism.”
But Fahy, who has sat on election law panels alongside Dhillon, doesn’t believe that she is a total sycophant for Trump. He would be shocked, he said, if she were to pursue politically motivated lawsuits targeting Trump’s enemies.
“Harmeet is not a Kool-Aid drinker. She is objective, honest and she goes where the evidence goes,” said Fahy. “She is qualified for whatever she is nominated for, and she has the gravitas and the stamina to tell Trump no.”
Dhillon, more recently, though, is reportedly overseeing an investigation into Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide who testified to Congress about the president’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection after his reelection loss. It’s an unorthodox investigation for the Civil Rights Division, the New York Times reported earlier this month.
And last week, Dhillon sent a letter to Wayne County officials in Michigan, demanding 2024 election records, including ballots. Dhillon said in her letter that her office is looking into whether federal laws were followed because of a “history of fraud convictions” and “other allegations concerning the election procedures” in the Democratic stronghold, the Detroit News reported, noting Republicans’ accusations of voter fraud have been unproven.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel accused Trump of weaponizing the Justice Department, with this probe, to “attempt to sabotage our democratic process and turn it into his own personal agency to interfere in state elections.” Dhillon’s request, she said, “is as absurd as it is baseless.”
Dhillon also led a lawsuit last year targeting Orange County’s registrar of voters for allegedly not providing full records related to the removal of non-citizens from voter registration lists.
The Justice Department alleged that Registrar of Voters Bob Page did not maintain an accurate voter list in violation of the Help America Vote Act, a 2002 law that made sweeping reforms to the country’s voting process. Page’s attorneys, however, said he would have violated both state and federal law if he had turned over sensitive personal information of voter registrants without a proper subpoena or court order. The case is ongoing.
Mark Meuser, another Newport Beach-based attorney who previously worked for Dhillon’s firm, said he wasn’t shocked by efforts to campaign for her promotion.
“You look at since she’s been named to the DOJ, and you look at how effective her department has been, and what she has been doing — what has happened out of her department has been what Donald Trump wants — why would one be surprised since she’s been one of the most effective department heads,” Meuser said.
Steel, meanwhile, pitched Dhillon as “capable” of handling the top prosecutor job.
“She’s taken one of the most politically charged, leftist branches of the Justice Department … and reformed it,” said Steel.
Trump, meanwhile, “has a great relationship” with Blanche and “is very pleased with the job he’s doing so far,” said White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson.
“Todd Blanche is an American patriot who fearlessly fought against the Democrats’ unprecedented lawfare campaign on behalf of President Trump,” Jackson said. “The president’s entire team at the Department of Justice, which includes Harmeet, is doing a great job advocating for sanity, law and order and policies that keep Americans safe.”
There is a new agenda in the Justice Department with Dhillon there, Steel said.
Whether that’s a good one, that depends on who you ask.
And whether that will earn a promotion from Trump, time will tell.