WASHINGTON — A U.S. prosecutor who was overseeing a wide-ranging probe into past investigations of President Donald Trump told Reuters on Thursday that he resigned.
Joseph diGenova’s departure injects uncertainty into an investigation scrutinizing several of Trump’s foes and that sought to establish the president as the victim of a long-running criminal conspiracy. DiGenova, a Trump ally, joined the Justice Department in April to take over the Florida-based investigation.
“It was an honor and privilege to serve the president and the department,” DiGenova said. He declined to elaborate.
A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ABC News first reported his resignation.
The investigation examined the 2017 U.S. intelligence finding that Russia sought to boost Trump’s first presidential campaign in 2016, as well as more recent investigations by former Special Counsel Jack Smith that probed Trump’s retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort and his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
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So far, the investigation did not result in criminal charges. Investigators interviewed current and former intelligence employees and in recent weeks sought to question FBI officials who were involved in the 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago.
DiGenova, a former U.S. attorney in Washington under Republican President Ronald Reagan, aligned himself with Trump in recent years. He echoed the president’s claims that the Russia investigation was a politically motivated effort to damage Trump.
The investigation is part of a larger Justice Department effort to pursue the president’s perceived enemies and investigate his grievances. Some Trump allies expressed hopes that the probe could ensnare Smith, former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey, whom the Trump administration already charged in two other cases.
A commuter walks near the U.S. Department of Justice, which bears a banner of President Donald Trump, on Aug. 12 in Washington.
DiGenova took over the investigation after the Justice Department removed a career federal prosecutor who led the probe, which initially focused largely on congressional testimony from Brennan about the 2017 intelligence assessment.
Brennan denied wrongdoing, and his lawyers sued the Justice Department to force officials to preserve documents related to the investigation.
Charges from the investigation could face legal hurdles. Some legal experts questioned whether prosecutors could bring a criminal case in Florida, given much of the activity in the Russia investigation happened in Washington and Virginia.
It is also unclear how investigations involving Trump that examined separate issues at different times could be included in one conspiracy.
