The United States attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Jason Reding Quiñones, has resigned from the Justice Department, Attorney General Todd Blanche announced Friday. His office had overseen President Donald Trump's election conspiracy investigation, a sprawling and controversial probe that has now lost several senior figures in less than a year.
“United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jason Reding Quiñones submitted his resignation from the Department of Justice,” Blanche wrote, according to WJTV. Reuters reporting carried by Yahoo News described Quiñones's office as having overseen Trump's election conspiracy probe, while ABC News described him as the prosecutor tasked with leading the sweeping and controversial investigation into Trump's foes.
Quiñones did not explain his decision. In a post on X, he offered no rationale behind his departure, the same WJTV report noted. Blanche, for his part, framed the exit as the end of a strong tenure, praising Quiñones's leadership in combatting violent crime, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and transnational crime, including the indictment of Raúl Castro, and thanking him for his service to the country.
A Short Tenure Atop a High-Profile Office
Quiñones had not held the post long. He was sworn in as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida on August 13, 2025, after Trump nominated him and the Senate confirmed him, according to The Independent. According to the New York Post, the investigation he was tapped to oversee examined an alleged conspiracy by former Obama administration officials to promote claims of collusion between Trump's 2016 campaign and the Russian government, and the probe had led to subpoenas for former FBI Director James Comey, former CIA Director John Brennan, and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
Reuters reporting carried by Yahoo News described Quiñones's resignation as the second departure of a senior Justice Department official since Republicans' losses in the midterms. Per the earlier WJTV account, prosecutors working on the investigation had issued numerous subpoenas, but it had not yet resulted in any charges at the time of that reporting.
A Pattern Of Departures Before Quiñones
Quiñones's exit follows a string of high-profile departures from the probe's leadership over the past several months. Trump ally Joe diGenova, who had stepped in to lead the investigation, resigned in September over apparent concerns about its pace, the same WJTV report stated. Maria Medetis Long, a career Justice Department official who also played a leading role in the case, had resigned in April, reportedly over concerns about the strength of the case.
The New York Post reported that people familiar with the probe said the investigation had lost steam in recent months under diGenova's leadership, with diGenova accused by those same people of slow-rolling indictments and getting lost down rabbit holes. In a phone interview with the Post in September, diGenova said indictments without evidence would present an ethical problem. Separately, The New York Times reported that diGenova quit after assuming Blanche would fire him, amid conflict over the investigation and his treatment of prosecutors assigned to assist.
A Deputy's Disputed Exit
The Times reporting also detailed the departure of Kurt Olsen, a deputy to diGenova, who quit around the same period. Sources told the Times that Olsen had failed a polygraph about foreign contacts, but Olsen disputed that account, telling the paper he complied with all requirements regarding foreign contacts and had not resigned over his security clearance.
With Quiñones's departure, the office that has been central to one of the Trump administration's most closely watched investigations has now lost its top prosecutor along with two other senior figures tied to the case within the span of about seven months.
