Two months after he was confirmed by Congress, Reding Quiñones filed more than two dozen subpoenas to U.S. officials that took part in the 2016 Russian election interference inquiry, which has been internally redefined among Trump loyalists as the “grand conspiracy.” The unsubstantiated theory turns Trump’s legal challenges on their head, positing that the real-life charges—and Trump’s fleeting comeuppance—were a part of a groundless scheme by Democrats and “deep-state” operatives to destroy Trump and his political movement.
The district has become the epicenter of Trump’s political retribution since Reding Quiñones took over, but it’s far from the only office to massively reorient its resources under pressure by Trump’s White House. The Department of Homeland Security has had to move away from other missions in order to abet Trump’s deportation plans; the Department of Defense shifted billions of dollars to fund Trump’s border mission; and more than 6,000 FBI agents were diverted to handling “immigration-related matters,” effectively redefining the agency’s work.
The Justice Department has also dropped thousands of criminal cases in an attempt to funnel its efforts—almost singularly—toward convicting immigration cases. Altogether, the chief law enforcement agency closed some 23,000 criminal cases in the first six months of Trump’s term, including investigations into terrorism, white-collar crimes, and drugs, while prosecuting 32,000 new immigration cases.