DELORENZ C J
---
---
NYT 4 20 26
As a sprawling inquiry expands into whether former federal officials committed crimes in investigating President Trump, two unusual factors could ease the way toward securing the indictments he craves.
A former lawyer for Mr. Trump’s campaign, Joseph diGenova, has been selected to lead the inquiry after a career prosecutor in Miami was removed from that post this week, a senior law enforcement official said on Saturday.
And at least part of the investigation appears to be using a grand jury based in Fort Pierce, Fla., overseen by a federal judge, Aileen M. Cannon, who issued rulings favorable to Mr. Trump during the classified documents case against him, the official added. Mr. diGenova is expected to split his time between Miami and Fort Pierce.
Together, the moves show how the Justice Department under Mr. Trump’s control has been willing to embrace politically charged tactics and unorthodox personnel decisions in its efforts to satisfy his demands to prosecute his perceived foes — even as other prosecutors loyal to him have encountered forceful pushback from courts against his wide-ranging retribution campaign.
Mr. diGenova, 81, who served as a U.S. attorney in the Reagan era, has been given the title of counselor to the attorney general and detailed to the Southern District of Florida, where the U.S. attorney, Jason A. Reding Quiñones, another Trump loyalist, is supervising the inquiry.
Mr. diGenova’s appointment comes after Maria Medetis Long, a senior career prosecutor in Miami who had been in charge of the investigation, was abruptly removed from the case. Ms. Medetis Long, who leads national security investigations for Mr. Quiñones’s office, is said to have objected to moving forward with a portion of the inquiry focused on John O. Brennan, the former C.I.A. director.
The law enforcement official familiar with the matter spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive internal issue.
Because Judge Cannon is the only federal jurist in the Fort Pierce courthouse, she could be in a position to make critical decisions if Mr. diGenova uses the grand jury there to subpoena documents or witness testimony and the recipients balk, asking her to quash the demands.
Judge Cannon was criticized by an appeals court in 2022 after she effectively stalled the investigation into Mr. Trump’s mishandling of classified documents by appointing a so-called special master to sort through reams of materials seized from Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence in Florida. Later, Mr. Trump praised her lavishly, calling her “strong” and “brilliant,” after she tossed out the indictment altogether, ruling that Jack Smith, the special counsel who filed the charges, had been improperly appointed.
In another unusual move, Christopher-James DeLorenz, who worked as a law clerk for Judge Cannon during the documents case and later served as an aide to Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, was sent from the Justice Department’s headquarters in Washington to Mr. Quiñones’s office earlier this year and is working on the portion of the inquiry that is focused on Mr. Brennan, the official said.
Mr. diGenova will work on the Brennan matter, too, but also the broader inquiry.
Last year, Mr. Trump’s allies began pushing for what they referred to as a “grand conspiracy” case that would portray all of the criminal inquiries of Mr. Trump as a unified plot to violate his constitutional rights. The conspiracy, by their telling, began with the investigation into Russia and its potential ties to the 2016 Trump campaign, then extended to the classified documents and 2020 election indictments.
That far-fetched theory would allow the Justice Department to scrutinize in a single case matters that would normally be barred by the five-year statute of limitations. It would also give Mr. diGenova and Mr. Reding Quiñones the authority to scrutinize events that took place in Washington from their jurisdiction in Florida.
The Justice Department has also given Mr. Reding Quiñones special authority under a statute known as Section 515, the official said. That would enable him to bring indictments in jurisdictions where he is not the U.S. attorney.
While many details remain unknown, Mr. diGenova is inheriting an inquiry whose most developed portion appears to be focused on trying to find a basis to charge Mr. Brennan with lying to Congress over a January 2017 intelligence community assessment. It concluded, among other things, that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election in part because Moscow hoped to improve Mr. Trump’s chances of winning.
As the top federal prosecutor in Washington in the 1980s, Mr. diGenova secured an espionage conviction against Jonathan Pollard, a former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst who passed sensitive information to Israel. He later became a political commentator who gravitated toward Mr. Trump during his first term in the White House.
Mr. diGenova has claimed the Russia investigation was a law-enforcement plot to frame Mr. Trump and keep him out of the White House during his first presidential campaign. In 2020, as part of the legal team for the Trump campaign, Mr. diGenova said that Christopher Krebs, a cybersecurity official who had contradicted false pro-Trump claims of election fraud, should be “shot.” (Mr. diGenova later apologized.)
A special counsel appointed by Attorney General William P. Barr in Mr. Trump’s first term, John H. Durham, already scrutinized the actions of senior law enforcement and intelligence officials involved in the early stages of the Russia investigation.
Image
John O. Brennan testifying during a 2017 Senate hearing on possible Russian interference in the 2016 election.Credit...Al Drago/The New York Times
When that inquiry began in 2019, Mr. diGenova was among the Trump supporters who celebrated, telling Fox News that he believed people like Mr. Brennan, James R. Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, and James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, would go to prison.
“James Comey, Brennan and Clapper have said to themselves, ‘Which one of us is going to pay the Barr bill?’” Mr. diGenova said, adding, “This conspiracy began with John Brennan and ends with John Brennan.”
But Mr. Durham, who completed his investigation in 2023, did not find a basis to prosecute any of them, and Mr. Barr later said the Durham investigation found that the C.I.A. had “stayed in its lane.”
Grand jury subpoenas already issued under Mr. Reding Quiñones have sought records related to the 2017 intelligence community assessment. The effort appears focused on trying to build a perjury case against Mr. Brennan over a 2023 deposition to Congress. At the time, he discussed the relationship between the assessment and the Steele dossier, a compendium of later-discredited political opposition research making various claims about Mr. Trump and Russia.
The F.B.I. had wanted to include information from the dossier in the intelligence community assessment, but C.I.A. analysts balked. Mr. Brennan, in his testimony, told lawmakers that “the C.I.A. was very much opposed to having any reference or inclusion of the Steele dossier in the intelligence community assessment.” Ultimately, as a compromise, a summary of the dossier was attached to the assessment as an appendix, as Mr. Brennan had long said.
Documents the Trump administration declassified last year complicated that account by showing that a sentence in the main body of the assessment alerted readers to the existence of the appendix, although they also showed the appendix had a header stating that its claims did not contribute to the judgment. Released files also showed that C.I.A. analysts had objected to the appendix, too, but portrayed Mr. Brennan as having pushed back in support of the compromise arrangement with the F.B.I.
Last October, Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio and a Trump ally, made a criminal referral, saying Mr. Brennan’s statement about the C.I.A.’s opposition amounted to a false statement. Mr. Brennan’s lawyer, Kenneth L. Wainstein, has said it did not.
Last December, Mr. Wainstein wrote to the chief federal judge in South Florida, Cecilia M. Altonaga, urging her to block the Justice Department from steering the case to Judge Cannon. The Justice Department, he wrote, appeared to be planning to “manipulate grand jury and case-assignment procedures” to put the investigation under her.
It has not been clear whether Judge Altonaga took any action. But the broader investigation has since expanded, including with subpoenas issued earlier this year for documents about the F.B.I.’s investigation into ties between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia.
Charlie Savage writes about national security and legal policy for The Times.
Alan Feuer covers extremism and political violence for The Times, focusing on the criminal cases involving the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and against former President Donald J. Trump.
:{---
LI 4 26
christopher-james-delorenz-6320011a0
Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General
Washington, District of Columbia, United States
·
Pepperdine Law
500+
About
Attorney in New York, Texas and Florida Pepperdine Law Graduate '20
Activity
890 followers
Follow
[Christopher-James DeLorenz commented on a post •
2mo
America’s ADAG.](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7430244155706019840/)
[Christopher-James DeLorenz commented on a post •
2mo
Well deserved. Congratulations](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:ugcPost:7429538650025152513/)
[Christopher-James DeLorenz commented on a post •
2mo
The man!!! ODAG misses you already brother](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:ugcPost:7425545424851185665/)
Experience
[Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General U.S. Department of Justice · Full-time
Jan 2025 - Present · 1 yr 4 mos
Washington, District of Columbia, United States](https://www.linkedin.com/company/3564/)
-
[Law Clerk for the Honorable Aileen M. Cannon United States District Court for The Southern District of Florida
Nov 2023 - Aug 2024 · 10 mos
Fort Pierce, Florida, United States](https://www.linkedin.com/company/19043477/)
Executive Office of Governor Ron DeSantis
1 yr 10 mos
- Assistant General Counsel to Governor Ron DeSantis
Full-time
Oct 2022 - Oct 2023 · 1 yr 1 mo
Tallahassee, Florida, United States
- Director of the Office of Open Government at the Executive Office of Governor Ron DeSantis
Jan 2022 - Oct 2022 · 10 mos
[Attorney At Law TALISMAN & DELORENZ, P.C. · Full-time
Apr 2021 - Jan 2022 · 10 mos
Brooklyn, New York, United States](https://www.linkedin.com/company/15342964/)
[Summer Associate, General Counsel's Office VSP Global · Internship
May 2019 - Jul 2019 · 3 mos
Long Island, NY](https://www.linkedin.com/company/3053315/)
Education
[Pepperdine Law Doctor of Law - JD, Law
2017 – 2020](https://www.linkedin.com/school/8382772/)
Activities and societies: London Study Abroad Program (Fall 2018) Washington D.C. Externship Semester (Spring 2019) Federalist Society Tulane International Baseball Arbitration Competition Royal Courts of Justice, International Moot Competition
[
[Pepperdine University Bachelor's degree, Broadcast Journalism
2013 – 2017](https://www.linkedin.com/school/165439/)
Activities and societies: Alpha Tau Omega Baseball Announcer Study Abroad in Florence, Italy
SCRAPE
Vetan Kapoor
Counsel to the Vice President
Colin McDonald
Associate Deputy Attorney General | Federal Prosecutor
Henry Whitaker
Counselor to the Attorney General
Cody Poplin
Chief of Staff & Counsel, Civil Division, U.S. Department of Justice
Jordan Fox
Chief of Staff & Associate Deputy Attorney General, Office of the Deputy Attorney General
Todd Blanche
Deputy Attorney General
Aaron Henricks
U.S. Department of Justice
Ketan Bhirud
Head of Regulatory & Litigation, Saronic Technologies
Brian Nieves
Chief of Staff & Associate Deputy Attorney General, Office of the Deputy Attorney General
Jason Manion
Counselor to the Attorney General | U.S. Department of Justice
Daniel Pardo
Acting Deputy General Counsel, Office of the General Counsel Department of Homeland Security
Adam Gordon
United States Attorney, Southern District of California
Diego M. Pestana
Associate Deputy Attorney General
Joseph Attias
Counselor to the Under Secretary for Industry and Security
Daniel Bell
Counselor to the Attorney General at U.S. Department of Justice
Maureen Furino
General Counsel
Nick Davis
Acting Associate Deputy Attorney General
Josh Craddock
Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel
Meredith Pardo
Vice President of Lawyer Chapters at The Federalist Society
Yaakov Roth
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General
DEM DOCL
A former Trump campaign lawyer who backed President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss has been appointed to a Florida-based U.S. attorney’s office leading a sprawling probe into a slate of former federal officials who investigated Trump.
Joseph diGenova’s appointment to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida comes shortly after journalistsreported that he is taking over the “grand conspiracy” investigation into intelligence and law enforcement officials, against whom Trump has long vowed to seek retribution.
In announcing the appointment Monday, Jason Reding Quiñones, U.S. attorney for southern Florida, said on social media that diGenova would be “stepping into a senior advisory role on key legal, policy, and enforcement matters.”
“With decades of experience—including serving as U.S. Attorney for D.C. under Ronald Reagan—diGenova brings deep expertise in federal prosecution and high-stakes investigations,” Quiñones said.
DiGenova’s appointment to oversee the conspiracy probe marks another significant blow to the DOJ’s longstanding independence from the White House. It comes just over a week after acting Attorney General Todd Blanche publicly claimed that Trump has a “right” to order investigations into his enemies.
Though Quiñones said that diGenova would help “advance the Department’s mission to protect Americans, enforce the rule of law, and ensure impartial justice,” the grand conspiracy investigation into Trump enemies features many hallmarks of past politically motivated probes initiated by Trump.
Jason Reding Quiñones (right0, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, shaking hands with former Trump campaign attorney Joseph diGenova in Florida on April 20, 2026. (Photo: U.S. Attorney’s Office Southern District of Florida)
DiGenova joined the U.S. attorney’s office after Maria Medetis Long, the previous senior federal prosecutor overseeing the probe, was removed from the case. She had questioned the legal viability of future charges, the New York Times reported.
Specifically, Medetis Long objected to moving forward with a portion of the inquiry focused on John Brennan, the former CIA director.
Her removal echoed personnel changes that placed Trump’s former personal attorney at the helm of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia before it pursued criminal charges against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Both of those criminal cases were dismissed by a federal judge last year.
Comey, whom Trump has branded a “dirty cop” and “leaker” for initiating the FBI’s probe into alleged links between his 2016 presidential campaign and Russia, has received a subpoena in the grand conspiracy investigation.
The exact parameters of the investigation are unclear, but prominent allies of the president and Quiñones have said it centers on the far-fetched claim that the former officials allegedly conspired to prevent Trump from exercising his constitutional and federal rights starting from his election in 2016 through his federal indictments in 2023.
While the statute of limitations on most federal crimes is five years, Quiñones’ office has been able to scrutinize actions beyond those limits by alleging a conspiracy against Trump.
In total, prosecutors overseeing the sprawling investigation have issued over 130 subpoenas so far.
Part of the investigation appears to be using a grand jury seated in Fort Pierce, Florida, overseen by Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee who showed the president unusual deference while presiding over special counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents investigation against the president after his first term in office.
In 2020, DiGenova and his wife, lawyer Victoria Toensing, were part of a legal team that included Rudy Giuliani, then Trump’s personal attorney, challenging the results of the 2020 election. He also pushed conspiracy theories alleging election fraud during that vote.
Before that, diGenova and Toensing reportedly collaborated with Giuliani in efforts to extract compromising information on Joe Biden from Ukrainian officials during the last years of Trump’s first term. At the time, Toensing categorically denied their involvement.
That attempt to undermine Biden’s candidacy in the 2020 vote would eventually lead the House of Representatives to impeach Trump.
---