Who Is Joseph diGenova? The Lawyer Directing DOJ Investigations into Trump’s Enemies
As the 2026 midterms approach, the Trump's Justice Department is twisting procedural rules and ignoring expired statutes of limitations to breathe new life into old conspiracy theories.
Frank Figliuzzi, the host of The Frank Figliuzzi Show on Lincoln Square, is an FBI Assistant Director (retired); 25-year veteran Special Agent; and author of the national bestseller, The FBI Way, and Long Haul: Hunting the Highway Serial Killers. Subscribe to his Substack.
This week, we learned that the Department of Justice had subpoenaed several witnesses to appear before a grand jury investigating former CIA DirectorJohn Brennan. A federal grand jury investigation into a former head of the CIA would be big news on its own.
Yet, the attempts to pin some criminality to Brennan’s conduct, related to his congressional testimony about Russian interference with the 2016 election, is just another pathetic part of a continuing — and thus far failing — effort by Trump and his lackeys to punish any official who dared to speak or pursue a truth that Trump didn’t want to hear.
Monday also brought further confirmation that Trump’s Department of Justice is doubling down on its efforts with an announcement that former prosecutor Joseph diGenova, 81, a MAGA minion, will serve as Counselor to the Attorney General to act as a kind of ringmaster over the myriad cases aimed at proving there was a grand conspiracy in the intelligence community against Trump.
DiGenova will reportedly spend his time between Miami, where the U.S. Attorney has been dutifully but unsuccessfully investigating Trump’s perceived enemies, and in Fort Pierce, Florida, where a related grand jury is overseen by a federal judge, Aileen M. Cannon, who repeatedly ruled in Trump’s favor, infamously vaporized the Jack Smith special counsel charges against Trump in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, and barred release of Smith’s final report.
Cannon is the only federal judge currently sitting in Fort Pierce, which virtually guarantees that the unorthodox practice of “judge shopping” will likely work in Trump’s favor.