Leo Terrell in a Leo 2.0 hat against a purple backdrop

Molly Butler / Media Matters

Trump nominates anti-civil rights Fox contributor Leo Terrell for DOJ civil rights position

Terrell has a long history of arguing against civil rights protections, declaring that “systemic racism does not exist” and claiming “the extreme left has declared war on white Americans”

Written by Courtney Hagle & Bushra Sultana

Published

President-elect Donald Trump announced Fox News contributor Leo Terrell will join the Justice Department as senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights, Harmeet Dhillon. Terrell has a long history of campaigning against civil rights protections, arguing that systemic racism against nonwhite people “does not exist” and that the “extreme left has declared war on white Americans and white police officers.” 

Terrell also repeatedly defended Trump on Fox airwaves, saying that the judge in Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial is “compromised” and “should have been recused” and claiming that there was “nothing wrong” with Trump’s conduct when he tried to pressure Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” thousands of votes supporting him in the 2020 election after Trump lost the state.

  • Discussions of race, civil rights, and affirmative action

    • In 2023, Terrell said “systemic racism does not exist” and that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “wouldn't accept critical race theory, 1619 Project, all this division of hatred.” Terrell added: “I'm telling you systemic racism does not exist in any segment of this country. … Democrats will not let go of the systemic racism card because if they do, they will not have a party.” [Fox News, America Reports, 8/28/23]
    • In 2020, Terrell compared Black Lives Matter to the Islamic State group, saying, “Black Lives Matter antifa is going to grow like ISIS did in the Middle East.” [Fox News, Hannity, 11/23/20]
    • Terrell claimed “reverse discrimination” was the reason the Atlanta police officer who killed Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old Black man, was charged with murder. Terrell called it the “elephant in the room” and said, “Do you honestly believe that if those officers were Black these charges would be filed?” [Fox News, Hannity, 6/18/20; The New York Times, 11/21/22]
    • Terrell claimed that “the left has weaponized race” and “basically declared war on white people.” Terrell said that “if you are a person of color and you don't become part of their group, you're a sellout. I'm glad to be a sellout because they're crazy.” [Fox News, Hannity, 11/19/21]
    • During the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, Terrell attacked “DEI nonsense that … LA Fire Department chief supports.” Terrell continued, “To have DEI, to have social justice in the fire department, this is ridiculous,” and baselessly claimed that the LAFD has “no intention of putting out these fires.” [Fox News, Hannity, 1/8/25]
    • After Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic presidential nominee in 2024, Terrell wrote that “Kamala is the choice of the DEI Party.” He also described the Democrats as the “Race Card Party,” “Affirmative Action Party,” and the “Critical Race Party.” [Twitter/X, 7/21/24]
    • Terrell celebrated that the Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision blocking affirmative action in college admissions will “have a powerful effect on minimizing wokeness throughout this country.” [Fox News, The Faulkner Focus, 6/29/23; NPR, 6/29/23]
    • Terrell defended Daniel Penny, a white former Marine, after he killed Jordan Neely, a Black man who was homeless, on the New York subway: “This is nothing more than a left-wing political ploy honestly, in my opinion, because of the ethnicity of the Marine.” “Let's give you my professional legal opinion of 30-plus years. There was no intent on this Marine to kill, to harm. He did it to restrain,” Terrell said. “There is no intent and that Marine is a hero.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 5/9/23; USA Today, 5/13/23]
    • In 2020, Terrell said, “We got to stop this race war the Democrats are perpetuating and we have to get back to common sense.” He concluded: “For this election, there's only one man who can solve this problem and that's Donald J. Trump.” [Fox News, Hannity, 8/18/20]
    • After Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty by a jury, Terrell claimed he was “very glad that justice prevailed,” adding, “I think Kyle Rittenhouse should never have been charged.” He added, “The only people who would be upset are those who have a hidden agenda outside the rule of law.” The then-18-year-old was on trial for fatally shooting two people during the 2020 unrest in Wisconsin. [Fox News, 11/19/21; NPR, 11/19/21]
    • In 2021, Terrell told Fox’s Sean Hannity that “the extreme left has declared war on white Americans and white police officers, and the Democratic leadership will not say a word because they are in bed with the extreme left.” [Fox News, 4/23/21]

  • Attacks on immigrants

    • After United HealthCare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot in New York City last December, Terrell tried to suggest the killer was an undocumented immigrant. “New York City is a sanctuary city,” Terrell said. “We don't know his ethnicity, we don't know his legal status. There's a lot of other questions that the prosecution and district attorney is going to have to feather out.” [Fox News, The Faulkner Focus, 12/4/24]
    • On America’s Newsroom, Terrell claimed that the Biden administration is “importing criminals.” Terrell said, “Every policy that Trump had in place was working, but this open border policy has basically allowed American women and men to be subject to criminal attacks by illegal aliens.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 7/3/24]
    • Terrell said states should “declare an invasion” because “the Biden administration is doing absolutely nothing” to secure the border. [Fox News, Fox & Friends Weekend, 9/17/22]

  • Defending Trump’s lawsuits and election lies

    • Terrell repeatedly attacked the judge in Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial, calling Judge Juan Merchan “compromised,” and stating, “He should have been recused from this case. He was placed in this position to inflict this type of political damage to Trump.” He added, “Very simply, the judge is hostile to President Trump, he has a dislike towards President Trump, and I’ll tell you right now, the fix is in.” [Media Matters, 5/8/24]
    • Criticizing the special counsel in Trump’s classified documents case, Terrell claimed that “Jack Smith is having a temper tantrum.” “Jack Smith is obsessed with going to trial before the election,” Terrell said. “He wants a federal conviction — that’s why he was brought in on this case.” He later said that the charges against Trump are “politically motivated” in order to “get a conviction against President Trump before November 2024.” [Fox News, The Faulkner Focus, 4/4/24]
    • Terrell said Trump’s New York hush money trial “is a political trial designed to hurt Trump's chances in November, claiming, “President Trump is being prosecuted because he’s running for office.” [Media Matters, 6/10/24] 
    • Terrell defended Trump’s efforts to pressure Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” votes in the 2020 election after he lost the state. Terrell claimed: “There is nothing wrong with saying over the phone, ‘Hey, I need to find 11,000 votes.’ That's not criminal. That's just speech.” [Fox News, The Faulkner Focus, 8/15/23; The New York Times, 1/3/21]