DOJ Probe Into Anti-Trump Conspiracy Collapses
Left 100%
Center 0%
Right 0%
3 left · 0 center · 0 right
What happened
Kurt Olsen, an attorney assigned earlier this year to a Justice Department investigation in the Southern District of Florida, has resigned, according to people familiar with the matter. The inquiry is examining intelligence officials and others who investigated Donald Trump and his associates from the 2016 campaign through criminal cases after he left office in 2021. Olsen’s exit follows the recent departure of Joe diGenova, another attorney tied to the same effort. Some line prosecutors who had been temporarily detailed to the South Florida U.S. attorney’s office have also left as those assignments ended, while additional attorneys have been added. Former CIA Director John Brennan and other subjects of the investigation have been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury in South Florida. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment.
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BLINDSPOT.
Only left-leaning outlets are covering this story
— the other side's media is silent.
Omitted — what each side leaves out
Unpacked
The story of a Justice Department inquiry losing its Trump-aligned leaders is being told only on the left, and a reader of right-leaning outlets would not know it is happening at all. Left-leaning coverage reports that Kurt Olsen resigned from the Florida probe and that Joe diGenova departed after saying he was being pressured to bring charges without supporting evidence. That coverage also notes other prosecutors left the South Florida office, some because temporary details had expired.
Left-leaning coverage splits on whether the inquiry still has a working staff. Additional attorneys were recently added, according to ABC News, even as The Atlantic describes the probe as "collapsing." Right-leaning outlets had not covered this as of publication.
Has the South Florida grand jury been kept in session, or has the deprivation-of-rights theory been dropped?
Bottom line
Even the left cannot settle the staffing picture: ABC News reports lawyers were added to the Florida conspiracy probe after Kurt Olsen quit, while The Atlantic already calls that probe collapsing.
The receipts — 5 facts one side's coverage lacks
- Kurt Olsen resigned from the grand conspiracy probe in Southern Florida
- Kurt Olsen had no prior prosecutorial experience
- Current and former federal prosecutors have questioned charging Trump's foes under the civil rights statute known as deprivation of rights under color of law
- Former CIA Director John Brennan has been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury in South Florida
- A DOJ spokesperson declined to comment
The Left View
ABC News and The Atlantic, which are covering the story, report that a Florida-based DOJ investigation into an alleged conspiracy against Trump is losing key personnel and facing internal doubt. ABC identifies Olsen as a Trump ally and 2020 election denier with no prior prosecutorial experience who had litigated challenges to the 2020 results, and notes diGenova told the New York Post he was being pressured by DOJ leadership to bring charges without supporting evidence. The Atlantic frames the inquiry as collapsing under strategic errors, staff turnover, and the facts, and both outlets describe prosecutor skepticism of using a civil-rights statute—deprivation of rights under color of law—against officials who investigated Trump. They report Brennan and others have been subpoenaed in recent weeks.
Our Take (balanced)
The personnel facts are specific and checkable in principle: named lawyers (Olsen, diGenova), a named office (South Florida U.S. attorney’s office), reported grand-jury subpoenas including John Brennan, and a stated legal theory. Those events rest on unnamed sources; DOJ has not confirmed them. Claims that the probe is collapsing, that leadership demanded charges without evidence, and that the legal theory cannot support a case are characterizations and one-party allegations, not findings backed by public charging documents or an official DOJ statement. No right-leaning outlet has reported this. Watch for DOJ confirmation or denial of the resignations, public docket activity or testimony related to the subpoenas, any charging decision or formal wind-down, and on-the-record responses from named subjects or their counsel.
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