Kurt Olsen is stepping down from the Justice Department investigation into an alleged “grand conspiracy” targeting officials from the Obama and Biden administrations, but will remain employed as a senior counsel in the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.
Olsen notified the US attorney in Florida by email on Monday that he intended to leave the case. Confusion followed within the department, with officials in Miami and Washington initially believing he was resigning from the federal government altogether.
After reports of his departure emerged, Olsen contacted Justice Department officials to clarify that he intended to remain in his role as a government attorney, according to a department official. He did not respond to a request for comment.
The uncertainty became public when Attorney General Todd Blanche was asked about the reports during an unrelated press conference on Wednesday.
“Kurt Olsen has not resigned,” Mr Blanche said, describing the reports as an “incredible amount of fake news”. When asked whether Olsen had left the investigation, he replied: “He’s still employed exactly where he was before.”
A department official later clarified that Olsen would remain on staff but would no longer be assigned to the grand conspiracy investigation. It is not clear what work he will undertake in the Florida office.
Olsen’s departure from the case came after concerns arose over his security clearance, according to two people familiar with the matter. Without the clearance, he could not effectively review classified evidence connected to the investigation, including material relating to Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and former special counsel Jack Smith’s inquiry into Donald Trump’s retention of classified records.
Olsen has reportedly expressed an interest in transferring to the US Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of North Carolina to work for Dan Bishop on election matters, although it is unclear whether that move will happen.
He is the third prosecutor this year to leave the grand conspiracy investigation or a related inquiry into whether former CIA director John Brennan lied to Congress about the agency’s role in the intelligence assessment on Russian interference.
Maria Medetis Long, head of the national security section in the Southern District of Florida, was removed from the case in April after raising concerns about the strength of the evidence. She was replaced by Joe diGenova, a former federal prosecutor who later resigned in September amid tensions with the deputy attorney general’s office over the handling of the investigation.
Olsen joined the Florida office as senior counsel in the spring. He previously worked in the White House as a “Presidentially appointed Director of Election Security and Integrity” and, in 2020, worked with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in seeking to persuade the Supreme Court to overturn the election result.
Earlier this year, Olsen referred a Fulton County election case to the FBI, prompting agents to execute a search warrant and seize dozens of boxes of ballots and other materials, according to an FBI affidavit. He has also made election-related referrals to the Justice Department concerning Arizona.
