Overview
- More than 200 former Civil Rights Division employees released a Dec. 9 letter via Justice Connection alleging the unit’s near destruction on its 68th anniversary.
- The letter accuses Attorney General Pam Bondi and civil rights chief Harmeet Dhillon of killing cases on police abuse, sexual harassment, and voting inequities while pressing investigators to match predetermined outcomes.
- Former staff say roughly 70–75% of the division’s attorneys departed since January after career managers were removed, cases were dropped, and some lawyers were reassigned to menial tasks.
- Signatories report that consent decrees were scrapped and existing Voting Rights Act lawsuits were dismissed, with priorities redirected to investigating voter fraud and obtaining full state voter rolls.
- Dhillon wrote on Dec. 6 that the “weaponization of consent decrees” ended under her leadership, as the Justice Department defends the overhaul as a return to nonpartisan civil-rights enforcement.