Who is Indian-American Harmeet Dhillon, Donald Trump’s pick for Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights?

United States President-elect Donald Trump has named Indian-American Republican Harmeet K Dhillon as his pick for Assistant Attorney General (AG) for Civil Rights at the Department of Justice (DoJ), as per a PTI report.

Trump has been nominating candidates for his new administration in 2025, aka Trump 2.0, including adding businessmen Elon Musk, Indian-American Vivek Ramaswamy and Jared Isaacman to key positions. Earlier, he also nominated Indian-American loyalist Kash Patel to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Amid this, we take a look at who Dhillon is and Trump’s reasons for nominating her.

Trump Nominates Dhillon, Lists Reasons

Announcing this in a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump wrote, “I am pleased to nominate Harmeet K. Dhillon as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the US Department of Justice.” Trump owns Truth Social.

“Throughout her career, Harmeet has stood up consistently to protect our cherished civil liberties, including taking on big tech for censoring our free speech, representing Christians who were prevented from praying together during COVID, and suing corporations who use woke policies to discriminate against their workers,” he said.

“Harmeet is one of the top election lawyers in the country, fighting to ensure that all, and ONLY, legal votes are counted. She is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the University of Virginia Law School, and clerked in the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals,” Trump added.

“Harmeet is a respected member of the Sikh religious community. In her new role at the DOJ, Harmeet will be a tireless defender of our constitutional rights, and will enforce our civil rights and election laws FAIRLY and FIRMLY,” he said.

About Harmeet Dhillon

Dhillon was subject to racial attack after she recited Ardas at the Republican National Convention in July this year. Last year she unsuccessfully ran for the position of Republican National Committee chairmanship.

Chandigarh-born Dhillon, 54, moved to the US as a child parents. In 2016, she was the first Indian-American to appear on the stage of the GOP Convention in Cleveland.