The fallout from Republicans’ crushing midterm defeat is already reaching the Justice Department. Three high-profile officials have now resigned, including the federal prosecutor who oversaw one of Donald Trump’s most politically charged efforts to investigate his perceived enemies.
Jason Reding Quiñones, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, resigned Friday after a troubled tenure overseeing what Trump allies called a “grand conspiracy” investigation targeting officials involved in earlier investigations of the president.
He joins John Eisenberg, who led the Justice Department’s National Security Division and also resigned Friday, and Harmeet Dhillon, the head of the Civil Rights Division, who announced her departure Thursday, The New York Times reports.
The departures came immediately after Democrats swept the midterms and took control of Congress, setting the stage for aggressive oversight and investigations into the Trump administration.
The Prosecutor Behind Trump’s ‘Grand Conspiracy’ Investigation Is Out
Quiñones was at the center of an effort to build a sweeping case against former government officials who investigated Trump and his 2016 presidential campaign.
The so-called “grand conspiracy” inquiry was supposed to examine alleged wrongdoing by officials involved in the Russia investigation and other probes of Trump between 2016 and 2024.
But despite promises that the investigation could produce a major case within months, it failed to deliver the criminal charges Trump allies had been anticipating.
According to people familiar with the situation, Justice Department leadership had become increasingly frustrated with Quiñones, not only over the lack of progress on the politically sensitive investigation but also over his management of one of the department’s most important U.S. attorney’s offices.
The Southern District of Florida handles major drug-trafficking, gang, and national security investigations. Yet Quiñones was reportedly viewed by some colleagues as ineffective and had increasingly been sidelined from sensitive matters, with senior Justice Department deputy Aakash Singh taking over much of that work.
Attorney General Todd Blanche announced Quiñones’s departure on social media Friday. His statement praised the prosecutor’s work on violent crime, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, transnational crime, and the indictment of former Cuban President Raúl Castro.
Notably absent was any mention of the grand conspiracy investigation.
The other departures add to the growing shake-up inside a Justice Department that has spent Trump’s second term pursuing an aggressive agenda shaped by the president’s priorities.
Eisenberg, who headed the National Security Division, resigned Friday. His departure leaves another major leadership vacancy at a department already facing questions about its direction and its handling of politically sensitive investigations.
Dhillon’s exit came a day earlier.
As head of the Civil Rights Division, she oversaw a sweeping transformation of the department’s traditional civil rights priorities, including a major shift toward the administration’s agenda on diversity programs, transgender policies, religious issues, and election-related investigations.
Her tenure also saw a massive departure of career attorneys from the division.
Dhillon has said she planned to return to private practice and had informed the White House of her intention to leave before the midterms. She said she agreed to remain until after Election Day.
Democrats Are About to Have a Much Bigger Say
The departures come as Democrats prepare to take control of Congress, giving them subpoena power, investigative authority, and a much stronger position to scrutinize the Trump administration.
That could make the next two years particularly uncomfortable for officials who played central roles in the administration’s most controversial legal and political initiatives.
Even after leaving government, former officials could still face congressional questions about their decisions and the operations they oversaw.
The resignations could also create a confirmation headache for the White House. With Democrats controlling the Senate, installing permanent replacements for senior positions could become considerably more difficult. Trump can still rely on acting officials in many roles, but that is not the same as having a fully staffed leadership team.
And for the prosecutor who was supposed to help deliver Trump’s long-promised reckoning with his political enemies, the departure comes without the blockbuster conspiracy case his investigation was expected to produce.
