Home Business Civil Rights Lawyers Leave En Masse As Justice Dept. Mission Shifts

Civil Rights Lawyers Leave En Masse As Justice Dept. Mission Shifts

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon gestures while attending a meeting of the Justice Department's Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias Task Force in Washington on Tuesday. (Ken Cedeno/Reuters)

The new head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division is dramatically reshaping the office to propel President Donald Trump’s social agenda, prompting the departure of about half of the division’s lawyers in recent weeks, according to people familiar with the situation and public statements from top officials.

Since being sworn in this month, civil rights director Harmeet K. Dhillon has redirected her staff to focus on combating antisemitism, anti-Christian bias, the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports and what Trump and his allies have described as Democrats’ “woke ideology.”

The division changedmission statements across its sections to focus less on racial discrimination and more on fighting diversity initiatives and what the administration sees as bias against Christians. And department officials reassigned more than a dozen career staffers — including section chiefs overseeing police brutality, disability and voting rights cases — to areas outside of their legal expertise.

More than 100 division attorneys have already said they will leave their jobs, Dhillon told conservative podcaster Glenn Beck during an appearance on his show Saturday. Many departed because they disagree with the division’s new direction, she said.

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