South Florida U.S. attorney resigns amid grand conspiracy probe

Jason Reding Quiñones, the top federal prosecutor in South Florida, resigned Friday while his office was overseeing a Justice Department investigation into whether former U.S. officials conspired against President Donald Trump through earlier investigations of him. The inquiry, known as the “grand conspiracy” probe, has not produced charges establishing such a conspiracy.

Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the resignation on X but gave no reason for Quiñones’ departure. He praised the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida for his work against violent crime and trafficking, as well as transnational crime, including the indictment of former Cuban leader Raúl Castro.

Quiñones thanked Trump for the opportunity to serve and called his work alongside colleagues in the district “the privilege of a lifetime.” He wrote: “I leave with immense pride in what we accomplished together and profound gratitude for the opportunity to serve our great nation.”

The Fort Pierce-based investigation is examining a theory that officials under the Obama and Biden administrations used criminal and intelligence investigations to keep Trump out of office. According to NBC News, prosecutors have sought to connect actions dating to the 2016 campaign with investigations led years later by special counsel Jack Smith. Those investigations resulted in charges, since dismissed, over Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss and his handling of classified documents found during a 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago. Trump denied the charges.

CBS News reported that the probe is also examining whether former CIA Director John Brennan lied to Congress about the agency’s role in producing an assessment that Russia tried to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. The investigation has involved extensive grand jury activity, CBS News reported, but has not established the alleged overarching conspiracy through criminal charges.

Quiñones’ resignation follows other departures from the inquiry. Joe diGenova, who worked under him, left in September after a dispute over its management. “Everybody was in their lane, and then some lanes got crossed, and then I decided to leave,” diGenova told NBC News. CBS News reported that diGenova and Quiñones resisted an effort by senior Justice Department leaders to send two attorneys to Florida to help manage the case. Former White House attorney Kurt Olsen also left the investigation, according to CBS News.

In late October, Blanche told reporters that Quiñones “always has been in charge” of the inquiry and played down the departures. “We’re going to let that investigation continue as it should,” he said.

Quiñones’ exit came a day after Harmeet Dhillon resigned as head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. NBC News reported that her division had attempted to bring a case against former White House official Cassidy Hutchinson, but the administration failed to obtain an indictment.

Beyond the conspiracy inquiry, CBS News reported that Quiñones established a task force focused on investigations involving Cuban government officials. His office also oversaw the prosecution of Castro and five others in connection with the Cuban military’s fatal downing of two planes 30 years ago.