The dispute ended in a furious exchange.
Joe diGenova, a longtime ally of Donald Trump who was chosen to lead a sweeping “grand conspiracy” investigation in Florida’s Southern District, accused Attorney General Todd Blanche of interfering with the Justice Department’s own case.
Blanche appointed diGenova in April to investigate whether US intelligence and law enforcement officials—including former President Barack Obama’s CIA Director John Brennan—had been involved in a yearslong effort targeting Trump.
A source told Our News Outlet that Blanche sent several people from Washington to Florida weeks ago in an effort to “rein in” diGenova. DiGenova, in turn, accused the attorney general of obstructing the investigation.
According to the source, Blanche called diGenova earlier this month and the two exchanged angry words over the phone. A frustrated diGenova resigned soon afterward, the source said.
A report by CNN, citing two people familiar with the matter, said the “tense” conversation centered on diGenova’s refusal to allow attorneys from the Justice Department’s Washington headquarters to assist with the investigation, prompting his swift departure.
The Daily Mail also confirmed that tensions had intensified over diGenova’s unsuccessful request for a SCIF in Florida—a secure facility where classified information can be reviewed.
Asked about diGenova’s abrupt resignation at a recent White House press briefing, Blanche avoided offering a direct explanation.
“I don’t want to talk about communications I have with prosecutors. It’s not fair to them. It’s not fair to the process,” he said before quickly moving to another question.
The “grand conspiracy” investigation was launched to examine whether US intelligence and law enforcement officials were involved in a yearslong effort against Donald Trump
Attorney General Todd Blanche inherited the investigation from then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was dismissed earlier this year
Inside the Justice Department, however, the wave of headlines appeared to confirm what career officials had understood for months: The “grand conspiracy” investigation that has consumed the president’s attention, both publicly and privately, for much of the past six years is effectively on life support.
“This case was initiated to make the president and the public think something is happening down there, when in reality, it’s not,” one DOJ official said.
Another DOJ official disputed the claim that the Florida investigation had stalled or lacked backing from the department’s headquarters. The official declined to comment on the reported explosive call between Blanche and diGenova.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter and another lawyer traveled to Florida after diGenova’s departure to assess the investigation’s progress, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the matter.
This report is based on conversations with five current and former Justice Department officials, former prosecutors and others familiar with the investigation.
Sources told Our News Outlet that the probe in Miami had repeatedly run into dead ends in recent months.
CNN reported that Maria Medetis Long, a senior career prosecutor, was removed from the investigation earlier this year after raising concerns about the strength of the evidence. A group of Trump-aligned figures was then assigned to the case, including Kurt Olsen, a former White House official and 2020 election denier.
Olsen did not respond to Our News Outlet’s request for comment.
“There have been several prosecutors moved aside because they had the temerity to express that they did not want to move forward with this case,” Kenneth Wainstein, Brennan’s defense attorney, told a federal judge in Washington, DC, last week.
Wainstein also alleged in court that the Justice Department had made “intentional efforts” to conceal possible misconduct in what he described as a “far-reaching” investigation. He cited Long’s removal and the appointment of prosecutors loyal to Trump.
“There’s a lot of really underhanded stuff going on” in these investigations, Wainstein said.
The investigation’s failure to make progress in Florida’s Southern District was among the factors contributing to Bondi’s removal as attorney general earlier this year, as Our News Outlet previously reported.
People familiar with Blanche’s thinking said that was why he installed a Trump loyalist to lead the investigation.
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The setup created distance between Blanche’s office and a politically explosive case, allowing him to direct questions about its progress to diGenova.
Until this past week, one person said, the Justice Department’s only intervention had been “to keep Kurt Olsen from seeing sensitive [classified] information.”
Blanche, the person added, “does not want to touch this case at all.”
In public, however, Blanche has maintained that the investigation remains active.
Attorney Joe diGenova, a longtime Trump ally, was selected to lead the investigation in Florida’s Southern District
Any investigations diGenova had been overseeing, Blanche said this week, are “not going to slow down just because somebody leaves.”
His office said Jason Quinones, the US attorney for the Southern District of Florida and a staunch Trump supporter, would take charge with “support” from the Justice Department.
The extent of that support remains uncertain. No grand jury has yet been convened.
“They are going to churn, and I don’t even think they’ll have something to present to a grand jury,” said Harry Litman, who served as deputy assistant attorney general from 1993 to 1998.
“The ‘grand conspiracy’ is a fiction. You can’t think of another case like this ‘grand conspiracy’ to deny Trump his civil rights because there’s never been any case like it,” Wainstein said.
Many of the actions under examination date back roughly a decade and involve multiple agencies that investigated Trump, his presidential campaign or people in his orbit.
It remains unclear how prosecutors could establish alleged criminal conduct, much less a “grand” or “great” conspiracy—neither of which is a standalone crime under the US criminal code.
Blanche, according to Our News Outlet, sent officials to Florida in an effort to “rein in” diGenova
“There’s no such thing as ‘great conspiracy,’” Litman said. “It’s a wet dream for MAGA folks.”
He described it as an attempt to link a loose and highly speculative conspiracy to various people, comparing it to theories such as Pizzagate.
Pizzagate was a debunked conspiracy theory alleging that a pedophile network involving senior Democratic Party officials operated from the basement of a Washington, DC, pizza restaurant.
“It either goes totally nowhere, due to the impossibility of moving beyond the subpoena phase, or it goes to a place where it’s going to, you know, crash and burn right after [an] indictment,” he added.
Brennan, who has characterized the campaign against him as one of “harassment,” has filed a countersuit in Washington seeking to preserve records connected to the cases involving him.
The Daily Mail contacted Brennan’s attorney for comment.
What remains is a politically charged investigation that has yet to produce significant results.
“No one wants to talk about this case right now,” diGenova told Our News Outlet by phone. He did not comment on the circumstances of his sudden departure.
Sources familiar with the investigation have expressed the same view repeatedly in recent months.
One senior DOJ official offered a blunt summary: “No one wants to touch this with a 10-foot pole.”
