Prosecutor of Trump Foes Resigns       09/11 06:12

   

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- An ally of President Donald Trump said Thursday that he 
has resigned from his post leading a Justice Department investigation into 
whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired against the 
Republican president.

   The departure of Joe diGenova injects instant tumult into an investigation 
targeting former government officials who have scrutinized Trump over the last 
decade, including in connection with Russian interference in the 2016 
presidential election and his retention of classified documents at his 
Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

   "I did in fact resign," diGenova told The Associated Press, calling it an 
"honor and a privilege" to serve Trump and the Justice Department.

   Though diGenova declined to comment to the AP on the circumstances of his 
resignation, a person familiar with the matter who insisted on anonymity to 
discuss a personnel decision said the departure came amid mounting frustration 
from the Justice Department and White House over the pace and management of the 
probe.

   In an interview later with The New York Post, diGenova responded to 
criticism of his management of the investigation by saying, "If you want 
indictments where there's no evidence, you have an ethical problem."

   When reached again by the AP, diGenova said the comments were taken out of 
context, adding: "There's plenty of evidence in all of these cases to prove the 
theories of prosecution. It just takes time to get there, and some people want 
to get there a little faster than others -- and you can't do that."

   The investigation has always been something of a tall order, aiming to 
present separate and unrelated inquiries of the president as part an anti-Trump 
conspiracy by law enforcement and intelligence professionals. Though promoted 
by the White House, and seized on by Trump supporters looking for 
accountability against what they see as "deep state" intelligence community 
actors, the conspiracy investigation has proceeded in fits and starts since its 
inception a year ago.

   The 81-year-old diGenova served as the U.S. attorney for the District of 
Columbia during the Reagan administration and for years has been a prominent 
Trump ally, including backing his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss 
and publicly and repeatedly claiming that the president was the victim of an 
intelligence community conspiracy.

   He was brought back to the Justice Department in April and given the reins 
of the loosely defined investigation.

   Five months later, no charges have been brought and it remains unclear 
whether any will be, or what information has been gathered to support any basis 
for the idea of a plot against Trump by the government officials who 
investigated him.

   Investigators have sought interviews related to the 2022 FBI search that 
recovered classified documents from Mar-a-Lago and have also focused intensely 
on one of Trump's chief grievances: a U.S. intelligence community assessment 
that Russia interfered on his behalf in the 2016 presidential election. The 
assessment has long infuriated the president, along with a Justice Department 
special counsel investigation into Russian election interference that shadowed 
him during his first term.

   That special counsel investigation identified widespread Russian 
interference in the election but did not find evidence to prove a criminal 
conspiracy between Moscow and the Trump campaign. Multiple other government 
inquiries, including by the Justice Department inspector general, have 
identified significant errors and omissions in the FBI's handling of the 
Trump-Russia probe but did not find evidence of criminal conduct by senior law 
enforcement officials.

   The yearlong conspiracy investigation has hit stumbles before. Last April, a 
lead national security prosecutor in the investigation of former CIA Director 
John Brennan was replaced on the team after raising questions about the 
strength of the case. Days later, diGenova was sworn in.

   Brennan has been investigated on allegations that he lied to Congress about 
the creation of the intelligence community assessment, which he and his lawyers 
have vigorously denied. In July, he sued the Justice Department for a court 
order requiring the preservation of all records from the investigation, 
forecasting plans to challenge any potential indictment of him on vindictive 
prosecution grounds.