Her successor?\u00a0CNN reported Saturday<\/a>\u00a0that the DOJ has brought in Joseph diGenova, an 81-year-old attorney, longtime Trump surrogate, Fox News and Newsmax regular, and member of Trump\u2019s 2020 election-overturn legal team, to take over as \u201ccounselor to the attorney general\u201d on the Brennan investigation. He will be working out of Fort Pierce, Florida.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re wondering why Fort Pierce specifically\u2026 well, that\u2019s where Judge Aileen Cannon sits. Yes,\u00a0that<\/em>\u00a0Judge Cannon. The same judge who dismissed Jack Smith\u2019s classified documents indictment of Trump on Appointments Clause grounds \u2014 a ruling that, as we\u2019ll discuss, has some uncomfortable implications for the current situation.<\/p>\n The DOJ spokesperson, when asked about removing a seasoned career prosecutor from one of the country\u2019s most sensitive political cases, described it as \u201chealthy and normal.\u201d That\u2019s\u2026 one way to describe swapping out the lead prosecutor on a case because she concluded there wasn\u2019t enough evidence.<\/p>\n The investigation stems from\u00a0a 2023 referral from the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee<\/a>, specifically, from Chairman Jim Jordan, alleging that Brennan lied to Congress about whether the CIA relied on the so-called Steele dossier when drafting the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment that found Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help Trump. Brennan denies it. The Steele dossier, for the uninitiated, contained salacious and largely unverified allegations against then-candidate Trump, and conservatives have spent years arguing it was the shadowy engine that drove the entire Russia investigation. That claim is, to put it mildly, disputed.<\/p>\n This is not a new grievance for Trump \u2014 it\u2019s one of his longest-standing political obsessions. For months, the DOJ has been pursuing charges against Brennan with increasing urgency, particularly after\u00a0Trump fired Pam Bondi as Attorney General in part because of frustration <\/a>that she hadn\u2019t successfully prosecuted enough political enemies.<\/p>\n Running the department now is Todd Blanche, Trump\u2019s former personal defense attorney who, at his first press conference as acting AG, told reporters the DOJ was not focused on going after Trump\u2019s political opponents, while literally overseeing a sprawling set of investigations into Trump\u2019s political opponents.\u00a0NBC News noted<\/a>\u00a0that Blanche has publicly stated Trump has \u201cthe right to be involved in seeking investigations against people he has had issues with.\u201d That framing alone drew sharp criticism from legal ethics experts.<\/p>\n So, who *is* diGenova? DiGenova represented Trump\u2019s campaign in its efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, and has spent years on cable news calling John Brennan a\u00a0\u201creal traitor\u201d<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and demanding criminal charges against him, which makes him a choice<\/em> for the prosecutor overseeing the case against Brennan. He also, in 2020, said on television<\/a> that Christopher Krebs \u2014 the cybersecurity official who confirmed the election was secure \u2014 should be\u00a0\u201cdrawn and quartered\u201d and \u201cshot.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0He later apologized after Krebs alleged the comments inspired death threats against him.<\/p>\n He has not worked as a prosecutor in decades \u2014 his last stint was as U.S. Attorney for D.C. under Reagan in the 1980s, and he did a few counsel investigations in the 90s. His wife, Victoria Toensing<\/a>, is also a prominent pro-Trump legal commentator<\/a>, which is very normal for someone now heading a major federal investigation.<\/p>\n The last time Trump demanded prosecutions of political enemies, installed a loyalist to bring them, and bypassed the concerns of career prosecutors, the results were catastrophic for the administration\u2019s legal credibility.\u00a0Erik Siebert, the (now former) U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, stood by his career lawyers\u2019 judgment<\/a> that the cases against James Comey and Letitia James lacked sufficient evidence. Trump fired him. Lindsey Halligan, installed as a loyalist replacement, promptly secured indictments against both.<\/p>\n But it wasn\u2019t a happy ending for MAGAland. A federal judge went on to throw both cases out, concluding that Halligan had been unlawfully appointed.\u00a0The result was worse than no prosecution at all\u00a0\u2014 a public embarrassment that handed critics a ready-made argument about politicized justice, and let both Comey and James walk away looking like victims.<\/p>\n The formal legal authority and office structure for diGenova\u2019s title have not been publicly detailed.\u00a0Given that Judge Cannon herself \u2014 the very judge in whose courthouse this grand jury sits \u2014 previously dismissed an indictment because she concluded the appointment of a special prosecutor violated the Appointments Clause, defense lawyers in the Brennan case already have a well-lit roadmap for a constitutional challenge that could<\/em> unwind any indictment diGenova might produce. Of course, Cannon is more political hack than disciplined jurist<\/a>, should it come to it, don\u2019t hold your breath expecting her to apply the made-up standard in a way that hurts Trump\u2019s personal priorities.<\/p>\n Maria Medetis Long was not a political appointee. She was not a \u201cresistance\u201d figure. She was a career national security prosecutor in Miami \u2014 someone who had spent years working these cases \u2014 and she told her superiors, professionally, that she didn\u2019t think there was enough evidence to bring charges. That judgment was not rewarded with a respectful disagreement. It was punished with removal.<\/p>\n The message that sends to every career federal prosecutor still at the Department \u2014 and it\u2019s not subtle \u2014 is that the professional standard is no longer \u201cfollow the evidence.\u201d It is \u201creach the conclusion leadership wants, or be replaced by someone who will.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier:<\/strong> The Courts Did Their Job. Will The State Bar Finally Do Something About Lindsey Halligan?<\/a><\/p>\n Lindsey Halligan Resolves To Embarrass Herself At SCOTUS In 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Botched No Bill For Tish James Reveals Halligan\u2019s Case Is Bullshit<\/a><\/p>\n Lindsey Halligan Humiliated In Court. Again.<\/a><\/p>\n Lindsey Halligan Manages To Lose Two Cases At Once, Which Is Honestly Impressive<\/a><\/p>\n Lindsey Halligan\u2019s Day In Court<\/a><\/p>\n Lindsey Halligan\u2019s Math Ain\u2019t Mathin\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Comey Files Motions To Dismiss For MA\u2019AM DO YOU EVEN LAW?<\/a><\/p>\n The Tish James Indictment Looks Like Country-Fried BS<\/a><\/p>\n James Comey Taps Small Law To Defend Him Against Witch Hunt<\/a><\/p>\n The post Meet The New Prosecutor On The Brennan Case. He Already Called The Defendant A \u2018Real Traitor.\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s talk about a pattern, because at this point it\u2019s too clear to ignore.<\/p>\n You\u2019re a career federal prosecutor. You\u2019ve been handed a politically charged case \u2014 one the president of the United States has loudly demanded result in criminal charges against a high-profile political enemy. You review the evidence. You conclude, professionally and in good faith, that the evidence doesn\u2019t support charges. You tell your superiors. You get fired.<\/p>\n Then a loyalist comes in and charges the target anyway, which gets unraveled by the application of basic legal standards.<\/p>\n We have watched this happen already. And now, it looks like the Department of Justice wants to run it back.<\/p>\n CNN reported Friday<\/a>\u00a0that Maria Medetis Long, the career national security prosecutor in Miami who had been leading the criminal investigation into former CIA Director John Brennan, was removed from the case. The reason?\u00a0The Associated Press confirmed<\/a>\u00a0she had told her superiors she didn\u2019t believe there was sufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution. <\/p>\n Her successor?\u00a0CNN reported Saturday<\/a>\u00a0that the DOJ has brought in Joseph diGenova, an 81-year-old attorney, longtime Trump surrogate, Fox News and Newsmax regular, and member of Trump\u2019s 2020 election-overturn legal team, to take over as \u201ccounselor to the attorney general\u201d on the Brennan investigation. He will be working out of Fort Pierce, Florida.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re wondering why Fort Pierce specifically\u2026 well, that\u2019s where Judge Aileen Cannon sits. Yes,\u00a0that<\/em>\u00a0Judge Cannon. The same judge who dismissed Jack Smith\u2019s classified documents indictment of Trump on Appointments Clause grounds \u2014 a ruling that, as we\u2019ll discuss, has some uncomfortable implications for the current situation.<\/p>\n The DOJ spokesperson, when asked about removing a seasoned career prosecutor from one of the country\u2019s most sensitive political cases, described it as \u201chealthy and normal.\u201d That\u2019s\u2026 one way to describe swapping out the lead prosecutor on a case because she concluded there wasn\u2019t enough evidence.<\/p>\n The investigation stems from\u00a0a 2023 referral from the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee<\/a>, specifically, from Chairman Jim Jordan, alleging that Brennan lied to Congress about whether the CIA relied on the so-called Steele dossier when drafting the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment that found Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help Trump. Brennan denies it. The Steele dossier, for the uninitiated, contained salacious and largely unverified allegations against then-candidate Trump, and conservatives have spent years arguing it was the shadowy engine that drove the entire Russia investigation. That claim is, to put it mildly, disputed.<\/p>\n This is not a new grievance for Trump \u2014 it\u2019s one of his longest-standing political obsessions. For months, the DOJ has been pursuing charges against Brennan with increasing urgency, particularly after\u00a0Trump fired Pam Bondi as Attorney General in part because of frustration <\/a>that she hadn\u2019t successfully prosecuted enough political enemies.<\/p>\n Running the department now is Todd Blanche, Trump\u2019s former personal defense attorney who, at his first press conference as acting AG, told reporters the DOJ was not focused on going after Trump\u2019s political opponents, while literally overseeing a sprawling set of investigations into Trump\u2019s political opponents.\u00a0NBC News noted<\/a>\u00a0that Blanche has publicly stated Trump has \u201cthe right to be involved in seeking investigations against people he has had issues with.\u201d That framing alone drew sharp criticism from legal ethics experts.<\/p>\n So, who *is* diGenova? DiGenova represented Trump\u2019s campaign in its efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, and has spent years on cable news calling John Brennan a\u00a0\u201creal traitor\u201d<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and demanding criminal charges against him, which makes him a choice<\/em> for the prosecutor overseeing the case against Brennan. He also, in 2020, said on television<\/a> that Christopher Krebs \u2014 the cybersecurity official who confirmed the election was secure \u2014 should be\u00a0\u201cdrawn and quartered\u201d and \u201cshot.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0He later apologized after Krebs alleged the comments inspired death threats against him.<\/p>\n He has not worked as a prosecutor in decades \u2014 his last stint was as U.S. Attorney for D.C. under Reagan in the 1980s, and he did a few counsel investigations in the 90s. His wife, Victoria Toensing<\/a>, is also a prominent pro-Trump legal commentator<\/a>, which is very normal for someone now heading a major federal investigation.<\/p>\n The last time Trump demanded prosecutions of political enemies, installed a loyalist to bring them, and bypassed the concerns of career prosecutors, the results were catastrophic for the administration\u2019s legal credibility.\u00a0Erik Siebert, the (now former) U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, stood by his career lawyers\u2019 judgment<\/a> that the cases against James Comey and Letitia James lacked sufficient evidence. Trump fired him. Lindsey Halligan, installed as a loyalist replacement, promptly secured indictments against both.<\/p>\n But it wasn\u2019t a happy ending for MAGAland. A federal judge went on to throw both cases out, concluding that Halligan had been unlawfully appointed.\u00a0The result was worse than no prosecution at all\u00a0\u2014 a public embarrassment that handed critics a ready-made argument about politicized justice, and let both Comey and James walk away looking like victims.<\/p>\n The formal legal authority and office structure for diGenova\u2019s title have not been publicly detailed.\u00a0Given that Judge Cannon herself \u2014 the very judge in whose courthouse this grand jury sits \u2014 previously dismissed an indictment because she concluded the appointment of a special prosecutor violated the Appointments Clause, defense lawyers in the Brennan case already have a well-lit roadmap for a constitutional challenge that could<\/em> unwind any indictment diGenova might produce. Of course, Cannon is more political hack than disciplined jurist<\/a>, should it come to it, don\u2019t hold your breath expecting her to apply the made-up standard in a way that hurts Trump\u2019s personal priorities.<\/p>\n Maria Medetis Long was not a political appointee. She was not a \u201cresistance\u201d figure. She was a career national security prosecutor in Miami \u2014 someone who had spent years working these cases \u2014 and she told her superiors, professionally, that she didn\u2019t think there was enough evidence to bring charges. That judgment was not rewarded with a respectful disagreement. It was punished with removal.<\/p>\n The message that sends to every career federal prosecutor still at the Department \u2014 and it\u2019s not subtle \u2014 is that the professional standard is no longer \u201cfollow the evidence.\u201d It is \u201creach the conclusion leadership wants, or be replaced by someone who will.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier:<\/strong> The Courts Did Their Job. Will The State Bar Finally Do Something About Lindsey Halligan?<\/a><\/p>\n Lindsey Halligan Resolves To Embarrass Herself At SCOTUS In 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Botched No Bill For Tish James Reveals Halligan\u2019s Case Is Bullshit<\/a><\/p>\n Lindsey Halligan Humiliated In Court. Again.<\/a><\/p>\n Lindsey Halligan Manages To Lose Two Cases At Once, Which Is Honestly Impressive<\/a><\/p>\n Lindsey Halligan\u2019s Day In Court<\/a><\/p>\n Lindsey Halligan\u2019s Math Ain\u2019t Mathin\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Comey Files Motions To Dismiss For MA\u2019AM DO YOU EVEN LAW?<\/a><\/p>\n The Tish James Indictment Looks Like Country-Fried BS<\/a><\/p>\n James Comey Taps Small Law To Defend Him Against Witch Hunt<\/a><\/p>\n Let\u2019s talk about a pattern, because at this point it\u2019s too clear to ignore. You\u2019re a career federal prosecutor. You\u2019ve been handed a politically charged case \u2014 one the president of the United States has loudly demanded result in criminal charges against a high-profile political enemy. You review the evidence. You conclude, professionally and in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":149306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-NiCitm.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/06\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568.jpg?resize=174%2C160&ssl=1\" "\\"\\"")
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky @Kathryn1<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-1174107410-300x200.jpg?resize=300%2C200&ssl=1\" "\\"\\"")
\nKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky @Kathryn1<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"