U.S. Department of Justice prosecutor Joseph diGenova, who led the investigation into previous cases against President Donald Trump and his political opponents, has resigned. Reuters reports, UNN writes.
Details
As the publication notes, Joseph diGenova’s resignation introduces uncertainty into the investigation, which examined the activities of several of Trump’s opponents and sought to establish that the president had been the victim of a prolonged criminal conspiracy. DiGenova, a Trump ally, joined the Department of Justice in April to lead the investigation, which was being conducted in Florida.
"It was an honor and a privilege for me to serve the president and the department," diGenova said. He declined further comment.
The investigation examined the 2017 U.S. intelligence assessment that Russia had attempted to aid Trump’s first presidential campaign in 2016, as well as recent investigations by former special prosecutor Jack Smith into Trump’s storage of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort and his efforts to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election.
So far, the investigation has not resulted in any criminal charges. Investigators have questioned current and former intelligence officials and, in recent weeks, have sought to question FBI employees who were involved in conducting the search of Mar-a-Lago in 2022.
diGenova and his work on the case
DiGenova, a former U.S. attorney in Washington during the presidency of Republican Ronald Reagan, has grown closer to Trump in recent years. He repeated the president’s claims that the investigation into Russia was a politically motivated campaign aimed at harming Trump.
This investigation is part of the Justice Department’s broader efforts to pursue the president’s opponents and investigate his claims. Some Trump allies had hoped that the investigation might implicate Smith, former CIA Director John Brennan, and former FBI Director James Comey, whom the Trump administration has already charged in two other cases.
DiGenova took charge of the investigation after the Justice Department removed the career federal prosecutor who had previously led it. Initially, the investigation focused largely on Brennan’s testimony before Congress regarding the 2017 intelligence assessment.
Brennan denies any wrongdoing, and his lawyers have filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department, seeking to compel officials to preserve documents related to the investigation.
As the publication notes, any charges resulting from the investigation could face legal obstacles. Some legal experts have questioned whether prosecutors could bring a criminal case in Florida, since much of the activity in the investigation into Russia took place in Washington and Virginia.
It is also unclear how the investigations into Trump, which concerned different matters and were conducted at different times, could be combined into a single conspiracy.