Trump officials order freeze at DOJ Civil Rights Division
Officials in the Trump Justice Department have ordered a temporary freeze on any ongoing cases being litigated by the Civil Rights Division, according to a new directive reviewed by ABC News.
The memo to the current acting head of the Civil Rights Division, Kathleen Wolfe, says that current career officials in the division must not file any new civil complaints or other civil rights-related filings in outside ongoing litigation. The memo was first reported by The Washington Post.
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The memo does not detail a specific timetable for how long the freeze will last. But it comes as Trump's nominee to lead civil rights enforcement at DOJ -- conservative firebrand Harmeet Dhillon -- awaits a confirmation vote in the Senate.
Dhillon has long been a vocal Trump loyalist who has brought litigation to advance Republican causes, including curtailing COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and opposing transgender-affirming care.
She is expected to reorient the civil rights division's priorities in line with what they were in the first Trump administration, when ongoing investigations into widespread police misconduct were virtually shuttered and the department withdrew from multiple Obama-era challenges to anti-trans state laws around the country.
Wolfe was separately directed to notify Trump-appointed department leaders of any consent decrees the Biden administration reached with cities in the final 90 days leading up to the inauguration.
Following the 2024 election, now-former Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke traveled the country announcing a series of last-minute agreements with several cities' police departments that the DOJ had investigated for potential violations of citizens' constitutional rights.
-ABC News' Alexander Mallin