An ally of Donald Trump said on Thursday that he had resigned from his post leading a Department of Justice investigation into whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired against the Republican president.
The departure injects instant tumult into an investigation targeting former government officials who have investigated 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,” Joe diGenova told the Associated Press, calling it an “honor and a privilege” to serve Trump and the justice department.
Though diGenova declined to comment 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. The Florida-based investigation has proceeded in fits and starts since its inception a year ago, with its contours loosely defined, though it had shown recent signs of activity with new subpoenas demanding testimony before a federal grand jury.
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.”
A spokesperson for the justice department did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
The 81-year-old diGenova served as the US attorney for the District of Columbia during the Reagan administration. A close Trump ally, he was brought back to the justice department in April and given responsibility for an investigation aimed at trying to establish a conspiracy against Trump.
DiGenova had previously asked the then US attorney general, Pam Bondi, to appoint him to the job and had openly and repeatedly claimed Trump was the victim of an intelligence community conspiracy.
But 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.
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The investigation has focused intensely on one of Trump’s chief grievances: a US intelligence community assessment that Russia had interfered on his behalf in the 2016 presidential election.
The president and some of his supporters have long decried that conclusion as a “deep state” plot to undermine the legitimacy of his win. Multiple government investigations, including by a justice department special counsel and by the department’s own inspector general, have concluded that Russia interfered in sweeping fashion to help get Trump elected.
The year-long investigation had proceeded in fits and starts well before diGenova’s appointment, which was announced soon after a career national security prosecutor who had been playing a key role in the investigation was replaced on the inquiry after raising doubts about its legal viability.
