By Steve Neavling
The Trump administration has overhauled the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, reassigning or driving out longtime career attorneys and shifting its focus away from anti-discrimination enforcement, according to current and former officials, NBC News reports.
More than a dozen senior lawyers have left or been reassigned to unrelated posts since Harmeet Dhillon, a conservative attorney and Trump ally, took over the division earlier this month. Internal memos obtained by NBC News show the division’s priorities now include enforcing executive orders on banning transgender athletes from women’s sports and combating “radical indoctrination” in schools.
Critics, including former division staffers, say the changes mark a complete reversal of the division’s decades-long mission to enforce civil rights laws in housing, education, voting, and employment. Some described the restructuring as unprecedented and said it effectively halts the division’s traditional work.
In a statement, Dhillon defended the changes as a routine shift in priorities, adding that the division will continue to “aggressively protect the civil rights of Americans.”
But current and former officials say the division has instead stopped or reversed many ongoing investigations and left key posts vacant, undermining federal civil rights enforcement.
