The DOJ Is Burning Down—and She’s Tweeting Through It

Summary

Bulwark Takes: "The DOJ Is Burning Down—and She’s Tweeting Through It"

Release Date: May 1, 2025
Host/Author: The Bulwark
Episode Title: The DOJ Is Burning Down—and She’s Tweeting Through It

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Introduction

In this episode of Bulwark Takes, Hosts Sam Stein and Will Sommer delve into the tumultuous developments within the Department of Justice (DOJ), focusing on Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon's controversial tenure as the head of the Civil Rights Division. The discussion highlights Dhillon's prolific use of Twitter, the mass resignation of DOJ attorneys, and the broader implications for the department's effectiveness and focus.

Harmeet Dhillon’s Role and Social Media Presence

Sam Stein introduces Harmeet Dhillon, emphasizing her significant role as the Assistant Attorney General overseeing the Civil Rights Division at the DOJ. Dhillon, a long-time lawyer within conservative circles and a former Trump representative, has garnered attention not only for her professional responsibilities but also for her active and often unconventional use of Twitter.

• Dhillon's Social Media Activity:
  • Will Sommer points out that since her swearing-in on April 8th, Dhillon has tweeted over 200 times, averaging 11.9 tweets per day [01:27].
  • Sam Stein remarks, “That’s like my level and I’m bad” [01:48], highlighting the unusually high frequency of her posts for someone in her position.
  • Her tweets range from personal anecdotes, such as recommendations for dealing with pollen in Washington D.C., to engaging directly with online trolls about everyday matters like the color of her Tesla [01:48].

DOJ Civil Rights Division Resignations

A significant portion of the episode addresses a recent CNN report detailing a mass resignation within the Civil Rights Division under Dhillon's leadership.

• Mass Resignations:
  • According to the CNN story, approximately 70% of the DOJ Civil Rights Division—around 340 federal workers—were offered a second resignation incentive to leave their positions, with over 200 attorneys expected to accept [02:16].
  • Dhillon’s Public Statement:
    • On Glenn Beck’s podcast, Dhillon commented on the resignations: “Over 100 attorneys decided that they'd rather not do what their job requires them to do... This is bound to happen because these, they want a rapid change of direction. They just want to reduce the footprint of the government” [04:08].
    • She criticized the departing attorneys for what she perceives as a focus on ideological agendas rather than enforcing federal civil rights laws [04:48].

Criticisms and Public Reactions

The hosts explore the backlash Dhillon faces from both within and outside the DOJ, particularly from those aligned with Trump’s grassroots movements.

• Public Backlash:

  • Sam Stein highlights Dhillon’s aggressive approach to handling criticism on Twitter, including blocking and unfollowing users who challenge her [05:32].
  • Will Sommer observes, “They say, hey, where are the arrests we were promised? And she says, muted for dim wittery” [06:34], illustrating the disconnect between Dhillon’s public persona and the DOJ’s operational focus.

• Role Model Behavior:

  • The hosts note that Dhillon’s active engagement in media and social platforms contrasts sharply with past DOJ officials under the Biden administration, who rarely appeared in media unless necessary [07:44].

Impact on DOJ’s Functioning

The episode critically examines how Dhillon's management style and public engagement are affecting the DOJ's ability to perform its duties effectively.

• Shift in Department Focus:

  • Will Sommer asserts that Dhillon is pivoting the Civil Rights Division towards conservative cultural war issues, such as anti-white discrimination and transgender rights in sports [05:11].
  • Sam Stein comments on the department's shift, stating, “The whole government's being reconfigured around that stuff. It’s all anti-DEI” [05:17].

• Operational Effectiveness:

  • The mass resignations and Dhillon’s focus on public image over substantive policy enforcement raise concerns about the DOJ’s capability to address genuine civil rights issues.
  • Will Sommer questions the prosecution of actual discrimination cases, suggesting that the current direction leaves little room for traditional civil rights enforcement [08:18].

Key Quotes

• Sam Stein:
  “I don't personally do, I don't really know many people who do it, but she's, she's right there in the mentions.” [00:00]

• Will Sommer:
  “She’s just, she’s just jamming them out.” [01:48]

• Harmeet Dhillon (via Sam Stein):
  “Do we want people in the federal government who feel like it's their pet project to go prosecute police departments based on statistics...” [04:48]

• Will Sommer:
  “They want to take on conservative culture war issues. So she says, I’m looking at anti-white discrimination… anti-Christian discrimination.” [05:11]

Insights and Conclusions

The discussion between Stein and Sommer underscores a critical turning point for the DOJ's Civil Rights Division under Harmeet Dhillon's leadership. Dhillon's emphasis on public engagement through social media, coupled with a significant exodus of attorneys, suggests a shift away from traditional civil rights enforcement towards a more ideologically driven agenda. This realignment raises questions about the division's future effectiveness in addressing systemic issues and highlights the broader implications of politicizing federal institutions.

The episode serves as a cautionary tale about the potential pitfalls of prioritizing public persona over departmental integrity and the dangers of allowing cultural warfare to overshadow substantive legal work. As the DOJ navigates these challenges, the Bulwark team emphasizes the importance of maintaining a focus on genuine civil rights protections rather than becoming entangled in partisan media dynamics.

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For those interested in the complexities of federal department leadership and the intersection of media presence with governmental responsibilities, this episode provides a comprehensive and insightful analysis.

Transcript

[Sam Stein]

Hey guys, it's me, Sam Stein, managing editor at the Bulwark, joined again by Will Sommer, who is the author of False Flags. You should read that newsletter. It's awesome. You should subscribe to this YouTube feed. It's awesome. Today we're going to be talking about another unique character in the Trump orbit. This person actually has been confirmed, has a very serious job. It is Harmeet Dhillon. She oversees the Civil Rights division at the Department of Justice where she serves as Assistant Attorney General. Harmeet is a long time lawyer in conservative circles. I believe I might be wrong, that she represented Trump on some prior matters. She got a very big job and she got confirmed for it. But I've been tickled to watch that even as she's gotten this job and that she's gotten her feet wet and all that stuff, she's remained a fairly robust, if not obsessive, Twitter user. And mostly from her private account, which I happen to follow. And it's like the most amazing stuff. It's like, here's some recommendations for how to deal with the pollen in Washington D.C. and like, you know, engaging, you know, her trolls in like very direct manner in which I would, I don't personally do, I don't really know many people who do it, but she's, she's right there in the mentions. So Will, you dove into this and I think you have some data for us. What is the situation with Hermes?

[Will Sommer]

So Harmeet Dillon, she's the Assistant Attorney General and this is a job that typically handles, you know, housing discrimination, voting rights, police brutality. But the way Hermes Dylan is doing it, it also includes a lot of tweeting, tweeting, tweeting, tweeting. So she, she, so she was sworn in April 8th. She's tweeted over 200 times. So 11.9 times a day according to my calculation.

[Sam Stein]

That's like my level and I'm bad.

[Will Sommer]

Yeah, I mean she, she, she's, she's just, she, she's jamming them out. And to be clear, a lot of these are not like, you know, hey, stop discriminating or like what the Justice Department is doing. A lot are, what color Tesla should I buy? And, and the, the one you referenced was, which was, you know, oh my gosh, there's so much pollen in D.C. but you know, you might want to get a neti pot, you know, and so, you know, you're pouring up your nose.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah.

[Will Sommer]

And so these are like, here's what I'm having for lunch today. So, you know, I mean, this is, I think it's an interesting experiment we have going on in the Trump administration where we take these right wing media personalities. Now, Army Dylan is obviously she is a lawyer, but she's I think, most famous for being sort of a Republican legal talking head. She's taking on a fixture.

[Sam Stein]

Right, exactly.

[Will Sommer]

And sort of taking on these conservative causes legally. And so now she's in charge of this division of I think roughly 400 lawyers, although many of them are quitting. And so, you know, like other people we've seen, like Pete Hegseth, Kristi Noam, Dan Bongino, she's also still kind of tending this personal audience of hers in this case by tweeting constantly.

[Sam Stein]

All right. And let's talk about the, the, what you referenced there, the people who are leaving the department. This was a CNN story from this week. I'm just going to read it because it's shocking. It goes like this. Approximately 70% of the Justice Department Civil Rights Division is expected to accept a second offer to federal workers that allows them to resign from their positions and be paid through September. According to a source familiar with the situation, the division employs roughly 340 people who had until Monday night to accept the offer. Assistant Attorney General Hermy Dillon, who oversees the Civil Rights Division, said over the weekend that more than 100 attorneys had accepted the offer, but the final number is expected to be well over 200. So I will leave the office with about a hundred, one hundred and forty or so. She went on Glenn Beck on his podcast over the weekend to talk about this, and this is what she said en masse, dozens. And now over 100 attorneys decided that they'd rather not do what their job requires them to do. I think that's fine because we don't want people in the federal government who feel like it's their pet project to go prosecute police departments based on statistics, statistical evidence, or prosecute people praying outside abortion facilities instead of doing violence. That's not the job here. The job here is to enforce the federal civil rights laws, not woke ideology. So look, I mean, this is about, this is bound to happen because these, this, they want a rapid change of direction. They just want to reduce the footprint of the government. I would just say that, you know, it's a shame to a degree. And also if I had a boss who was spending so much time on Twitter and then lecturing me about not doing my job, I probably would take the take the fork in the road email too. I would be like, screw this. Like, go have your nephipods and buy your Teslas. Like, what the hell?

[Will Sommer]

Yeah. I mean, what's interesting here is, I mean, in terms of her management of the Civil Rights division, she really is pivoting it much more towards, you know, it'd be one thing to be like, all right, we're a little laxer on police departments perhaps, but I mean, she is making it about conservative culture war issues. So she says, I'm looking at anti white discrimination. I'm looking at transgender women in women's sports. I mean, these are the, you know, anti Christian discrimination.

[Sam Stein]

The whole government's being reconfigured around that stuff. I mean, that's it, right? It's like all anti dei.

[Will Sommer]

Yeah, exactly. And, and so, you know, that frankly, I think that'll leave her with not a ton to do. And so maybe that explains why she is. Is sort of jousting with her, her, her Twitter. Her Twitter trolls.

[Sam Stein]

And she's really aggressive with the unfollowing blocks, I've noticed.

[Will Sommer]

Well, she's like a hardcore blocker. Unfollow, neuter, and she'll let you know. And so in this case, she, she.

[Sam Stein]

You don't have to tell them that they're being blocked. You could just block. But she's like, in a lot of.

[Will Sommer]

People, she'll post like, this is what I, this is what I cooked for lunch. And people will say, shouldn't she be running the Justice Department? And she'll say, like, muted for ignorance or like a lot of the anger at her, I will say she gets.

[Sam Stein]

She does get a fair bit of racism, which I feel is very unfortunate. So she blocks on that. But, yeah, what's going on? Like, you have a job.

[Will Sommer]

Well, and a lot of it is, is sort of these Trump grassroots who have been, you know, as we also saw with Dan Bongino, people who thought that, you know, Hillary Clinton was going to be shipped to Guantanamo on day one. And then she's saying, should I buy a Tesla? And they're saying, where are the arrests? We want the arrests.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah. So what are, what are the things that they're actually frustrated for? I mean, she's not. Her division is not like Epstein files. Right. Like, that's not it. But is she getting for stuff like that?

[Will Sommer]

Yeah, she's getting a lot of criticism for just generally the sense that Republicans have that, you know, number. Yeah, as you said, we aren't getting the Epstein files, we aren't getting the arrests. And so when she tweets things like, you know, look at my garden, how it's Going great at my new rental house in D.C. then, you know, they say, hey, where are the arrests we were promised? And she says, muted for dim wittery, you know. And so there's this kind of constant back and forth she has with her trolls. And again, you know, she's running this department of at least for now like 400 people. But, you know, it's unclear how attentively.

[Sam Stein]

In September would be about a third of that. Ultimately, this is, I think you alluded to it. It's just sort of like this is the Fox News ification of the government. Right? Like, these people are very good at managing, are not very good. At least they're very attentive to managing their public facing images. And they like being on TV and they like interacting with folks. It's a little bit more complicated when you have a job.

[Will Sommer]

At one point she said, she tweeted like, all right, first week on the job, what podcast should I go on? People are just like, you have other things to focus on.

[Sam Stein]

Rb has she gone on a fair number? I mean, she obviously did Glenn Beck. I haven't seen it. I watch Fox that religiously. Does she do a lot of tv?

[Will Sommer]

Yeah, a good amount. I mean, she, she definitely has been on some podcasts. I watched one recently where she was like, these schools have become woke madrasas. So, you know, she's getting the message out.

[Sam Stein]

Right? But it's funny because I just don't recall ever seeing, like, any official from the Department of Justice under Joe Biden ever doing TV or a podcast for that matter, until it was absolutely necessary. But like, even then it was very rare. So that's just the new world we live in, right? Like, they're all doing media, they're all doing their own media, they're all doing podcasts. And, you know, they learn from the boss is Trump.

[Will Sommer]

Yeah, I mean, it is. It's a striking thing to watch. But then at the same time, you think like, wait, what about the actual discrimination? Is any of that going to be prosecuted? And the answer appears to be no.

[Sam Stein]

No. Well, different types of discrimination, just not traditional types. All right, Will, thank you for doing this. Thank you for going through the tour of feeds of people so I don't have to thank you all for watching. We'll talk about this. Really appreciate that. Subscribe to the feed. We'll talk to you later.