Overview
- In a December 9 open letter, over 200 former Civil Rights Division employees alleged Attorney General Pam Bondi and Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon politicized the unit, killed key cases, and pressured career staff to leave.
- The signatories say roughly 70% to 75% of attorneys have departed since January following forced reassignments, paid-leave offers tied to threats of layoffs, and the removal of career managers.
- They cite April mission rewrites shifting priorities toward voter-fraud hunts and campus antisemitism probes, the dismissal of Voting Rights Act lawsuits, withdrawal from police oversight consent decrees, and the dropping of suits including Georgia voting restrictions and migrant-children abuse.
- A Justice Department spokesperson defends the changes as a refocus on protecting constitutional rights, highlighting work on election security, ending consent decrees, actions against antisemitism and affirmative action on campuses, and the creation of a Second Amendment Section.
- On December 10, Dhillon praised the mass departures as a voluntary 'self‑purge' facilitated by payout packages, while acknowledging the exodus has complicated staffing needed to carry out the administration’s agenda.