Two top officials at the U.S. Department of Justice resigned on Friday, accelerating an exodus of senior figures from the department days after Tuesday's midterm elections, in which President Donald Trump's Republicans lost control of Congress.
John Eisenberg, who headed the Justice Department's national security division, and Jason Reding Quiñones, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, both stepped down, Reuters reported. Their departures follow the resignation on Thursday of Harmeet Dhillon, the head of the department's Civil Rights Division.
Quiñones had been tapped to oversee the investigation into an alleged "grand conspiracy" among former Obama administration officials to push claims of collusion between Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and the Russian government. The probe, begun in August 2025, led to subpoenas of former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former FBI Director James Comey, but no charges have been filed.
Attorney General Todd Blanche announced Quiñones' resignation on X, thanking him for his leadership in combating violent crime, drug trafficking, sex trafficking and transnational crime, including the indictment of former Cuban leader Raúl Castro. In a separate statement, Quiñones thanked Trump "for his trust" and praised the "extraordinary men and women of the great Southern District of Florida" for their dedication to justice and the rule of law.
Eisenberg had overseen the investigation that resulted in former national security adviser John Bolton pleading guilty in June to retaining classified information on his personal computer. The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that other prosecutors, including senior counsel Kurt Olsen, were also departing the administration.
Reuters reported that it is not clear why Quiñones or Eisenberg resigned, and that the Justice Department is now without leaders for two of its signature initiatives — relitigating past investigations of Trump and targeting higher education. People familiar with the Russiagate probe said it had lost steam in recent months under former D.C. U.S. Attorney Joe diGenova, who resigned as head of the investigation on Sept. 10, telling the New York Post: "If you want indictments where there's no evidence, you have an ethical problem."
The investigation stems from Obama-ordered intelligence assessments of Russian influence in the 2016 election. CIA Director John Ratcliffe referred Brennan to the FBI for a criminal investigation in July, after a review concluded Brennan and Clapper were "excessively involved" in drafting a 2017 intelligence assessment through a "chaotic," "atypical" and "markedly unconventional" process.
