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Joseph diGenova

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This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 4 December 2024.

Joseph diGenova (born February 22, 1945) is an American lawyer and political commentator who served as the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia from 1983 to 1988.[1][2] He and his wife, Victoria Toensing, are partners in the Washington, D.C., law firm diGenova and Toensing.[3][4] He is known for promoting conspiracy theories about the Department of Justice and the FBI.[13] He and Toensing frequently appeared on Fox News and Fox Business channels, until diGenova used a November 2019 appearance to spread conspiracy theories about George Soros, leading to widespread calls for him to be banned from the network.[14][15]

Joseph diGenova
United States Attorney for the District of Columbia
In office
December 2, 1983 – March 1, 1988
PresidentRonald Reagan
Preceded byStanley S. Harris
Succeeded byJay B. Stephens
Personal details
Born (1945-02-22) February 22, 1945 (age 79)
Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
Spouse
​
(m. 1981)​
EducationUniversity of Cincinnati (BA)
Georgetown University (JD)

In March 2018, President Donald Trump announced that diGenova and Toensing would join his legal defense team during the Mueller investigation; the appointments were withdrawn days later, citing an unspecified conflict of interest, though Trump personal attorney Jay Sekulow said they might assist in other legal matters.[16] In July 2019, diGenova and Toensing began representing Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash to assist his efforts to avoid extradition to the United States under a federal indictment, as their associate and Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani sought information in Ukraine to damage Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.[17][18][19] In November 2020, Trump named diGenova, Toensing, Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis to join a legal team led by Giuliani to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in which Trump was defeated.[20]

Career in law and politics

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DiGenova was an aide to Republican Senator Charles Mathias of Maryland, eventually serving as Mathias' legislative director. After Republicans won the U.S. Senate in the 1980 elections, DiGenova was named chief counsel and staff director of the Senate Rules Committee and counsel to the Senate Judiciary, Governmental Affairs, and Select Intelligence committees.[21][22]

U.S. attorney

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As a U.S. attorney, diGenova led the prosecution of Jonathan Pollard, who pleaded guilty in 1987 to spying for Israel.[21]

He also led investigations into corruption in the administration of Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry that led to convictions of 12 officials, including two deputy mayors.[23][2]

Counsel investigations

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DiGenova later served as Independent Counsel investigating the 1992 preelection search of then-candidate Bill Clinton's passport file by officials of the George H. W. Bush administration.[24] DiGenova concluded that the passport search had been "stupid, dumb and partisan," but not illegal, and that the government should apologize to the officials who ordered the search.[24]

DiGenova and his wife, Victoria Toensing, started their Washington law firm, diGenova & Toensing, in January 1996.[4][25]

In 1997, diGenova was named Special Counsel to investigate the International Brotherhood of Teamsters; afterward he was named to an independent review board to monitor the Teamsters.[22]

Trump presidency

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Scooter Libby

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DiGenova called on President Trump to pardon Scooter Libby, adviser of Dick Cheney, who was found guilty of perjury in an investigation revolving around leaks of sensitive classified material.[26] DiGenova is married to Libby's lawyer, Victoria Toensing.[27] Trump pardoned Libby on April 13, 2018.[28]

Russian interference in the 2016 election

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Further information: Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections

DiGenova, who frequently appears as a commentator on Fox News, has accused FBI officials of trying to "frame" President Donald Trump for "nonexistent" crimes.[29] On March 19, 2018, he and his spouse, Victoria Toensing, were hired to serve on Trump's legal team for the Special Counsel investigation.[6] However, Trump backtracked the hires several days later due to potential conflicts of interest.[16] The president hoped diGenova could function as a stand-in for him on television and spearhead the attacks on Mueller and the investigation.[30]

In April 2018, diGenova called for the firing of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, said that special counsel Robert Mueller's team investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election were "legal terrorists" and called former FBI Director James Comey "a dirty cop".[5] In May 2018 tweet, Trump quoted diGenova as saying "The recusal of Jeff Sessions was an unforced betrayal of the President of the United States."[31]

On February 21, 2019, diGenova stated in the podcast of Laura Ingraham that the US is in a civil war and that he advises friends to prepare for total war by voting and buying guns.[32]

Kavanaugh appointment

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On September 18, 2018, diGenova discounted charges that U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, then 17 years old, had allegedly sexually assaulted a 15-year-old Christine Blasey Ford at a party. The allegations referred to a time when Kavanaugh was attending Georgetown Preparatory School. On Fox News, diGenova said if Ford testified, "she's going to look like the loon that she is."[33]

Ukraine investigations

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Further information: Trump–Ukraine scandal

In July 2019, diGenova and his wife, Victoria Toensing, were hired by the Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash, to defend Firtash from extradition to the United States on corruption charges related to a mining permit in India.[34][35][36] In 2017, the United States Justice Department described Firtash as an "upper-echelon [associate] of Russian organized crime."[37] As a middleman for the Russian natural gas giant Gazprom, Firtash was known for funneling money to campaigns of pro-Russia politicians in Ukraine[38] and is also a onetime business partner of Paul Manafort, a Trump 2016 campaign chairman.[39] When he was vice president, Joe Biden had urged the Ukrainian government to eliminate middlemen such as Firtash from the country's natural gas industry, and to reduce the country's reliance on imports of Russian natural gas.[18]

In August 2019, diGenova and Toensing met with Attorney General William Barr to argue against the charges for Firtash.[18] Prior to that meeting, Barr had been briefed in detail on the initial Trump-Ukraine scandal whistleblower complaint within the CIA that had been forwarded to the Justice Department, as well as on Giuliani's activities in Ukraine.[18] Barr declined to intercede, according to sources who talked to The Washington Post.[40]

In October 2019, Lev Parnas, a businessman who was working for diGenova and Toensing's firm as an interpreter in the Firtash case, was one of two men arrested at Dulles International Airport and accused by federal prosecutors of funneling foreign money into U.S. elections.[41] The New York Times reported in November 2019 that Giuliani had directed Parnas to approach Firtash with the recommendation to hire diGenova and Toensing, with the proposition that Firtash could help to provide compromising information on Joe Biden, an arrangement Parnas's attorney Joseph Bondy described was "part of any potential resolution to [Firtash's] extradition matter."[18] In November 2019, Bondy told The Washington Post that Parnas had been part of "a group that met frequently in spring 2019 at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., to discuss the Biden matter, among other topics. The group, according to Bondy, was convened by Giuliani, Trump's personal attorney, and included Parnas, his business associate Igor Fruman, as well as journalist John Solomon and the husband-and-wife legal team of Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing."[42] After Firtash hired diGenova and Toensing, Giuliani acquired a statement[43] from former Ukrainian prosecutor general Viktor Shokin that falsely alleged Biden had pressured Ukraine to fire him in an effort to cover up corruption by Biden and his son. Shokin's statement noted that it was prepared "at the request of lawyers acting for Dmitry Firtash."[44][45] Giuliani had presented the Shokin statement during television appearances, and Bloomberg News reported that its sources told them Giuliani's publicity of the Shokin statement had greatly reduced the chances of the Justice Department dropping the charges against Firtash, as it would appear to be a political quid pro quo.[17]

DiGenova and Toensing worked with Rudy Giuliani on opposition research from Ukraine to be used against the 2020 Democratic candidate Joe Biden, according to Fox News Sunday.[46] All three were working off the books, outside the administration, according to Fox News. "The only person in government who knows what they were doing is President Trump," Fox host Chris Wallace said.[47] DiGenova called the story "categorically false."[46]

DiGenova and Toensing are lawyers for John Solomon, a conservative columnist who has written stories favorable to Trump on scandals involving Ukraine and Russia. "John Solomon has been a client of our firm for a very long time," diGenova told Politico.[48]

In November 2019, in an appearance on Fox News, diGenova claimed that George Soros "controls a very large part of the career foreign service of the United States State Department" and "also controls the activities of FBI agents overseas who work for NOG's, work with NGO's. That was very evident in Ukraine."[49] The Open Society Foundation, founded by Soros, described diGenova's claims as "beyond rhetorical ugliness, beyond fiction, beyond ludicrous" and requested that Fox News provide an on-air retraction of diGenova's claims, and stop providing diGenova with a platform.[50] Although the network never publicly announced it had banned diGenova, as of September 2020, diGenova had not appeared on Fox following the incident.[51] In September 2020, diGenova said, "I don't know what George Soros has on Suzanne Scott, the head of Fox, but the bottom line is this: that network is compromised when it comes to Soros."[51]

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Further information: Disputes surrounding the 2020 United States presidential election results

In November 2020, President Donald Trump named diGenova, Toensing, Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis to join a legal team led by Rudy Giuliani to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election in which Trump was defeated.[20]

On November 30, 2020, diGenova used an appearance on The Howie Carr Show (released on YouTube) to call for Chris Krebs to be "drawn and quartered. Taken out at dawn and shot". DiGenova's specific criticism was that Krebs "thinks the election went well". Krebs was the former Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency for the United States Department of Homeland Security and had been fired by Trump earlier that month for contradicting Trump's false and baseless claims of widespread election fraud.[52][53] On December 8 Krebs filed a civil lawsuit against diGenova, the Trump campaign, and Newsmax TV, accusing them of "defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, aiding and abetting, and civil conspiracy". He said that he has received "a barrage of threats and harassment" as a result of diGenova's comments and "faces a genuine risk of imminent harm."[54]

DiGenova and his wife were among several Trump associates who were emailed by OANN anchor Christina Bobb on December 13, 2020, regarding efforts by Republicans in seven states to appoint false electors and create fraudulent certificates of ascertainment to be submitted to vice president Mike Pence for certification on January 6, 2021.[55]

References

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  1. ^ Lewis, Nancy (January 13, 1988). "Digenova Turns In Resignation". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 23, 2018. Retrieved March 22, 2018.
  2. ^ a b LaFraniere, Sharon (February 29, 1988). "Digenova's Legacy". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 23, 2018. Retrieved March 22, 2018.
  3. ^ "diGenova & Toensing". www.digenovatoensing.com. Archived from the original on December 1, 2019. Retrieved November 27, 2019.
  4. ^ a b Marcus, Ilana; Eaton, Joshua; Marcus, Ilana; Eaton, Joshua (November 12, 2019). "The Vicki & Joe Show: D.C. power couple hit airwaves as impeachment inquiry moves forward". Archived from the original on November 17, 2019. Retrieved November 19, 2019.
  5. ^ a b Sheth, Sonam (April 11, 2018). "Former federal prosecutor Joseph DiGenova calls for Rosenstein's firing on Fox News after Trump tells people to tune in to the 'big show'". Business Insider. Archived from the original on April 12, 2018. Retrieved April 12, 2018. DiGenova and his wife, Victoria Toensing, both used to work within the US Justice Department, but later made their reputations peddling conspiracy theories on TV about the DOJ and FBI.
  6. ^ a b Haberman, Maggie; Schmidt, Michael S. (March 19, 2018). "Trump Hires Lawyer Who Has Pushed Theory That Justice Dept. Framed the President". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 22, 2018. Retrieved March 22, 2018.
  7. ^ Blake, Aaron (March 19, 2018). "Analysis | Trump just hired a deep-state conspiracy theorist as his lawyer. Here's what Joe DiGenova has said". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on May 10, 2018. Retrieved May 11, 2018.
  8. ^ Sheth, Sonam (March 19, 2018). "Trump is reportedly set to hire a new lawyer who called Comey 'a dirty cop' and accused the FBI of trying to 'frame' Trump". Business Insider. Archived from the original on May 11, 2018. Retrieved May 11, 2018.
  9. ^ "The bizarre conspiracy theories peddled by Donald Trump's new lawyer". The Independent. March 20, 2018. Archived from the original on May 24, 2018. Retrieved May 31, 2018.
  10. ^ Hart, Benjamin. "Trump's Conspiracy Theory Lawyer Dropped From Team Before Starting". Daily Intelligencer. Archived from the original on August 18, 2018. Retrieved August 18, 2018. DiGenova is known as a fierce defender of Trump who has used frequent guest appearances on Fox News to advance far-out conspiracy theories that the FBI is trying to frame the president.
  11. ^ Tibon, Amir (March 20, 2018). "Trump's New Lawyer: The Man Who Sent Jonathan Pollard to Jail". Haaretz. Archived from the original on August 18, 2018. Retrieved August 18, 2018. Joseph diGenova has promoted conspiracy theories about a 'deep state' attempt to 'frame' Trump and his campaign for criminal activities
  12. ^ Breuninger, Kevin (March 27, 2018). "Here are the lawyers who quit or declined to represent Trump in the Mueller probe". CNBC. Archived from the original on August 18, 2018. Retrieved August 18, 2018. DiGenova, a regular Fox News guest, had spouted conspiracy theories about the Mueller probe's motives against Trump.
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  32. ^ "Frequent Fox News guest tells Laura Ingraham "we are in a civil war;" suggests everyone buy guns to prepare for "total war"". Media Matters. February 21, 2019. Archived from the original on February 22, 2019. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  33. ^ Lemire, Jason (September 18, 2018). "Fox News guest claims Christine Blasey Ford will look like the 'loon that she is.' if she testifies against Brett Kavanaugh". Newsweek. Archived from the original on September 19, 2018. Retrieved September 19, 2018.
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  35. ^ Farrell, Greg; Reznik, Irina; Groendahl, Boris (September 23, 2019). "Trump-Friendly Lawyers Join Legal Team of Ukraine's Firtash". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on September 14, 2020. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
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  43. ^ "Witness Statement of Viktor Mikolajovich Shokin" (PDF). FactCheck.org. Annenberg Public Policy Center. September 4, 2019. Retrieved June 25, 2023.
  44. ^ Shuster, Simon (October 15, 2019). "Exclusive: How a Ukrainian Oligarch Wanted by U.S. Authorities Helped Giuliani Attack Biden". Time. Archived from the original on November 27, 2020. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
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  49. ^ "Lou Dobbs guest Joe diGenova says George Soros controls a large part of the State Department and activities of FBI agents". Media Matters for America. November 13, 2019. Archived from the original on November 14, 2019. Retrieved November 14, 2019.
  50. ^ Wemple, Eric (November 14, 2019). "Soros foundation requests banning of Joe diGenova from Fox News/Fox Business after anti-Semitic rant". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 14, 2019. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
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  55. ^ Woodruff Swan, Betsy (July 21, 2022). "Top Trump lawyers briefed in detail on alternate elector plot on Dec. 13, 2020". Politico.
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