US attorney tasked with leading 'grand conspiracy' probe into Trump's foes resigns from DOJ
Jason Reding Quinones, the South Florida-based U.S. attorney tasked with leading a sweeping and controversial conspiracy probe targeting President Donald Trump's foes, has resigned from the Justice Department, Attorney General Todd Blanche announced Friday.
Blanche also announced that John Eisenberg, the top official overseeing the Justice Department's National Security Division, had resigned from the department.
Reding Quinones and Eisenberg are the second and third high-level DOJ official to depart the Trump administration following Democrats' historic midterm wins, following Thursday's resignation by Trump ally Harmeet Dhillon from the department's Civil Rights Division.
Reding Quiñones is also the latest among several Trump-allied attorneys to step away from the so-called "grand conspiracy" probe launched by the DOJ to examine whether intelligence officials and other government actors organized in a criminal effort to violate President Trump's civil rights dating back to his 2016 campaign.
While the probe has ensnared numerous targets of President Trump in behind-the-scenes legal wrangling over subpoenas and grand jury testimony, it has thus far led to no criminal indictments in what sources have said is a source of frustration for President Trump and other top DOJ officials.
Reding Quinones' departure was seen as a foregone conclusion in recent weeks, according to sources, after DOJ leadership admonished him in private meetings for his lack of progress in the grand conspiracy investigation and his frequent trips to Washington, D.C.
"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 Reding Quinones' departure.
Eisenberg was previously one of the central figures in the Ukraine scandal that led to President Trump's impeachment during his first term in office. His office saw a significant reassigning of personnel directed away from cases and probes involving terrorism, espionage and foreign interference, and toward the Trump administration's immigration enforcement priorities.
The National Security Division was also involved in leading the classified documents prosecution of former national securioty adviser John Bolton for which Bolton pleaded guilty earlier this year -- as well as some of leak investigations that led to the subpoena of several journalists.
