Former DOJ prosecutor resigns amid stalled probe into alleged anti-Trump plot
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Long-time Trump ally and former Washington U.S. attorney John diGenova has stepped down from leading a Justice Department investigation into claims that law-enforcement and intelligence officials conspired against President Donald Trump.
John diGenova, an 81-year-old former U.S. attorney who was appointed in April to head a Justice Department inquiry into alleged coordination by law-enforcement and intelligence officials against President Donald Trump, has resigned. Sources familiar with the personnel decision said his departure came as frustration grew within the Justice Department and the White House over the investigation’s pace and management.
DiGenova told the New York Post that seeking indictments without evidence would be an ethical problem, and later told the Associated Press that his remarks were taken out of context, adding that “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.”
The probe, launched a year ago, aims to determine whether former law-enforcement and intelligence officials acted in concert to undermine Trump, a claim promoted by the White House and some of the president’s supporters. No charges have been filed after five months, and the investigation’s scope remains unclear.
Investigators have sought interviews related to the 2022 FBI search of Mar-a-Lago that recovered classified documents and have examined the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, a finding that has long been contested by Trump. Earlier inquiries, including a special counsel investigation and a Justice Department inspector-general review, identified procedural errors but found no criminal conspiracy involving senior officials.
The investigation has faced setbacks before, such as the replacement of a lead national-security prosecutor in April after doubts about the case’s strength. Former CIA Director John Brennan, also under investigation for alleged false statements to Congress, sued the Justice Department in July to preserve records and to challenge any potential indictment.