Trump Prosecutor Out in Russia Investigation
Joseph diGenova, 81, resigned Thursday as the Justice Department prosecutor overseeing the “grand conspiracy” investigation into the 2016 Russia inquiry — five months after Attorney General Todd Blanche appointed him, with no charges filed. On his way out he told the New York Post, “If you want indictments where there’s no evidence, you have an ethical problem,” then told the Associated Press the same day that “there’s plenty of evidence in all of these cases.” His wife and law partner, Victoria Toensing, who worked on the same team, leaves the Department Friday.
The résumé is the story. In July 2019 the couple were retained by Dmytro Firtash, the Ukrainian gas oligarch under federal indictment in Chicago and fighting extradition from Vienna, described in the Justice Department’s own filings as an upper-echelon associate of Russian organized crime. They obtained a personal meeting with Attorney General Bill Barr to seek dismissal of the case; Barr declined. A Firtash lawyer wired $1 million to the wife of Lev Parnas, their interpreter on the account, in September 2019 — a fact disclosed in Parnas’s SDNY bail proceedings. That same month, Firtash’s legal team produced the Viktor Shokin affidavit, prepared for the Austrian extradition case, which became the Biden-Burisma storyline, the July 25 call, and the first impeachment.
The investigation diGenova was chosen to run has an oligarch of its own. The Senate Intelligence Committee’s 2020 report found that Christopher Steele was on retainer for Oleg Deripaska’s lawyer while producing the dossier — the same Deripaska who had paid Paul Manafort for years and to whom Manafort still owed money while running Trump’s campaign. The CIA’s July 2025 tradecraft review found that John Brennan insisted the dossier be annexed to the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment over the objection of the Agency’s own Russia analysts.
A prosecutor who was paid by an indicted oligarch to lobby the Attorney General is a selective-prosecution motion in any Florida courtroom. His departure removes it. The grand jury is still sitting, and subpoenas went out last week.
Eric Garland is an intelligence analyst personally sanctioned by the Russian Federation in May 2022 for his work on Russian intelligence operations. He is the author of the 2016 “Game Theory” thread, named by The New York Times as one of the 25 most important tweets in history.
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SOURCES
New York Post (Josh Christenson), September 10, 2026 — diGenova’s “no evidence… ethical problem” remark on resigning. Associated Press, September 10, 2026 — diGenova’s same-day clarification: “plenty of evidence in all of these cases.” CBS News; ABC News; Just the News, September 10, 2026 — appointment by AG Blanche in April 2026; no prosecutions; Toensing on the team and departing Friday; Florida grand jury. United States v. Firtash, N.D. Illinois (indictment unsealed 2014) — FCPA and racketeering charges; DOJ filings characterizing Firtash as an upper-echelon associate of Russian organized crime. Washington Post, 2019 — diGenova and Toensing’s meeting with Attorney General Barr seeking dismissal; DOJ statement that the prosecution “has the support of the department leadership.” United States v. Parnas, S.D.N.Y., bail proceedings, December 2019 — $1 million wire from a Firtash lawyer (Ralph Isenegger) to Parnas’s wife, September 2019. Affidavit of Viktor Shokin, September 4, 2019 — prepared “at the request of lawyers acting for Dmitry Firtash” for the Austrian proceedings. Time; The Intercept; Talking Points Memo, October 2019 — the July 2019 retention and Parnas’s role as interpreter. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Report on Russian Active Measures, Vol. 5 (2020) — Steele’s concurrent work for Deripaska’s counsel; Manafort–Deripaska financial relationship. Central Intelligence Agency, Tradecraft Review of the 2016 Intelligence Community Assessment, July 2025 — inclusion of the dossier annex over analysts’ objections. Roll Call, November 2019 — the couple’s 1998 role as television commentators during the Lewinsky scandal.
