Exclusive: Tense phone call and resignation upend Justice Department probe into Trump’s top foes

By Evan Perez, Katelyn Polantz, CNN

(CNN) — The Justice Department’s push to pursue a sweeping conspiracy probe into former officials behind investigations targeting President Donald Trump has descended into turmoil and possibly new delays following the abrupt resignation of the top prosecutor overseeing the probe.

Joe diGenova, the Washington lawyer and former top prosecutor leading the South Florida-based investigation, resigned a day after a tense phone call Wednesday with Attorney General Todd Blanche, according to two people familiar with the matter. The final clash centered on diGenova’s effort to block lawyers dispatched by Justice Department headquarters from assisting the probe, following broader disagreements with top Justice officials over its pace.

Among the disputes that added to tensions between diGenova and his bosses in Washington was diGenova’s request for a high-security room known as a SCIF to be built at the Fort Pierce office, to make it easier for the prosecution team to store highly classified materials, two people familiar with the investigation told CNN. The team worked in an office with a special room where sensitive, but not the highest-classified, evidence could be handled. Justice Department officials told diGenova he and his team should use a SCIF at an FBI office miles away, two people familiar with the investigation told CNN.

DiGenova also pressed for more lawyers for his team. Justice officials pushed back on any claims that he was denied resources, according to two people familiar with the investigation.

For more than a year, Justice Department officials have pushed to bring criminal charges against former CIA Director John Brennan, who is accused of making false statements to Congress and has been the subject of the president’s ire for years. Since diGenova joined the probe in April, he’s chosen to pursue a broader set of charges against several of Trump’s political critics — including Brennan — who were involved in investigations of him over the past decade.

DiGenova resigned Thursday on what was a busy day for the inquiry, as investigators were presenting a witness for testimony to a grand jury in the probe, one of Trump’s top priorities, a person familiar with the matter told CNN. DiGenova’s abrupt departure could mean more delays in an investigation that has stumbled past internal expectations of charges earlier this year. More recently, officials at Justice Department headquarters had anticipated possibly seeing the first charges to come as soon as this month, CNN previously reported.

With diGenova gone, Justice Department officials feel confident in the team and expect to see momentum pick up, a US law enforcement official said.

DiGenova declined comment beyond what he told CNN last week, calling it a privilege to serve the president and the Justice Department and adding: “As an old prosecutor of more than 50 years, I make cases the old fashioned way: witnesses, evidence, etc. That takes time.”

Career prosecutors running the investigation balked at bringing the case, and prepared a legal analysis that raised concerns about insufficient evidence to sustain a prosecution. Top Justice Department officials disagreed and, in April, pushed aside Maria Medetis Long, the career prosecutor in charge.

DiGenova took over the probe and chose to pursue a broader set of charges against Trump’s political critics who were involved in investigations of him over the past decade.

As diGenova envisioned it, the probe would examine possible crimes associated with government investigations into Trump stretching as far back as the 2016 Russian election interference inquiry and culminating with the federal charges against Trump in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot and the Mar-a-Lago classified documents cases.

A sweeping probe beyond Brennan

Despite the behind-the scenes disputes, investigative activity appeared to have intensified in recent weeks, with a flurry of subpoenas issued to witnesses seeking documents and, in some cases, for grand jury testimony, according to eight people familiar with the matter.

A day after diGenova’s resignation, Justice Department lawyers explained the active investigations to Brennan’s attorney’s, according to a new court filing.

They said there were multiple grand jury investigations and a ‘“far-reaching’ investigation in Fort Pierce [Florida] that includes ‘issues at Mar-a-Lago and beyond’ into whether President Trump had his civil rights violated,” the court filing said.

Kenneth Wainstein, Brennan’s attorney, wrote to a judge in DC that this exchange happened with longtime 2020 election denier Kurt Olsen and three other prosecutors who had been working with diGenova on the probe.

On the day of diGenova’s resignation, Brennan received a subpoena demanding that he testify to a grand jury in Fort Pierce in mid-October, Brennan’s lawyers said in a court filing Monday.

They say diGenova had signed the subpoena. Olsen then told Brennan’s team he was still a target in the narrower false statement investigation, according to the court filing.

In addition to Brennan, diGenova’s team recently contacted mid- to senior-level former government employees who also would have had insight into the FBI’s role in the investigation into Trump’s ties to Russia’s 2016 election interference.

At the time, that group of employees had access to top leadership in the investigation such as then-FBI Director James Comey, another Trump foe and possible target of diGenova’s work, the people said.

One grand jury subpoena, seeking the testimony of former FBI lawyer and longtime Trump foe Lisa Page, went out last week. Another grand jury testimonial subpoena went to lawyer Dan Richman, a close contact of Comey in 2016 and 2017 — when the Russia probe was active.

A former supervisor in the FBI’s Russia investigation also recently sat for an interview with diGenova’s investigators for several hours in one day, having been given immunity by prosecutors, four people with knowledge told CNN.

Representatives for each of those witnesses declined to comment to CNN.

Other witnesses in diGenova’s probe, who worked at lower levels in the CIA and intelligence, were also recently interviewed by diGenova’s team recently. Those interviews were largely about the intelligence community’s assessment of the 2016 election and the leadership of Brennan, the sources said.

The types of witnesses contacted and the questions some have been asked highlight how wide-ranging diGenova’s approach to the “grand conspiracy” has been, the sources also said.

Some investigators have looked into intelligence around the Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016 and the public perception of Trump’s relationship to Russia — both topics that have angered Trump for years, some sources said.

But at least one witness in recent weeks received outreach from the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida because of their work on the 2023 search of Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago. That inquiry appears to have widened the timeline of what diGenova’s team was asking about over the past month, bringing their questions closer to the present day.

A repeated criticism and likely legal challenge with diGenova’s investigation has been how it stretches back to events of 10 years ago, which would be outside the window of time in which charges could have been brought, and have little connection to South Florida, where a grand jury has met.

Some of the interviews have closely adhered to past inquiries revisiting the FBI’s 2016 Russia investigation, called “Crossfire Hurricane,” the sources said. Years ago, lengthy investigations on the government’s approach were done by special prosecutor John Durham, the inspector general of the Justice Department, and by Capitol Hill investigators.

This story has been updated to include new reporting from a Monday court filing.

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