Trump’s Hand-Picked Lawyer Blows Up His Twisted Revenge Plot
The attorney’s tenure was short-lived.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Imag
A Trump goon tasked with investigating the president’s political enemies has thrown in the towel over “ethical” concerns.
Joe diGenova submitted his resignation to Attorney General Todd Blanche on Thursday after less than five months at the Justice Department, according to ABC News.
In a phone call with the New York Post, diGenova, 81, slammed the president’s revenge investigation, suggesting it was going nowhere.
“If you want indictments where there’s no evidence, you have an ethical problem,” he told the newspaper.
DiGenova was a federal prosecutor for D.C. during the 1980s.
Janet Fries/Getty Images
DiGenova’s resignation comes amid frustration from Trump and senior DOJ officials regarding his oversight of the so-called “grand conspiracy” investigation in Florida, sources told ABC News.
“I resigned by letter today at 3 o’clock,” diGenova told the outlet. “It was an honor and a privilege to serve the president and the department.”
“I’m not going to say anything further. I wish them well,” he added.
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The Department of Justice thanked diGenova for his work with the Trump administration.
“We are grateful to Joe diGenova for his many years of service to the Department. The Attorney General thanks him for his work these past five months alongside the great team of experienced prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida, led by U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones,” a spokesman told the Daily Beast.
DiGenova, a former federal prosecutor for Washington, D.C. during the Reagan administration, returned to the DOJ as Counselor to the Attorney General in April.
DiGenova helped Trump try to overturn the 2020 election.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Imag
DiGenova was tapped to supervise a probe into Obama- and Biden-era officials out of Fort Pierce, Florida, after he had begged former Attorney General Pam Bondi for the job.
The close Trump ally hadn’t worked in decades, but has been loud about his support for Trump—echoing the president’s claims that there was a government conspiracy against him.
DiGenova, who had previously aided in Donald Trump’s legal effort to reverse his 2020 election loss, was installed shortly after seasoned prosecutor Maria Medetis Long was removed from the probe for expressing doubts about its viability.
Though the investigation has generated dozens of subpoenas over the last year to past officials who investigated Trump, it has yet to yield any criminal prosecutions.
A special counsel found that Russia had meddled in the 2016 election on behalf of Trump.
KENT NISHIMURA/AFP via Getty Images
The octogenarian attorney claimed that he could bring charges against Trump’s political foes within 30 days—a feat he failed to bring to fruition.
“Joe came in pretty hot,” a person familiar with the investigation told CNN. “He had a lot of things he wanted to look into.”
But rather than pursuing charges against former CIA Director John Brennan, as Medetis Long had, diGenova instead wanted to open the case to more targets, according to CNN.
“He was missing the forest for the trees,” a source told the outlet.
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