She encountered heavy criticism for expressing anti-americanism by many both in Germany and abroad, including members of the U.S. government such as Ari Fleischer and Condoleezza Rice. On September 20, Däubler-Gmelin called U.S. Ambassador Dan Coats to state that the reports had no basis and Schröder wrote an apology letter to Bush, stating "there is no place at my cabinet table for anyone who makes a connection between the American president and such a criminal." He did not force her to resign immediately, claiming to trust her denial of the quotation, but she was dropped from his new cabinet when it was formed a few weeks after his narrow re-election. From 2002 to 2005 Däubler-Gmelin served as chairwoman of the Bundestag's Committee on Consumer Protection and Agriculture, and from 2005 she chaired the Committee for Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid. Since 2004, Däubler-Gmelin has been practicing as Of counsel with the Berlin office of law firm Schwegler. In 2009, Germany’s national railway company Deutsche Bahn commissioned Däubler-Gmelin and former Interior Minister Gerhart Baum with investigating allegations according to which the company had, in violation of privacy laws and corporate guidelines repeatedly and on a large scale compared personal data of its employees with those of suppliers, in a bid to uncover possible corruption. Between 2012 and 2013, Däubler-Gmelin served as member of the European Commission’s High Level Group on Media Freedom and Pluralism, an advisory panel set up by European Commissioner Neelie Kroes and chaired by Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga. She has voiced her support for the Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, an organisation which campaigns for democratic reform in the United Nations, and the creation of a more accountable international political system. From 2012 to 2014, Däubler-Gmelin represented political group “Mehr Demokratie e.V.” (More Democracy) in its unsuccessful constitutional complaint before the Federal Constitutional Court against Germany’s participation in the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and the European Fiscal Compact. In 2019, Däubler-Gmelin was appointed to a task force investigating allegations of fraud and embezzlement at Workers' Welfare Association (AWO), a charity and one of Germany’s largest employers. Däubler-Gmelin is a member of several charitable and non-profit organizations, including the following:  Däubler-Gmelin is married to Wolfgang Däubler, one of the most prominent experts on German labor law.