Jason Reding Quiñones, the United States attorney for the Southern District of Florida who oversaw the Justice Department's so-called grand conspiracy investigation, resigned from the department on Friday, Nov. 6.1,2,3,4,5,6
Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the resignation on the social platform X, identifying Quiñones by his South Florida post. The investigation based in Fort Pierce examines actions by intelligence officials and other government actors against President Donald Trump dating to his 2016 campaign, an inquiry that has produced extensive grand jury activity but no criminal indictments establishing the alleged overarching conspiracy.3,5,6
"We are grateful for Jason's leadership in combatting violent crime, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and transnational crime," Blanche said in a social media post announcing the departure. Blanche praised Quiñones for his work on violent crime, trafficking and transnational criminal organizations, and his statement offered no explanation for the resignation.5,6
In a post on X, Quiñones thanked President Trump for the opportunity and said it had been "the privilege of a lifetime to serve" alongside his colleagues in the Southern District. "I leave with immense pride in what we accomplished together and profound gratitude for the opportunity to serve our great nation," he wrote.6
The Fort Pierce investigation is examining whether former intelligence officials under two Democratic administrations conspired to keep Trump out of office through a series of criminal and intelligence investigations. It is also separately examining whether former CIA Director John Brennan lied to Congress about the agency's role in the creation of an intelligence assessment that determined Russia had tried to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. The Justice Department has described the broader effort as an examination of whether intelligence officials and other government actors organized in a criminal effort to violate Trump's civil rights.5,6
Quiñones is the latest of several lawyers to leave the inquiry. CBS News reported that Joe diGenova, a former U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., in the 1980s, quit his role in September amid disagreements with the Deputy Attorney General's Office over management of the investigation. According to that account, senior Justice Department leaders sent two attorneys from Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter's office to Florida to try to help manage the case, a move both diGenova and Quiñones resisted.6
Since then, Kurt Olsen, a former White House attorney who was known for his efforts to try to overturn the results of the 2020 election, also resigned from the case, while several others temporarily assigned to the probe returned to their home U.S. attorney's offices after their details ended. Earlier in the year, the lead career prosecutor in Quiñones' office who was overseeing the investigation was also sidelined after she expressed concerns about the strength of the evidence, CBS News previously reported.6
Blanche told reporters in late October that Quiñones "always has been in charge" of the investigation and downplayed the earlier departures, saying "people leave and stay all the time." ABC News reported, citing sources, that Quiñones' departure had been seen as a foregone conclusion in recent weeks after department leadership admonished him in private meetings for lack of progress in the investigation and his frequent trips to Washington, D.C.5,6
While the probe has involved behind-the-scenes legal wrangling over subpoenas and grand jury testimony involving numerous targets of the president, it has thus far led to no criminal indictments, ABC News reported, citing sources, in what those sources described as a source of frustration for Trump and other top Justice Department officials.5
Quiñones' resignation came a day after the department announced the departure of Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Civil Rights Division and a Trump ally. ABC News described Quiñones as the second high-level department official to depart following Democrats' midterm wins, following Dhillon's resignation on Thursday.5,6
Quiñones, the son of Cuban refugees, has tried to make a name for himself in South Florida by pursuing investigations into communist Cuban government officials who have committed crimes impacting the United States. Earlier this year he established a Cuba-focused task force that brought together law enforcement agents from multiple agencies, and he oversaw the criminal prosecution of former Cuban leader Raúl Castro and five others in connection with the Cuban military's fatal downing of two planes 30 years ago. His office has also been working on a new criminal investigation targeting former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, who is in a jail in New York City awaiting trial on criminal drug and torture charges. CBS News reported, citing a source, that the Miami-based investigation is focused on corruption and began shortly before Alex Saab, a close business associate of Maduro who served as Venezuela's minister of industry and national production, was deported to the United States and indicted for his alleged role in a money-laundering conspiracy scheme. Saab has since pleaded guilty in the case, raising questions among observers about whether he might agree to cooperate and provide prosecutors with evidence against Maduro.6
Blanche has said the inquiry will proceed, saying, "We're going to let that investigation continue as it should," and adding, "there's no frustration" with the pace of the probe.6
