President Trump is expected to reshuffle senior leadership at the Justice Department, sources told CBS News, with potential changes affecting two top officials: Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward and Civil Rights Division chief Harmeet Dhillon.
Senior aides have reportedly considered elevating Dhillon to a higher department post while moving Woodward out of his current No. 3 role, but it was not clear whether any final decisions had been made. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment on personnel matters.
The deliberations follow Mr. Trump’s removal of Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier this week amid complaints from some allies that she had not aggressively pursued criminal charges against the president’s political opponents. Mr. Trump named Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche as acting attorney general; it is not yet known if Blanche will be kept in the role permanently. Other names reported as possible permanent replacements include former Congressman Lee Zeldin, now the head of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Stanley Woodward, the associate attorney general, previously worked as a defense lawyer for several prominent Trump allies, including White House adviser Peter Navarro, former FBI official Kash Patel and Walt Nauta, a defendant in the classified documents case led by Special Counsel Jack Smith. He also represented Kelly Meggs, an Oath Keepers member convicted of seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6 attack; Mr. Trump later commuted Meggs’ sentence. Woodward has drawn criticism from some pro-Trump figures — including far-right influencer Laura Loomer — in part because of his wife’s support for progressive causes.
The associate attorney general oversees several high-profile components of the department: the Civil Rights Division, Antitrust Division, Civil Division and the Environment and Natural Resources Division, as well as DOJ grant programs and trustee functions.
Harmeet Dhillon, a vocal Trump loyalist, has led the Civil Rights Division since her appointment. Her tenure has coincided with major turnover: more than three-quarters of the division’s attorneys have departed over the past year, many through buyouts or early retirement, amid concerns among career staff about new mission statements and priorities she advanced.
Under Dhillon, the Civil Rights Division has shifted toward priorities aligned with the president’s agenda. The office opened probes into diversity, equity and inclusion programs on college campuses, filed suits seeking to bar transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports, and pursued litigation to obtain unredacted voter registration lists from multiple states. Dhillon also established a new section focused on gun rights and halted efforts to reach consent decrees with police departments in Minneapolis and Louisville after earlier Biden-era investigations had identified systemic constitutional abuses.
Those changes prompted former division officials to speak out. Last year, more than 200 former Civil Rights Division attorneys signed an open letter alleging that Dhillon had damaged the office that was created under the Civil Rights Act of 1957 to combat segregation and protect Black voting rights.
Any further personnel moves at the Justice Department would reshape oversight of several key divisions and signal the administration’s priorities for federal law enforcement and civil rights enforcement going forward.