Gates said he is leaving to become a deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s civil rights division.

Michael Gates, who was first elected as Surf City's city attorney in 2014, is headed to Washington, D.C. as deputy assistant attorney general of the civil rights division.

The U.S. Department of Justice has plucked a right-wing city attorney from Huntington Beach to serve its civil rights division.

Huntington Beach’s outspoken city attorney — who has spent years being a thorn in the side of Gov. Gavin Newsom — is taking a job in the Trump administration. Michael Gates will be Trump’s deputy assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice’s civil rights division.