Conservative presidential power expert set to assist investigation into Trump foes
By Katelyn Polantz, CNN
(CNN) — John Yoo — a well-known and, in some legal and political circles, infamous conservative lawyer — will assist a Justice Department investigation that has theorized a yearslong conspiracy against President Donald Trump and is looking at several former high-ranking federal officials.
Yoo, now a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, was the head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel under President George W. Bush during September 11, 2001, and is most known for authoring the “torture memos” used for detainees after the attacks. He is also a national security specialist with experience on the law around presidential power and a proponent of expanding authority for the executive branch.
Yoo is set to advise Joe DiGenova and Victoria Toensing, two longtime conservative attorneys who are acting as prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida and are looking at possible cases against Trump foes. Though he hasn’t started yet, Yoo will act as an intermittent consultant, or special government employee, on constitutional issues.
The addition of Yoo to the Miami-based investigation is likely to raise new questions about where DiGenova’s work, in particular, may aim — with some sources describing it as a grand conspiracy stretching from the investigation into Russian election interference in 2016 to the FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in 2022.
“I have known Joe DiGenova and Vicky Toensing for more than three decades, so if they and the United States need my assistance, I’m happy to provide it anytime, anywhere, for anything,” Yoo told CNN on Sunday night.
The new role for Yoo will put him in a similar position as appellate lawyers who served on special counsel investigations at the Justice Department over the past decade.
Those included the Robert Mueller investigation, which ultimately determined Trump in his first term couldn’t be charged with obstruction of justice as he sought to shut down the investigation into his 2016 campaign, though it unearthed allegations that were seized upon by the president’s political foes. It also included the office led by Jack Smith — another former special counsel to the Justice Department — who tried and failed to prosecute Trump for allegedly mishandling classified records after his first term.
The Smith investigation ultimately took the question of criminal immunity for a president to the Supreme Court, in a separate now-dismissed case against Trump for allegedly conspiring to overturn his 2020 election loss. The high court’s opinion ultimately expanded presidential power.
This probe would likely flip questions that plagued Trump around, now looking at the government officials who contributed to the prior investigations into him, such as former CIA Director John Brennan. Brennan hasn’t been charged with any crime but has been under investigation.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
CNN’s Evan Perez contributed to this report.
