One of Donald Trump’s most faithful attack dogs has suddenly quit the team responsible for a “grand conspiracy” probe of the president’s political enemies.
Kurt Olsen, 64, resigned from the Southern District of Florida investigation on Monday. A staunch Trump loyalist, he has long pushed the president’s bogus claims that the 2020 polls were rigged and worked as White House election security czar before joining the Florida probe.
Several of Trump’s most well-known foes have been targeted by the probe. Former CIA Director John Brennan has been subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury in Fort Pierce, Florida. Former FBI Director James Comey was subpoenaed in the probe in March, Axios reported, while the New York Times reported last year that former intelligence director James Clapper had been subpoenaed. None have been charged.
Olsen has not publicly given a reason for leaving, but sources familiar with the investigation say he was frustrated by Justice Department top brass in D.C. pressuring him to hurry things along and secure indictments ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms, according to the Daily Mail and the Washington Post.
His decision to quit follows the abrupt departure of another Trump ally, Joseph DiGenova, earlier this month. DiGenova, a former D.C. district attorney and fellow conspiracy theorist, told the Post that he still believed in the probe but that “time was needed to build those cases” and that “people differ on how long that should take.”
The pair are not alone. Sources inside the DoJ told the Mail that total departures from the investigation so far stand at between seven and eight, though others disputed that number and said it was closer to four.
Members of the team have apparently expressed concerns about the strength of evidence for the Justice Department’s theory that top officials under both the Obama and Biden administrations engaged in a more-than-decade-long conspiracy to stymie Trump’s political ambitions and violate his civil rights.
Pressure from DOJ leadership to pursue those allegations resulted in a showdown between the department’s top brass and the Florida team earlier this month.
“They started asking questions, and then they started giving orders to line attorneys about how to conduct the grand jury,” a source told the Mail. “The attorneys revolted, and then objections were made to the department, and then that’s when everything exploded.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the Justice Department for comment on this story. A spokesperson told the newspaper that its “work on this investigation continues, and we are grateful to the talented team of attorneys, which continues to grow, doing the work each day.”
Still, sources have cast doubt over claims that everything is going to plan. “This case was initiated to make the president and the public think something is happening down there, when in reality, it’s not,” as one person put it to the Mail.
