Joe diGenova, the Justice Department prosecutor overseeing a wide-ranging investigation involving former government officials and investigations targeting President Donald Trump, abruptly resigned Thursday.
DiGenova confirmed his departure in a phone interview, saying he submitted a resignation letter directly to Attorney General Todd Blanche.
“I did resign today by letter to the attorney general,” diGenova said. “I said that it was a privilege and an honor to serve the president and the department, and I was very grateful.”
His resignation creates new uncertainty around a Florida-based investigation that has examined allegations involving former Obama administration officials and law enforcement and intelligence investigations connected to Trump. Reuters independently confirmed diGenova’s resignation Thursday.
DiGenova, 81, is a former U.S. attorney and longtime Trump ally who previously served on Trump’s legal team. He took control of the investigation earlier this year.
The probe has examined the intelligence community’s assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, as well as other federal investigations involving Trump. No criminal charges have resulted from diGenova’s investigation to date.
Sources cited by the New York Post claimed diGenova had recently lost support among senior Justice Department officials and inside the White House.
One source accused the veteran prosecutor of “slow-rolling” potential indictments and becoming distracted by investigative “rabbit holes.”
DiGenova strongly rejected suggestions that his reluctance to pursue charges reflected a lack of focus.
“If you want indictments where there’s no evidence, you have an ethical problem,” he responded.
Another source claimed diGenova had created “unrealistic expectations” about what the investigation could ultimately produce, leading to a confrontation with Blanche.
Several prosecutors who had been dispatched from the Justice Department’s headquarters in Washington were also reportedly sidelined after arriving to assist with the investigation.
The investigation began in the South Florida US Attorney’s Office in August 2025 and later expanded to include subpoenas targeting several prominent former intelligence and law enforcement officials.
Former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page were among those who received subpoenas, according to the report.
A source said investigators have also brought witnesses before a grand jury in recent weeks, telling the Post that “a lot of people are being brought in.”
Reuters reported that the probe has examined several separate matters involving Trump, including the 2017 intelligence assessment on Russian election interference, the FBI’s 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago and investigations surrounding efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Some Trump allies have argued that actions by former intelligence and law enforcement officials should result in criminal charges. Brennan and other former officials scrutinized during the investigation have denied wrongdoing.
Questions have also been raised about whether the disparate matters under examination could legally be combined into a broader conspiracy case and whether Florida would be the appropriate jurisdiction for potential charges.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe previously referred Brennan to the FBI for criminal investigation following the release of a review examining how the intelligence community produced its 2016 assessment on Russian interference, per the New York Post.
Trump allies have pointed to recently released records and congressional findings as evidence supporting further investigation of how the Russia assessment and subsequent probes were handled.
DiGenova’s departure leaves the future leadership and direction of the investigation unclear at a time when grand jury activity was reportedly underway and officials had already issued dozens of subpoenas.
