Kurt Olsen, an election denier who attempted to overturn the 2020 election results in favor of President Trump, has resigned from the Justice Department, sources familiar with his departure told CBS News on Monday.
Olsen had been assigned to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, where he worked on the investigation into the “grand conspiracy” targeting Obama and Biden era officials, which has so far resulted in no charges.
CBS News has reached out to Olsen for comment.
Earlier this month, Joe diGenova, the prosecutor hired by Attorney General Todd Blanche, also resigned amid tensions with top Justice Department officials over how cases were being handled and their pace.
Olsen previously worked at the White House as the “presidentially appointed director of election security and integrity,” the FBI said. In 2020, Olsen was a lawyer work with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is expected to urge the Supreme Court to overturn the election results.
CBS News has contacted the Justice Department for comment.
In 2022, Olsen was subpoenaed by the House Select Committee on January 6, which was investigating the aftermath of the 2020 election. The subpoena alleged that Olsen “contacted various senior Department of Justice officials” at the direction of the President to discuss challenges to the election results. The committee said Olsen spoke with Mr. Trump several times on January 6, 2021.
Olsen referred Fulton County’s election record to the FBI, prompting agents to execute a search warrant earlier this year. They seized dozens of boxes containing ballots and other materials from the 2020 election, an FBI affidavit revealed.
Olsen also made several other 2020 election-related referrals to the Justice Department, according to a source with direct knowledge.
CBS News has previously reported that law enforcement veterans have expressed deep concerns that the Trump Justice Department’s criminal investigation into Brennan and others is being systematically handed over to politically motivated personnel determined to craft a partisan indictment.
Olsen is one of several prosecutors to leave the team working on the grand conspiracy case in recent days, multiple sources said.
One of these sources, however, said that some of the lawyers who came from out of state were working there on a temporary basis and that those assignments had ended and those lawyers were returning to their home offices. The Justice Department has since hired two new former prosecutors to join the investigation team, a source added.
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