Sign in Subscribe
Politics

Trump's prosecutor for the 'grand conspiracy' probe of his critics resigns. No one has been charged.

Jason Reding Quiñones ran the case from Miami for over a year as prosecutors quit and witnesses were put off.

Trump's prosecutor for the 'grand conspiracy' probe of his critics resigns. No one has been charged.
Stock photo. Photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash

Jason Reding Quiñones, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney in Miami who ran the Justice Department's so-called "grand conspiracy" investigation of the president's critics, resigned Friday. More than a year in, the probe has not charged anyone with the conspiracy it set out to prove.

Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the resignation on X on Nov. 6. He thanked Reding Quiñones for his work on "violent crime, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and transnational crime," including the indictment of former Cuban leader Raúl Castro. He said nothing about the grand conspiracy case, the job that made Reding Quiñones nationally known.

Officials in Washington had grown frustrated with how he managed the office assigned to the investigation, the Associated Press reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Neither Blanche nor Reding Quiñones gave a reason for his exit. In his own post, Reding Quiñones thanked President Trump "for his trust."

Who is Jason Reding Quiñones?

Reding Quiñones grew up in Miami-Dade County, the son of a Cuban political refugee, according to his Justice Department biography. He worked as a federal prosecutor in Virginia and South Florida and in the department's National Security Division, then served as a Miami-Dade trial judge hearing domestic violence cases. He is also a military reserve lawyer who was promoted to colonel in April.

After Trump nominated him, he became the first U.S. attorney the Senate confirmed in Trump's second term. Then-Attorney General Pam Bondi swore him in on Aug. 13, 2025, putting him in charge of federal prosecutions across South Florida.

What Trump's DOJ had him doing

The Justice Department made his district the home of a probe into whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired against Trump. Prosecutors were testing a theory that years of separate investigations into Trump, from the 2016 Russia inquiry through the Mar-a-Lago documents case, were one plot to deprive him of his civil rights, according to AP and NBC News. Much of the conduct under review is more than 10 years old.

The targets were Trump's best-known critics. Democracy Docket lists former FBI Director James Comey, former CIA Director John Brennan and former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson among them. In September, prosecutors subpoenaed Brennan to appear before a grand jury in Fort Pierce, Florida. His lawyer called it a "far-reaching" investigation.

The case kept losing people, starting inside Reding Quiñones' office. Two assistant U.S. attorneys were effectively pushed out after being asked to join the investigative team, and the office has seen significant attrition of veteran prosecutors, Bloomberg Law reported. Earlier this year, the lead career prosecutor was sidelined after she raised concerns about the strength of the evidence, CBS News reported. Joe diGenova, a former U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., brought in to lead the probe, quit in September without bringing charges. Kurt Olsen, a former White House lawyer known for efforts to overturn the 2020 election, left too. In recent weeks, investigators put off scheduled grand jury testimony from several witnesses, AP reported.

Blanche insisted in late October that "there's no frustration" with the probe's pace, according to CBS.

A wave of exits after the midterms

Reding Quiñones is the third Senate-confirmed Trump Justice Department official to leave since Democrats swept the midterms, Bloomberg Law reported. National Security Division head John Eisenberg also resigned Friday. Civil Rights Division chief Harmeet Dhillon stepped down Thursday. Her division's attempt to charge Hutchinson failed when a D.C. grand jury refused to indict.

Stacey Young, a former Justice Department lawyer who heads the group Justice Connection, told NBC News that Reding Quiñones "will forever be known as this president's Don Quixote."

What comes next

The probe isn't over. Yara Klukas, the office's first assistant U.S. attorney, will take over as acting U.S. attorney, and the department plans to keep the investigation going under her, Bloomberg Law reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Watch whether the Fort Pierce grand jury hears the postponed witnesses, and whether Klukas brings charges that Reding Quiñones and diGenova never did.

Sources

Read next

Comments ()