By Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON, Sept 10 (Reuters) – A U.S. prosecutor who has been overseeing a wide-ranging probe into past investigations of President Donald Trump told Reuters on Thursday that he has resigned.
Joseph diGenova’s departure injects uncertainty into an investigation that has been scrutinizing several of Trump’s foes and has sought to establish that the president was 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 has 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.
The investigation has so far not resulted in any criminal charges. Investigators have interviewed current and former intelligence employees and have 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, has aligned himself with Trump in recent years. He has echoed the president’s claims that the Russia investigation was a politically motivated effort to damage Trump.
The investigation is part of a larger effort by the Justice Department to pursue the president’s perceived enemies and investigate his grievances. Some Trump allies have expressed hopes that the probe could ensnare Smith, former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey, who has already been charged by the Trump administration in two other cases.
DiGenova took over the investigation after the Justice Department removed a career federal prosecutor who had been leading the probe, which initially focused largely on congressional testimony from Brennan about the 2017 intelligence assessment.
Brennan has denied wrongdoing, and his lawyers have sued the Justice Department to force officials to preserve documents related to the investigation.
Any charges from the investigation could face legal hurdles. Some legal experts have questioned whether prosecutors could bring a criminal case in Florida given that 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.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; editing by Andy Sullivan and Alistair Bell)
Comments