Lead prosecutor on investigation into former CIA director no longer on case

A federal prosecutor leading the investigation into former CIA director John Brennan is no longer working on the case after expressing reservations about it, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The prosecutor, Maria Medetis Long, informed attorneys involved in the case she was no longer handling it, according to CNN, which first reported she was leaving the case. Medetis Long is a career attorney serving as the chief of the national security division in the US attorney’s office for the southern district of Florida. The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The investigation is said to be related to an assessment from the intelligence community following the 2016 election that Russia interfered to boost Donald Trump’s chances. Trump and his allies have long fumed about that conclusion.

Jason Reding Quiñones, the US attorney in the southern district of Florida, has told justice department officials an indictment may be coming soon, according to the New York Times.

The development comes after Trump fired attorney general Pam Bondi earlier this month, reportedly angry over the lack of progress on prosecuting political adversaries. Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, is said to want the job and Trump reportedly told him his time in the acting role would be a kind of audition, according to Fox News. A former top aide to Blanche recently relocated from the department’s headquarters in Washington to the southern district of Florida and is reportedly working on the Brennan matter, Bloomberg Law reported.

As Trump sought to prosecute New York attorney general Letitia James last year, career prosecutors in Virginia expressed reservations about that case and were fired from the department.