A longtime Donald Trump ally assigned to steer a Justice Department inquiry into whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials plotted against the president has stepped down from the role.
Joe diGenova, 81, confirmed his resignation from the broad investigation based in the Southern District of Florida, a probe that focused on figures Trump has portrayed as political adversaries.
‘I did in fact resign,’ diGenova told The Associated Press, describing his work for Trump and the Justice Department as an ‘honor and a privilege.’
Pressed on the reason for his departure, diGenova declined to elaborate.
People familiar with the matter, however, said his exit followed growing frustration inside the Justice Department and the White House over how the investigation was being managed and how slowly it appeared to be moving.
Justice Department leaders had become increasingly concerned that the Trump-related probe was not advancing at the pace they expected, despite diGenova being given a team of Washington-based lawyers, an unidentified source told NBC News.
Responding later in an interview with The New York Post to criticism of his handling of the investigation, diGenova said: ‘If you want indictments where there´s no evidence, you have an ethical problem.’
He subsequently said the remark had been taken out of context, adding: ‘There’s plenty of evidence in all of these cases to prove the theories of prosecution. It just takes time to get there, and some people want to get there a little faster than others – and you can´t do that.’
Former NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, left, and Joseph diGenova are seen speaking to reporters in 2020
His resignation reportedly comes amid frustrations from Justice Department officials and the White House over the lack of progress in the investigation
For now, a specific person will not be named to take diGenova’s place as officials expect the investigation to get back on track with just the Washington prosecutors at the helm.
But the investigation has always been something of a tall order, aiming to present separate and unrelated inquiries of the president – such as the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, the federal charges brought against him for the 2021 Capitol riot and the president’s retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate – as part of an anti-Trump conspiracy by law enforcement and intelligence professionals.
Though promoted by the White House, and seized on by Trump supporters looking for accountability against what they see as ‘deep state’ intelligence community actors, the conspiracy investigation has proceeded in fits and starts since its inception a year ago.
The 81-year-old diGenova served as the US attorney for the District of Columbia during the Reagan administration and for years has been a prominent Trump ally, including backing his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss and publicly and repeatedly claiming that the president was the victim of an intelligence community conspiracy.
He was brought back to the Justice Department in April and given the reins of the loosely defined investigation.
Five months later, no charges have been brought and it remains unclear whether any will be, or what information has been gathered to support any basis for the idea of a plot against Trump by the government officials who investigated him.
Yet there has been some progress made in recent weeks as the Department of Justice seeks testimony from multiple former officials.
Most recently, subpoenas had been issued to federal agents who took part in the August 2022 raid on Mar-a-Lago, according to The New York Times.
Joe diGenova (left), 81, announced on Thursday he is resigning from his role leading a wide-ranging investigation in the Southern District of Florida that targeted President Donald Trump’s perceived political enemies
The probe seeks to link separate and unrelated inquiries of the president as part of a vast anti-Trump conspiracy, including the charges brought against the president related to the 2021 Capitol riot
It also sought to link the investigation into Trump’s retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate as part of the conspiracy
Investigators have also focused intensely on one of Trump’s chief grievances: a US intelligence community assessment that Russia interfered on his behalf in the 2016 presidential election.
The assessment has long infuriated the president, along with a Justice Department special counsel investigation into Russian election interference that shadowed him during his first term.
That special counsel investigation identified widespread Russian interference in the election but did not find evidence to prove a criminal conspiracy between Moscow and the Trump campaign.
Multiple other government inquiries, including by the Justice Department inspector general, have identified significant errors and omissions in the FBI’s handling of the Trump-Russia probe but did not find evidence of criminal conduct by senior law enforcement officials.
The yearlong conspiracy investigation has hit stumbles before.
Last April, career prosecutor Maria Medetis Long stepped down after expressing doubts about the likelihood that an investigation into former CIA Director John Brennan would result in criminal charges.
diGenova was brought in in the aftermath, vowing at first to bring charges in 30 days.
At first, prosecutors on diGenova’s team thought they would start with a relatively straightforward case, seeking charges against Brennan for allegedly lying to Congress – a claim he and his lawyers have vigorously denied, they told CNN.
But soon, diGenova decided he wanted to pursue more targets in a broader case, which one source described as ‘going down 900 rabbit holes.
‘He was missing the forest for the trees,’ the source claimed.
As the case then dragged on, career lawyers assigned to the case were reportedly met with angry tirades and were at times sidelined.
The investigation has targeted former CIA Director John Brennan (left) and former FBI Director James Comey (right)
DiGenova also suggested in a podcast with Rudy Giuliani that he would seek a grand jury indictment against former President Barack Obama
Part of the problem seems to be that diGenova set lofty goals for himself.
He told Rudy Giuliani in an April 2 podcast appearance: ‘we would have had indictments brought in the last two months’ if former Attorney General Pam Bondi had not nixed his appointment as special counsel in the probes.
The longtime prosecutor also used the interview to outline his plans for the investigation, as his wife, Victoria Toensing, argued it was a mistake to indict former FBI Director James Comey in Virginia last year – a case that was later dismissed.
‘I never as Attorney General would have allowed the one count against Comey in Virginia,’ she said on Giuliani’s podcast. ‘I would have saved it for the vast conspiracy in Fort Pierce.’
diGenova then agreed, adding: ‘You do the same thing with [New York Attorney General] Letitia James. You don’t charge her in Virginia on mortgage fraud. You include her on a massive conspiracy count down in Miami, with a bunch of people beginning in 2017.’
He also named former President Barack Obama as a possible target of his probe.
‘Put Obama in the grand jury and let’s have a fight over his testimony,’ diGenova urged.
Another issue could be public statements made by diGenova himself.
The longtime MAGA figure and Trump ally has accused Brennan of crimes on multiple occasions, saying in a 2018 interview that Brennan ‘colluded’ with other top government officials to ‘frame’ Trump.
Brennan, he told then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson in 2018, should ‘get a lawyer.’
The former CIA director has since sued the Justice Department for a court order requiring the preservation of all records from the investigation, forecasting plans to challenge any potential indictment of him on vindictive prosecution grounds.
A hearing in the case is set for Monday in Washington, DC.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the Justice Department for comment.
