Joe diGenova, an ally of former President Donald Trump, has resigned from his position leading a Justice Department investigation into claims that former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired against the Republican president.
DiGenova confirmed his resignation to The Associated Press, stating it was an “honor and a privilege” to serve Trump and the Justice Department. He declined to discuss the reasons for his departure, which occurred five months after he was brought back to the department to help oversee the investigation. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
His resignation introduces immediate uncertainty into the probe, which had recently shown signs of increased activity with new subpoenas issued for testimony before a federal grand jury in Florida, the investigation's base. DiGenova, a former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia during the Reagan administration, was appointed to lead the investigation in April. He had previously advocated for the role and publicly asserted that Trump was the victim of an intelligence community conspiracy.
As of his resignation, no charges have been filed in the year-long investigation, and the extent of any gathered evidence supporting the conspiracy theory remains unclear. The probe had heavily focused on Trump's assertions that a U.S. intelligence community assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 election was part of a "deep state" plot to undermine his presidency. Multiple government investigations, however, have concluded that Russia did interfere significantly to aid Trump's election.
The investigation experienced periods of stalled progress before diGenova's appointment. Shortly before his arrival, a career national security prosecutor involved in the inquiry was reassigned after expressing doubts about its legal foundation. Subpoenas previously issued by a Washington grand jury, which sought testimony from former CIA Director John Brennan regarding his statements to Congress about the intelligence assessment, were withdrawn following diGenova's appointment. DiGenova's team had also sought interviews related to the 2022 FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, which recovered classified documents leading to a criminal charge.