CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for Civil Rights and herself a UVA law graduate, defended the Department of Justice’s aggressive posturing that led to the resignation of University of Virginia president Jim Ryan on Friday.

Appearing on CNN for an interview with Jake Tapper on Friday evening, Dhillon said the university was not responsive to DOJ requests for confirmation that it was in compliance with federal law and indicated she believed Ryan was largely responsible for that.

“I did express to leaders at UVA that we significantly lacked confidence at the Department of Justice, that Jim Ryan, given his public statements and his ongoing public statements, and his participation in groups talking about suing the Trump administration to avoid having to do exactly what we were requiring them to do,” Dhillon said. “I don’t have any confidence that he was going to be willing and able to preside over the dismantling of DEI.”

Ryan resigned on Friday, saying attempting to fight the pressure from the DOJ would have endangered federal funding that could have cost UVA in terms of research money, student scholarships and even university employees’ jobs.

Dhillon noted that UVA received over $1.3 billion from 18 different federal agencies in the past year, despite – she believes – being out of compliance with federal laws since the 2023 Students for Fair Admissions Supreme Court ruling that struck down race-based affirmative action in college admissions.

She said the school requested multiple extensions for confirmation of its compliance and accused UVA of simply hiding its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, instead of truly dismantling them, as demanded by the Trump administration.

“I would call it using a series of euphemisms to simply rebrand and repackage the exact same discriminatory programs that are illegal under federal law,” Dhillon told Tapper.

Dhillon denied the DOJ explicitly demanded Ryan’s resignation but made it clear she believes his departure is a positive step for UVA.

“Jim Ryan has built his entire career on what was then the academic vogue — DEI,” Dhillon said. “Now it isn’t. It’s time for new leadership that’s willing to comply with federal law.”

Dhillon’s appearance marked the first significant response from a GOP official to Ryan’s resignation Friday.

While Virginia Democrats were quick to condemn Friday’s forced resignation of University of Virginia president Jim Ryan, Republicans have remained largely silent regarding the news.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin, whose appointments to the school’s Board of Visitors eroded support for Ryan, did not comment on the resignation.

GOP candidate for lieutenant governor John Reid applauded Ryan’s departure, but his ticket mates – gubernatorial nominee Winsome Earle-Sears and incumbent attorney general Jason Miyares were mum.

“UVA is Virginia’s great flagship University and a lot of my family studied and achieved degrees in Charlottesville, but it’s obvious that there have been huge distractions and bad management decisions in recent years so no one should be surprised that the feds have noticed,” Reid told Cville Right Now on Friday. “Maybe the stubborn belligerent racist attitude in the administration needs to change? “

Represenatitives for Earle-Sears, Miyares and Youngkin did not respond to requests from Cville Right Now for comment.

All three members of the Democratic ticket – Abigail Spanberger (governor), Ghazala Hashmi (lt. gov.) and Jay Jones (attorney general) – all blasted the Trump administration and the DOJ for what it considers the federal government meddling in Commonwealth business.

The maneuvering left Virginia Republicans in an awkward spot. The party traditionally has championed limiting the reach of the federal government and leaving issues up to the states. But in this case, even though the Department of Justice’s investigation was still on-going, federal pressure took the decision on the fate of Ryan out of the Commonwealth’s hands.

Former Lt. Gov. Bill Boling, who served in that capacity from 2006-2014, was one of the view Republican officials to speak out following Ryan’s resignation, posting on Facebook, “UVA President Jim Ryan is a man of principle. I respect that, even if his principles are misguided. … Ryan did the right thing in resigning, and the Trump administration did the right thing in demanding a discontinuance of DEI programs that focused on race and gender at the expense of individual merit.”