Multiple Top Officials Exit Doj After Dems’ Midterm Wave

Attorney General Todd Blanche is shaking up the Justice Department’s senior ranks ahead of an expected clash with Congress and mounting frustration over a string of legal and political failures.

High-profile leaders resigned from the department Thursday and Friday, including Civil Rights Division chief Harmeet Dhillon, National Security Division chiefJohn Eisenberg and U.S. Attorney for Southern Florida Jason Reding Quiñones, who led prosecutors in the so-called “grand conspiracy” case President Donald Trump hoped to mount against his longtime adversaries.

Two people familiar with the personnel changes, granted anonymity to describe internal decision-making, said the departures were not surprising. One person said Blanche had grown frustrated with some of the department’s leadership amid struggles to bring high-profile indictments or score big wins in litigation connected to the president’s top priorities.

Dhillon, Eisenberg and Reding Quiñones didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. 

Justice Department spokesperson Kiersten Pels said in a statement the department “was lucky to have had those who have recently announced departures, all of whom contributed to making America safer.” Department officials declined to expand on the reason for the departures.

“The Department’s mission is unchanged: enforce the law, combat crime, and protect the American people,” she said.

Blanche praised Dhillon, Eisenberg and Reding Quiñones in social media posts announcing their resignations.

Henry Whitaker, a counselor to Blanche and veteran of legal battles over executive power, is also leaving DOJ. Patrick Davis, the Justice Department’s liaison to Capitol Hill, left the department late last month. Both were expected departures, one of the people said. Whitaker and Davis didn’t comment.

The thinning of DOJ’s upper ranks leaves the department without some of its most seasoned hands just as congressional Democrats are salivating at the chance to use their newly minted majority to probe the department’s most politically sensitive decisions, and the role Trump himself has played in driving them. Democrats have signaled they intend to probe DOJ’s controversial settlement in Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS over the leaking of his tax returns and “fraudulent and vindictive prosecutions” DOJ brought against Trump’s perceived political enemies.

And given their concerns, Trump could struggle to replace Senate-confirmed officials like Dhillon, Reding Quiñones and Eisenberg on a permanent basis. Senate Democrats in January will have the power to delay any confirmation, leaving the department to rely on acting appointees for those jobs.

The Justice Department has suffered a string of high-profile defeats in litigation central to Trump’s agenda and personal interests. Courts rejected dozens of lawsuits filed by Dhillon’s Civil Rights Division aimed at forcing states to fork over their voter rolls to the federal government — a series of losses that hamstrung the administration’s last-ditch effort to impose new ballot security procedures in the waning weeks of the election cycle.

Reding Quiñones’ Miami-based office was leading a wide-ranging probe of Trump adversaries the president has accused of improperly targeting him in the investigation of Russian election meddling in the 2016 election.

Despite months of hype and speculation about potentially sweeping indictments, little has come of the effort, and those leading it have largely either left the department or moved on to other priorities.

“It’s an incredibly consequential office that’s been decimated,” said Dan Gelber, a former federal prosecutor who now represents one of the targets of the so-called “grand conspiracy probe,” former CIA Director John Brennan. “The most experienced people have fled. The distraction posed by these political investigations has been incredible.”

One lawyer in Reding Quiñones’ office, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said the office welcomed his exit. “He oversaw a ton of departures, and morale has been super low here. I think the general mood of people here is very happy,” the person said.

Former U.S. Attorney for D.C., Joseph diGenova, who worked alongside Reding Quiñones on the politically charged investigation before resigning in September, offered praise for his former colleague.

“Jason Quiñones was one of the finest, most professional, ethical prosecutors I have ever worked with, a genuinely honorable man and I would work with him again,” diGenova said Friday.

Eisenberg’s office brought a criminal case against former national security adviser John Bolton, who struck a plea deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to retaining classified information.

Some of those departing were close to former Attorney General Pam Bondi and all assumed their posts early in her tenure.