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DOJ removes career federal prosecutor leading the Brennan investigation after she resisted bringing charges career staff judged unsupported

On April 17, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice removed Maria Medetis Long — the career federal prosecutor heading the national-security section at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami and leading the federal criminal investigation of former CIA Director John Brennan — after she resisted pressure from senior DOJ leadership to file charges career prosecutors had told the Department the evidence did not support. U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones had earlier told DOJ leadership that charges could still be months away. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, seeking to retain the job after President Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier in April over dissatisfaction at the slow pace of cases against Trump's political adversaries, has been pressing to deliver indictments on the president's priority targets.

Part of: Trump DOJ Reshaping of the Brennan Investigation

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
Miami, FL (Southern District of Florida)

Abuses documented

Actors

The Brennan investigation is rooted in a long-running Trump grievance: the 2017 intelligence community assessment that found Russia had interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help Donald Trump. Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida had been working the matter for months, with the office's National Security Section Chief, Maria Medetis Long, in charge. Career prosecutors and investigators on her team had repeatedly told Justice Department officials they did not believe the evidence supported a quick indictment, and U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones had earlier told DOJ leadership that charges could still be months away.

On April 17, 2026, CNN reported that DOJ had removed Long from the investigation after she resisted pressure from senior DOJ leadership to file charges on a timeline top officials deemed unacceptable. The decision came as Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, having taken the role after President Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier in April over dissatisfaction at the slow pace of cases against Trump's political adversaries, was working to satisfy the president's prosecution demands. The next-day appointment that filled the vacancy with a Trump legal ally — Joseph diGenova as Counselor to the Attorney General assigned to the Brennan probe at Fort Pierce — is recorded separately at issue-256-federal-weaponizing-doj per the one-issue-per-event rule (different date, different specific act).

The discrete abuse documented here is the use of Justice Department personnel power to remove a career national-security prosecutor specifically because she had resisted pressure to bring criminal charges career staff judged unsupported by the evidence on a politically-targeted investigation. The primary abuse mapped is weaponizing-doj; selective-prosecution follows because the underlying objective being served — speeding charges career prosecutors did not believe were supported, against a specific political adversary of the president — is the configuration selective-prosecution describes.

Why we recorded this

A foundational norm of American government is that criminal prosecutions turn on evidence and law, not on a president's political wishes. Career prosecutors are expected to bring charges only when the facts support them, and the Justice Department's independence from the White House is what keeps the power to investigate and indict from becoming a weapon against the president's rivals. Removing the career prosecutor who led a politically charged investigation because she would not file charges her own staff judged unsupported pushes the Department toward prosecuting on demand rather than on merit. The principle at stake is equal application of the law: the same standards must govern a case regardless of who the target is or who wants it brought.

Sources

  1. Exclusive: Justice Department removes lead prosecutor from probe of Trump critic John Brennan — CNN primary accessed May 26, 2026

See also