The Justice Department has removed the lead federal prosecutor overseeing the investigation into former CIA Director John Brennan. The shakeup in the Southern District of Florida comes just weeks after President Donald Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi over the slow pace of inquiries into political adversaries. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has subsequently accelerated these efforts.
Maria Medetis Long, the career prosecutor leading the inquiry, notified defense attorneys of her departure from the case on Friday. The Department of Justice characterized the move as a routine reallocation of legal team resources.
The internal reality appears fractured. Sources indicate Medetis Long pushed back against demands to rapidly bring charges. She reportedly informed U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones she did not believe the perjury case, which stems from Brennan’s 2023 congressional testimony, was legally viable.
Blanche is aggressively restructuring operations. He relocated former top aide Christopher-James DeLorenz from Washington D.C. to the Miami office. DeLorenz will assist with the Brennan investigation and other sensitive cases. The FBI is actively preparing to interview approximately half a dozen witnesses in the coming weeks. Most are former intelligence officials.
The personnel change reflects broader friction within the government as administration officials demand rapid indictments.
How Acting AG Blanche is Centralizing High-Profile Prosecutions
The Brennan investigation effectively aims to re-litigate the intelligence community’s 2017 assessment regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election. That specific report was previously affirmed by a bipartisan Senate committee and a comprehensive CIA review.
Medetis Long’s removal represents a clear structural shift under Acting AG Blanche. He is bypassing traditional field office autonomy to solidify control over high-profile political prosecutions. By directly embedding Washington headquarters aides like DeLorenz into local field offices, the DOJ is signaling that career prosecutors who hesitate on viability concerns will be replaced by administration loyalists directed to execute the charging timeline.