Exclusive | Harmeet Dhillon praises the mass exodus of liberals from Trump’s DOJ on ‘Pod Force One’ — ‘Biggest single personnel self-purge’

WASHINGTON — In a recent interview with “Pod Force One,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon celebrated the so‑called liberal “self‑purge” that occurred within the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division earlier this year.

Dhillon told The Post that nearly 70 % of the division’s staff left after the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) rolled out generous payout packages and due to ideological clashes with the Trump administration.

“I think there was some denial and they had crying sessions together,” she reflected on the podcast. “Frankly, it was shocking to them. They had unhappy hours. It was like a lot of drama and handwringing.”

“They have a support group outside and a spokesperson who constantly goes on MSNBC and trashes me and what we’re doing, but I think this is the biggest single personnel self‑purge in DOJ history.”

At the start of the year, the Civil Rights Division employed more than 400 lawyers. During the DOGE payout window, a little over 200 resigned, and the division lost nearly another 100 according to Dhillon.

Through DOGE, federal employees were offered “five‑month packages,” essentially a six‑figure lump‑sum exit payment, Dhillon explained.

“I didn’t fire anybody. I just told them they have to approach their job differently. They self‑deported with a nice golden parachute from the government,” she said.

The mass departure unfolded as Dhillon implemented new directives from the Trump administration on civil‑rights policy.

Immediately after taking the helm, she sent letters to more than four dozen universities, demanding documents and outlining plans to clamp down on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.

“No one should cry for them. They are going to be doing just fine for the most part,” she said, noting that many former colleagues moved to “pseudo nonprofits,” activist groups, and similar outlets.

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The departures, however, complicated Dhillon’s civil‑rights agenda. She described a challenge that required completing paperwork before she could begin recruiting new staff to carry out the president’s priorities.

“I confronted this early in my career, but eventually made my own way and created my own civil rights organization and a firm that does all this good work,” she reflected.

“All the big law firms I’m talking about, they’re captured by the left, and so they will happily grant 100 or 1000 hours to a lawyer to go do a death penalty case on some technical foul that may have occurred, or pro‑abortion work,” she added. “We do not have institutions like that, large institutions like that on the right.”

Before joining the Trump administration, Dhillon helped found the conservative nonprofit Center for American Liberty, a civil‑rights group, and she also launched the Dhillon Law Group, which has represented Trump supporters.

Dhillon also campaigned unsuccessfully for the Republican National Committee chairmanship in 2023.

“I intend to do a kick‑ass job for the American people and for our President and our Attorney General, and then return to the fields of private practice and doing good in my career,” she said.