The resignation on Friday of Trump’s “grand conspiracy” prosecutor exposed a Justice Department consumed by political revenge, failed prosecutions and an unprecedented exodus of career prosecutors unwilling to kowtow to Trump’s vengeful demands.
Jason Quiñones headed the Southern District of Florida office investigating Trump’s so-called “grand conspiracy” theory: that former Obama and Biden officials, intelligence agencies and FBI agents coordinated a years-long effort to undermine Trump through investigations dating back to the 2016 presidential campaign.
Former D.C. U.S. Attorney Joe diGenova resigned in September, citing interference from DOJ officials in Washington in the “grand conspiracy” investigation.
Shining with sweat when he resigned, Quiñones previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Miami, where supervisors gave him poor performance evaluations and questioned his work ethic and legal abilities.
Under the bungling Quiñones, the Miami office issued fruitless subpoenas to former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, FBI attorney Lisa Page and former counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok.
Quiñones failed to connect possible Russian interference in the 2016 election with subsequent investigations of Trump, including the court-authorized search of Mar-a-Lago. However, the investigation failed to produce criminal charges.
Harmeet Dhillon, head of the Civil Rights Division, and John Eisenberg, chief of the National Security Division, also resigned on Friday after refusing to join in the “grand conspiracy” investigation. They refused to sign unusual statements under penalty of perjury disclosing conversations with colleagues about the investigation.
During Dhillon’s 18-month reign of destruction, more than 75% of the Civil Rights Division’s career lawyers and staff quit or were fired to banish a “woke ideology.” She redirected the division away from traditional civil rights, police accountability, and voting rights, focusing instead on hijacking voter registration lists and advocating for gun owners’ rights.
Former Justice Department attorney Stacey Young called Quiñones Trump’s “Don Quixote” for tilting at the windmill of the supposed grand conspiracy.
DOJ is now a Department of Trump lackeys
October was another disastrous month for the Justice Department.
Its latest attempt to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey involved a questionable filing alleging that Comey disclosed classified information to a New York Times reporter in 2016. Previous administrations investigated the matter in 2017 and 2019 and declined to prosecute.
The DOJ filed a bogus “criminal information” on the day the 10-year statute of limitations expired, apparently hoping to preserve the possibility of prosecution. But the filing was not an indictment, and the applicable statute requires an indictment within 10 years.
A federal grand jury also refused to indict Cassidy Hutchinson, the former White House aide and prominent January 6 investigative witness. Another judge angrily threw out charges against two former FBI officials – Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides — after prosecutors attempted to add a charge without judicial approval.
The administration’s efforts to prosecute Trump’s political adversaries, including New York Attorney General Letitia James and Comey, have repeatedly been thrown out by federal judges.
The Prosecutors Who Refused to Play Along
The department’s deterioration has come at an extraordinary human cost.
Since Trump returned to office, more than 4,000 Justice Department employees have departed, representing roughly 30 percent of its workforce. Across the federal government, approximately one in five government lawyers has left.
- Celia Cohen, an experienced Manhattan federal prosecutor, resigned after the politically motivated dismissal of corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams.
- Acting U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon also resigned rather than comply with orders she considered improper.
- Stacey Young resigned. She established Justice Connection to assist attorneys facing ethical crises.
- Alexander Kristofcak was pushed out after criticizing political interference.
- Zachary Phillips resigned. He is a veteran prosecutor who helped investigate the January 6 Capitol attack.
- Dena Robinson and Alyssa Lareau left the Civil Rights Division as its traditional anti-discrimination mission gave way to Trump’s political priorities.
- Samantha Trepel, who helped prosecute Minneapolis police officers following George Floyd’s murder, departed after the department abandoned police misconduct investigations.
Others were fired.
- Immigration attorney Erez Reuveni was dismissed after objecting to government misrepresentations in court.
- Prosecutor Matthew Evans was fired after protesting the department’s handling of an ICE shooting investigation.
These were career professionals, not partisan political hacks.
Trump’s Toady Attorney General
The central problem is that A.G. Blanche is a flunky who can’t recognize that the attorney general has obligations beyond pleasing the president. The DOJ is not a president’s personal revenge department.
The attorney general represents the U.S. government, not Donald Trump personally. Federal prosecutors are officers of the court, bound by professional ethics, constitutional protections and judicial orders.
The Supreme Court established the principle in 1935: the government’s interest in a criminal prosecution is not that it win, but that justice be done. Blanche’s Justice Department ignores this principle.
Judges have reprimanded federal prosecutors, rejected questionable filings and expressed fury over DOJ conduct. Grand juries have refused to approve politically charged prosecutions. Experienced attorneys have resigned rather than lend their credibility to questionable legal maneuvers.
The exodus is destroying institutional knowledge, undermining public confidence and making it harder to recruit the next generation of federal prosecutors.
A Justice Department that prosecutes presidential enemies while protecting presidential allies is not administering equal justice. It is administering political power.
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