Trump Names Harmeet Dhillon’s Interim Replacement To Lead DOJ Civil Rights Division, Second Amendment Section

Attorney General Todd Blanche announced Tuesday that President Donald Trump named Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Craig Trainor as the acting replacement for Harmeet Dhillon to head the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and Second Amendment section.

Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Craig Trainor was selected to serve as Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, replacing Jesus Osete, who had taken over for Dhillon immediately following her Nov. 5 resignation, Blanche announced in a post on X. Trainor had served in the Department of Education prior to being sent to HUD, and also clerked for a judge who twice struck down laws regarding concealed carry on Second Amendment grounds.

“I am pleased to announce that President Trump has appointed Craig Trainor as Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division,” Blanche posted. “Since October 2025, Craig has served as the Senate-confirmed Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, where he oversaw nationwide enforcement of HUD civil rights statutes.”

“Craig was also the principal architect of HUD’s civil rights enforcement policies, which cut the Biden-era fair housing case backlog in half,” Blanche continued. “I thank Craig for taking on this critical role and for his dedicated service to the American people and President Trump.”

Trainor previously served as a special counsel for the House Judiciary Committee under Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, who chaired the committee. Trainor also worked with former Attorney General Pam Bondi at the America First Policy Institute and had previous experience as a defense attorney, law-firm associate and prosecutor in New York City.

Trainor also served as a law clerk to George H.W. Bush-appointed United States District Judge Frederick J. Scullin, Jr. of the Northern District of New York, who in 2014, issued a ruling against Washington, D.C.’s ban on carrying handguns, then also slapped down D.C.’s requirement for concealed carry permit applicants to show “good cause” to carry a firearm the following year.

“The Court finds that Defendants have failed to demonstrate that there is any relationship, let alone a tight fit, between reducing the risk to other members of the public and/or violent crime and the District of Columbia’s ‘good reason’/’proper reason’ requirement,” Scullin wrote.

In June 2022, the Supreme Court declared New York’s “good cause” requirement for carry permits was a violation of the Second Amendment.