Trump Justice Department appointee who led investigation into ‘grand conspiracy’ against Trump enemies resigns

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Donald Trump appointee who led the office overseeing a so-called “grand conspiracy” investigation into federal law enforcement officials implicated in past investigations into Trump has resigned.

Attorney General Todd Blanche announced Friday that U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jason A. Reding Quiñones has submitted his resignation, the second high-profile resignation at the Justice Department this week following massive Republican midterm losses.

Blanche said they were “grateful for Jason’s leadership in combating violent crime, drug trafficking, sex trafficking and transnational crime, including the indictment of Raúl Castro” and that he had “served the department many times during his distinguished career, and we thank him for his service to this country.”

In his own social media post, Reding Quiñones wrote that he was leaving “with immense pride in what we have accomplished together and deep gratitude for the opportunity to serve our great nation.”

The “grand conspiracy” investigation sought to charge officials for conduct that occurred more than 10 years ago, based on the theory that separate investigations into Trump were part of a broader conspiracy against Trump’s rights.

It sought to tie actions dating back to the 2016 campaign to the more recent investigation into Jack Smith, which led to now-dismissed charges against Trump for trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat as well as for his handling of classified documents found during a search at Mar-A-Lago in 2022. Trump has denied the charges.

No charges have yet been filed directly in connection with the “grand conspiracy” effort.

Stacey Young, a former Justice Department lawyer who leads the group Justice Connection, said that “Jason Reding Quñiones will forever be known as this president’s Don Quixote for bucking the windmill of the so-called great conspiracy,” and that his “departure follows the path set by others who signed up for this impossible dream.”

Whoever replaces Reding Quñiones “should heed the wise advice of the great Attorney General Robert Jackson that prosecutors should select cases in which ‘the offense is most egregious, the public harm greatest, and the evidence most certain,'” she added.

Joe diGenova, who worked under Reding Quiñones in the Southern District of Florida, resigned in September and accused Justice Department officials of intervening and trying to take over the investigation. “Everybody was in their lane, and then some lanes got crossed, and then I decided to go,” diGenova told NBC News.

The Justice Department has recently filed charges against other Trump political enemies, but its efforts have not had much success so far. A judge has dismissed a lawsuit against two former FBI officials accused by House Republicans of lying to Congress.

The administration also recently failed to indict former White House official Cassidy Hutchinson, the star witness of the January 6 commission.

Harmeet Dhillon, the head of the Civil Rights Division who tried to bring Cassidy’s case, resigned Thursday.

Federal prosecutors are also seeking to bring charges against former FBI Director James Comey for conduct that allegedly occurred in October 2016, when the government alleges he allowed his subordinates to speak to a New York Times reporter about national defense information.

Another case against Comey — related to an Instagram photo of seashells that the Trump administration said posed a threat to Trump’s life — is still pending in the Eastern District of North Carolina.