2026-05-08T09:00:51.515Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/08/politics/inside-justice-department-shakeup-john-brennan-investigation
佛罗里达南区联邦首席检察官杰森·雷丁·基尼奥内斯上月抵达华盛顿，与司法部高层官员会面。当时，白宫就针对唐纳德·特朗普总统的顶级政治对手之一提起刑事指控的压力持续升级。
据了解调查情况的人士透露，数月来，雷丁·基尼奥内斯一直承诺其办公室将落实特朗普的一项核心优先事项：对多名前政府官员提起刑事指控，其中最主要的是前中央情报局局长约翰·布伦南，这些人在2016年至2024年间参与了针对特朗普的调查。
雷丁·基尼奥内斯办公室的检察官在此次会议上给出了更为坚定的调查评估，他们此前曾警告称这并非一起有力的案件。
据知情人士透露，在雷丁·基尼奥内斯在场的情况下，自调查启动以来一直牵头该 probe 的资深检察官玛丽亚·梅代蒂斯·朗告诉代理副检察长科林·麦克唐纳及其副手特伦特·麦科特，针对布伦南的案件证据过于薄弱，无法提起诉讼，现有证据并不支持司法部官员和众议院共和党人所指控的向国会撒谎的罪名。
部分在场人士并不认同梅代蒂斯·朗的观点。她的评估遭到了冷淡对待，尤其是因为数月来雷丁·基尼奥内斯一直试图向华盛顿的上司保证，尽管调查进展缓慢，但仍在取得突破。
据两位知情人士透露，她收到的回应是：“这还不够好。”
截至此时，司法部长帕姆·邦迪已被解雇——部分原因是特朗普希望的起诉工作进展缓慢。
据知情人士透露，今年4月，在特朗普解雇邦迪的当天，雷丁·基尼奥内斯曾与邦迪会面，告诉他其办公室的检察官可在年底前就布伦南向国会撒谎的罪名提起诉讼。但当时更广泛的共谋案似乎已陷入停滞。
对布伦南的调查是一项重大考验，因为这位前中情局局长一直是特朗普的直言不讳的批评者，并协助监督了2017年情报共同体评估，该评估认定俄罗斯曾试图帮助特朗普赢得2016年总统大选，这是特朗普最大的政治不满点之一。
此前在弗吉尼亚州，针对特朗普眼中的其他政敌——前联邦调查局局长詹姆斯·科米和纽约州检察长莱蒂西亚·詹姆斯的起诉尝试失败，一名法官驳回了对他们的指控。北卡罗来纳州的联邦检察官随后对科米提起了新的指控，称其发布的一张摆成“86 47”数字的贝壳社交媒体帖文构成了针对特朗普的刑事威胁。科米否认曾意图威胁总统。
如今，代理司法部长托德·布兰奇受到总统的严格管控，因为他渴望保住职位。佛罗里达州方面的最新消息为一场重大改组铺平了道路，以落实雷丁·基尼奥内斯自去年秋季以来一直承诺的目标。
梅代蒂斯·朗在华盛顿会议上发表评估意见数日后，被解除了调查监督职务。随后，布兰奇将长期任职的华盛顿律师乔·迪杰诺瓦派往佛罗里达州负责此案。迪杰诺瓦曾担任华盛顿特区联邦检察官，曾短暂代表总统参与过他如今正在调查的其中一项调查。
自那以来，调查中任何看似取得的进展实际上都已被重置，调查人员重新开始为针对特朗普头号目标的广泛指控构建证据。
司法部拒绝就正在进行的调查置评。
该部门此前就梅代蒂斯·朗的免职回应称：“作为常规惯例，律师会在案件间调动，以便各办公室能最有效地分配资源。更换法律团队成员完全是健康且正常的。”
据一位知情人士透露，近几周迪杰诺瓦与总统讨论了他的新角色，并计划将办公地点设在佛罗里达州皮尔斯堡，那里是联邦法官艾琳·坎农主持庭审的法院所在地。坎农曾在2023年针对特朗普在海湖庄园不当处理机密文件的起诉中作出致命一击，驳回了相关指控。
选择位于佛罗里达南部地区的皮尔斯堡——特朗普多年前曾在此被起诉——是一个重要信号，表明迪杰诺瓦计划将调查重点重新转向超越布伦南指控的广泛共谋案。
这与近几个月的调查方向有所不同，当时调查主要集中在华盛顿特区提起指控。职业检察官认定华盛顿是唯一可行的起诉地点，因为相关国会证词正是在那里作出的。根据联邦刑事诉讼规则，起诉书通常应在指控罪行发生地的管辖区域内提起。
在被派往佛罗里达州前不久，迪杰诺瓦于4月2日在接受前纽约市长鲁迪·朱利安尼的播客采访时阐述了他对皮尔斯堡共谋调查的部分设想，期间他谴责了起诉进程的拖延。
他批评了对科米和詹姆斯提起的最初诉讼，称他本会将这些努力保留下来，用于针对他们及其他人的更大规模共谋案。
他还指责邦迪阻止了他被任命为雷丁·基尼奥内斯办公室民权部门负责人的计划。
“如果她没有那么做，我们在过去两个月就已经提起公诉了，”迪杰诺瓦说道。
近几周，在迪杰诺瓦正式接手后，检察官已对参与2017年俄罗斯干预大选情报评估的现任和前任低级中情局雇员进行了约谈。
据知情人士透露，调查已发出超过150份传票，其中包括发给科米的。另一位知情人士表示，预计还会有新一轮传票，对象将是被视为与布伦南关系更密切的前官员。
部分此前发出的传票已被迪杰诺瓦撤回，但预计将重新签发，知情人士透露。
共谋案的说法数月来一直在右翼社交媒体上流传，包括在迪杰诺瓦的播客中，其核心观点是特朗普是一场广泛阴谋的受害者，这场阴谋从2016年俄罗斯大选干预调查一直延伸到导致特朗普被起诉的特别检察官杰克·史密斯的调查。坎农2024年驳回史密斯对特朗普提起的机密文件指控的判决，使她成为总统及其盟友的宠儿。
据知情人士透露，雷丁·基尼奥内斯去年秋季曾向司法部官员概述计划，利用皮尔斯堡的大陪审团开展这项广泛的共谋调查。
这一想法立即得到了司法部高层的支持，当时特朗普的报复议程已陷入困境。邦迪上任首日便下令成立所谓的“武器化工作组”，专注于调查特朗普认为不公平针对他的前几届政府官员。
这是更广泛惩罚与调查特朗普及其支持者相关的政府官员计划的一部分。在长达一年多的清洗行动中，已有数百名司法部律师、联邦调查局特工和其他雇员被解雇。
即便到了现在，司法部所谓的“反武器化”行动几乎没有取得任何成果。布兰奇一直在监督这项所谓的反武器化工作，而邦迪则因该工作的不足部分丢掉了职位。
特朗普本人也表达了不满，包括在社交媒体帖子中以及与部门领导人的会面中。美国有线电视新闻网此前曾报道，今年1月特朗普在与一群美国检察官的白宫聚会中抱怨部分检察官软弱无能，称他们需要更快推进以落实他的议程。
特朗普2024年大选获胜后，雷丁·基尼奥内斯并不在特朗普盟友拟定的掌管美国第三大检察官办公室的名单之列。这个 sprawling 辖区从佛罗里达群岛延伸至佛罗里达州中部沿海各县。当时，这位空军军官兼军事律师还是佛罗里达州法院的一名法官，负责审理家庭暴力和其他刑事案件。
他在迈阿密长大，一生中大部分时间都使用雷丁这个姓氏，直到2023年竞选州法官时才开始使用雷丁·基尼奥内斯。在提交给参议院的提名文件中，他表示自己选择使用古巴裔美国母亲的姓氏，以纪念她。
前同事称，2018年至2024年他在迈阿密办公室担任一线检察官的职业生涯似乎并不突出。在司法部，检察官通常从办理重大刑事案件和其他工作量大的事务开始，目标是积累尽可能多的经验。
在提交给参议院的提名文件中，雷丁·基尼奥内斯表示，他曾审理过3起刑事陪审团审判、1起刑事法官审判和1起民事法官审判。他称自己曾多次出庭提交文件或提出动议。据前同事透露，他的迈阿密上级在当时的绩效评估中指出了他较低的工作效率。
“他确实没有脱颖而出，”一位前高级检察官说道，“我想说，他的职业道德并非你在那个阶段的律师身上所能看到的那样。”
当被问及《迈阿密先驱报》最初报道的他绩效评估不佳的消息时，雷丁·基尼奥内斯在文件中进行了反驳。
“我担任联邦助理检察官期间，最初的评估对我的工作效率存在重大事实错误，”他写道，“此事引起领导层注意后，评估立即得到了更正。”
他指出，在担任一线检察官的部分时期，他曾以空军JAG律师的身份在海外服役。
司法部发言人表示：“雷丁·基尼奥内斯法官主持过200多起法官和陪审团审判，在司法部任职近十年，处理复杂的国家安全和刑事事务，并有二十多年的军旅生涯，目前担任空军上校。他为佛罗里达南区带来了 proven 的法庭判断力、业务领导能力和公共服务经验，他办公室的工作成果每天都体现了这一承诺。”
在迈阿密的美国检察官办公室，雷丁·基尼奥内斯在特朗普政府中的高调地位也付出了代价。
特朗普当选后，律师们已在为变革做准备。一些人选择离职，预计他们此前的工作会成为报复目标。但其他人认为，政府换届与以往一样，会有新的优先事项，职业律师会遵循这些新目标。
“我们都看到了特朗普在竞选期间的言论，所以大家都知道存在这种可能性，”该办公室的一位前高级检察官说道，“但没人预料到他们会直接进来摧毁一切。那个办公室里那么多经验丰富的人才，就这样流失了。”
据熟悉迈阿密办公室情况的人士透露，目前已有100多个职位空缺。现任和前任司法部官员表示，该办公室一些顶尖资深律师的流失对案件产生了影响。
在12月的就职仪式上，雷丁·基尼奥内斯誓言将落实政府的优先事项，包括减少暴力犯罪。据出席仪式的人士透露，他援引自己的军事经历来帮助办公室赢得案件。
在仪式上的发言中，首席法官塞西莉亚·阿尔托纳加发表了更为沉稳的讲话，提醒在场人员联邦检察官肩负的重大责任。她引用了1935年Berger v. US最高法院裁决中的一段名言：
美国检察官的角色，“在刑事诉讼中并非赢得案件，而是实现正义……”
“他可以热忱且有力地提起公诉——事实上，他理应如此。但是，尽管他可以重拳出击，但绝不能使用不正当手段，”她补充道，“避免采用旨在导致错误定罪的不当手段，与运用一切合法手段实现正义一样，都是他的职责。”
Inside the Justice Department’s shakeup of the John Brennan investigation
2026-05-08T09:00:51.515Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/08/politics/inside-justice-department-shakeup-john-brennan-investigation
Jason Reding Quiñones, the top federal prosecutor in Florida’s southern district, arrived in Washington, DC, last month for a meeting with top Justice Department officials as White House pressure continued to build over bringing criminal charges against one of President Donald Trump’s top political foes.
For months, Reding Quiñones had been promising that his office would deliver on one of Trump’s top priorities: pursuing criminal charges against a number of former government officials — chief among them former CIA Director John Brennan — who were involved in investigations of him from 2016 to 2024, according to people briefed on the investigation.
Prosecutors in Reding Quiñones’ office opened the meeting with an even firmer assessment of the investigation, which they previously warned was not a strong case.
With Reding Quiñones sitting near her, Maria Medetis Long, the seasoned prosecutor who has led the probe since its start, told acting Deputy Attorney General Colin McDonald and Trent McCotter, his top deputy, that the case against Brennan was too weak to bring, and the evidence didn’t support the charges of lying to Congress that Justice officials and House Republicans have sought, people briefed on the matter said.
Not everyone in the room agreed with Medetis Long, some of them said. Her assessment got a frosty reception, particularly since for months Reding Quiñones had sought to reassure his bosses in Washington that the case, while slow-moving, was making progress.
“That’s not good enough,” was the message she received, according to two people briefed on the meeting.
By this time, Attorney General Pam Bondi had already been fired — in part because of the slow pace of the prosecutions Trump wants.
In April, at an earlier meeting with Bondi, on the day Trump fired her, Reding Quiñones had told her that prosecutors in his office could bring the charges over lying to Congress against Brennan by the end of the year, people briefed on the matter said. The broader conspiracy case, however, appeared moribund at the time.
The probe into Brennan is a major test as the former CIA director has been a vocal critic of Trump and helped to oversee the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment that concluded Russia sought to help Trump win the 2016 presidential election, one of the president’s biggest political grievances.
A push to prosecute other perceived Trump enemies James Comey, the former FBI director, and Letitia James, the New York attorney general, in Virginia faltered after a judge tossed the indictments against them. Federal prosecutors in North Carolina have since brought new charges against Comey alleging a social media post showing sea shells arranged to display the numbers “86 47” represented a criminal threat against Trump. Comey has denied he intended to threaten the president.
Now, with Acting Attorney Todd Blanche under the president’s tight leash as he seeks to keep the job, the latest update from Florida set the stage for a major shakeup to deliver on what Reding Quiñones has been promising since last fall.
Medetis Long was removed from overseeing the investigation days after she delivered her assessment at the meeting in Washington. Blanche then put Joe diGenova, a longtime Washington lawyer, in Florida on the case. DiGenova is a former Washington, DC, US attorney who briefly represented the president in one of the probes that he is now investigating.
Since then, any perceived progress on the investigation has been essentially reset, with investigators starting anew to build a broad case against Trump’s biggest target.
The Justice Department declined comment on ongoing investigations.
The department previously said of Medetis Long’s removal: “As a matter of routine practice, attorneys are moved around on cases so offices can most effectively allocate resources. It is completely healthy and normal to change members of legal teams.”
DiGenova in recent weeks discussed his new role with the president and plans to base himself in Fort Pierce, Florida, the courthouse where federal Judge Aileen Cannon presides, according to a person familiar with the matter. Cannon was the judge who dealt the fatal blow to the 2023 indictment of Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago club.
The choice of Fort Pierce in the southern Florida district, where Trump was indicted years ago, is an important signal of diGenova’s plans to refocus the probe on a broad conspiracy that goes beyond allegations against Brennan.
It’s a shift from the recent months of the investigation, which had been focused largely on bringing charges in Washington, DC. Career prosecutors determined Washington as the only viable venue for charges since that is where Brennan provided the congressional testimony at issue. Under federal criminal rules, indictments generally are brought in the jurisdiction where the alleged crime occurred.
Shortly before being shipped down to Florida, diGenova laid out some of his vision for the Fort Pierce-based conspiracy investigation in an April 2 appearance on former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s podcast in which he decried delays in bringing indictments.
He criticized bringing the original cases against Comey and James — saying he would have saved those efforts for a larger conspiracy case against them and others.
He also accused Bondi of blocking plans to appoint him to run the civil rights section in Reding Quiñones’ office.
“If she had not done that, we would have indictments brought in the last two months,” diGenova said.
In recent weeks, with diGenova officially at the wheel, prosecutors have overseen interviews of current and former lower-level CIA employees who were involved in the 2017 intelligence assessment on Russian election interference.
More than 150 subpoenas have been issued in the investigation, including to Comey, according to people familiar on the matter. And another round is expected, this time for testimony from former officials viewed as closer to Brennan, people familiar with the matter said.
Some subpoenas had been withdrawn under diGenova, but are expected to be reissued, people familiar with the matter said.
The conspiracy idea has made the rounds on right-wing social media for months — including in the podcast with diGenova — and centers on the idea Trump was the victim of a wide-ranging plot that spanned from the 2016 Russia election interference investigation to special counsel Jack Smith’s probe that resulted in charges against Trump. Cannon’s 2024 dismissal of the classified document charges that Smith brought against Trump have made her a favorite among the president and his allies.
Reding Quiñones outlined to Justice officials last fall plans to use a grand jury in Fort Pierce to conduct the broad conspiracy investigation, according to people familiar with the matter.
The idea immediately won support from top brass at the Justice Department, where Trump’s retribution agenda was already faltering. On her first day in office, Bondi ordered the creation of a so-called Weaponization Working Group that would focus on investigating people from previous administrations who the president believed targeted him unfairly.
It was part of a broader push to punish government officials associated with investigations of Trump and his supporters. Hundreds of Justice Department lawyers and FBI agents and other employees have been lost their jobs in a more than yearlong purge.
Even now, the department’s push against so-called weaponization had little to show for it. Blanche has overseen the claimed anti-weaponization effort, though Bondi is the one who has lost her job in part over its shortcomings.
Trump himself had expressed his frustrations, including in social media posts and in meetings with department leaders. At a White House gathering with a group of US attorneys in January, Trump complained that some were weak and that they needed to move more quickly to deliver on his agenda, CNN previously reported.
After Trump’s 2024 election victory, Reding Quiñones was not at the top of the list Trump allies had drawn up to run the third largest US attorney’s office, a sprawling district that stretches from the Florida Keys to coastal central Florida counties. At the time, the Air Force officer and military lawyer was a Florida state court judge overseeing domestic violence and other criminal cases.
He grew up in Miami and spent most of his life known by the surname Reding, only beginning to use Reding Quiñones around the time he sought a state judgeship. In documents provided to the Senate for his nomination, he said he opted to honor his Cuban American mother’s surname when he applied for the judgeship in 2023.
His career as line prosecutor from 2018 to 2024 in the Miami office he now runs didn’t seem to stand out, former colleagues say. At the Justice Department, prosecutors start out doing major-crimes cases and other matters that tend to have a high volume of work, with goal of getting as much experience as possible.
In documents provided to the Senate for his nomination, Reding Quiñones said he had tried three criminal jury trials, one criminal bench trial, and one civil bench trial. He said he has appeared in court, filing documents or making motions hundreds of times. His supervisors in Miami noted his low productivity in performance reviews at the time, according to former colleagues.
“He didn’t stand out exactly,” one former senior prosecutor said, “I’d say his work ethic wasn’t what you’d see in lawyers at that stage.”
Asked about a report in the Miami Herald that first described his poor performance reviews, Reding Quiñones pushed back in the documents.
“While I was an Assistant U.S. Attorney, an initial evaluation contained significant factual errors regarding my productivity,” he wrote. “Once this matter was brought to the attention of leadership, the evaluation was immediately corrected.”
He noted that during some of the period he worked as a line prosecutor, he served in overseas as a JAG Air Force lawyer.
A Justice Department spokesperson said: “Judge Reding Quiñones has presided over more than 200 bench and jury trials, served nearly a decade as a Department of Justice attorney handling complex national security and criminal matters, and currently serves as an Air Force Colonel after more than two decades of military service. He brings proven courtroom judgment, operational leadership, and public service experience to the Southern District of Florida, and the results of his office reflect that commitment every day.”
In the Miami-based US Attorney’s Office, Reding Quiñones’ high profile within the Trump administration has come with a price.
Attorneys were bracing for change after Trump’s election. Some made their exit, anticipating that their previous work would make them targets for retribution. But others believed that the change of administration would be like others in the past, with new priorities and career lawyers following those new objectives.
“We all saw what Trump had said during the campaign, so people knew what was possible,” a former senior prosecutor in the office said. “But no one expected them to just come in and destroy everything. So much experience in that office, just gone.”
More than 100 vacancies now exist, according to people familiar with the Miami office. The loss of some of the top experienced lawyers in the office has an impact on cases, current and former Justice officials say.
At his investiture ceremony in December Reding Quiñones vowed to pursue the administration’s priorities, including reducing violent crime. He invoked his military experience to help the office win cases, according to a person at the ceremony.
In her remarks at the ceremony, Chief Judge Cecilia Altonaga had a more staid message, reminding the room of the heavy responsibility of federal prosecutors. She cited a famous quote from the 1935 Berger v. US Supreme Court ruling that reads in part:
The role of US attorney, “in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done…”
“He may prosecute with earnestness and vigor — indeed, he should do so. But, while he may strike hard blows, he is not at liberty to strike foul ones,” she added. “It is as much his duty to refrain from improper methods calculated to produce a wrongful conviction as it is to use every legitimate means to bring about a just one.”
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