A top MAGA conspiracy theorist now in the running to become President Donald Trump’s next attorney general just received a setback to her efforts to shore up the president’s debunked claims of rigging at the 2024 polls.
“This request is as absurd as it is baseless,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel wrote in her rebuke to a Justice Department letter, authored by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, demanding ballots and other election materials concerning Trump’s historic loss to Joe Biden.
“If this administration wants to bring this circus to our state, my office is prepared to protect the people’s right to vote,” Nessel, a Democrat, added, underscoring her determination to push back against the Trump administration’s efforts to sow doubt over the integrity of U.S. elections ahead of what promises to be a bruising midterms battle.
Dhillon, a former GOP official who currently serves as the Trump DOJ’s lead on civil rights issues, is an avowed election denier who has brought several high-profile lawsuits across multiple states as part of MAGA’s wider attacks on voting laws and processes.
She also once, in her capacity as a private attorney, represented former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in a lawsuit that saw her fellow conspiracy theorist accused of creating a hostile work environment by one of his former employees.
Critics fiercely opposed her nomination as head of the department’s Civil Rights Division, whose focus, under her leadership, has pivoted away from racial discrimination and police misconduct to issues like anti-Christian bias, trans inclusiveness, and gun rights.
Nessel’s riposte to Dhillon comes amid widespread speculation as to whom Trump may appoint as U.S. Attorney General now that he has dismissed Pam Bondi from that role over her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal and her unsuccessful attempts to prosecute his political opponents.
White House insiders say the job will likely go to either Bondi’s former deputy, Todd Blanche, now acting attorney general and formerly Trump’s criminal defense attorney, or Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin.
A handful of MAGA voices have, nevertheless, increasingly pushed Dhillon as a suitable pick for that role. “Harmeet Dhillon would be an exceptional Attorney General,” conservative activist Scott Presler posted on X earlier this month, applauding her efforts to sue “states for their voter rolls to ensure that only American citizens can vote.”
“She would bring the scales of justice, big time!” Tim Clark, who served as a White House aide during the first Trump administration.
“I love this!” former Congressman and ex-convict George Santos, fresh out of a short stint in prison on wire fraud charges following a pardon from Trump, added.
The Daily Beast has contacted the Justice Department for comment on this story.
