Washington, D.C. – News just broke that President Trump is planning to appoint Matt Zandi to serve as a Commissioner at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), raising serious concerns about the future of the agency charged with protecting workers from discrimination.  

Zandi most recently served as chief of staff to Harmeet Dhillon, former head of the Department of Justice (DOJ)’s Civil Rights Division. Under Dhillon, the Division abandoned its mission of enforcing civil rights protections in favor of misusing the law to target diversity programs and the communities that civil rights laws were meant to protect. More than three quarters of the Division’s workforce left under her tenure, decimating its investigatory power. Dhillon herself called the exodus the “biggest single personnel self-purge in DOJ history.” 

Zandi was not a bystander to these changes. As Dhillon’s second-in-command, he was instrumental in the Division’s effort to bring cases targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion, including weaponizing the False Claims Act to threaten federal contractors and federal funding recipients undertaking such efforts. With Zandi as chief of staff, the Division used the False Claims Act to launch investigations into diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts by recipients of federal funds. 

“Matt Zandi’s appointment to the EEOC is another alarming effort by Republicans to seize control of the Commission and turn it against its purposes of promoting workplace equality. This nomination seeks to equip Chair Andrea Lucas with total power to execute her radical anti-worker agenda,” said Lauren Khouri, senior director of workplace equality and senior counsel at NWLC.

“Women and their families are struggling to afford their basic needs, and they deserve leaders who will fight for their civil rights and help them stay in their jobs without facing discrimination and harassment. The Department of Justice has worked hand in hand with the EEOC to strip people across the country of their civil rights protections. Even though Harmeet Dhillon resigned last week, her efforts to weaponize civil rights laws live on in Matt Zandi, and he should not be handed the power to do more harm.”