DOJ National Security Chief John Eisenberg Resigns as Departures Mount
The Justice Department's leadership shake-up widened Friday as John Eisenberg, head of the National Security Division, resigned.
Attorney General Todd Blanche publicly confirmed the departure after multiple sources first told Fox News that Eisenberg was stepping down. Reuters also confirmed the resignation, citing Blanche's announcement.
Eisenberg's exit came the same day Jason Reding Quiñones resigned as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and one day after Harmeet Dhillon announced she was leaving the Civil Rights Division.
That makes three senior Justice Department officials heading for the exits within roughly two days of Democrats' sweeping midterm wins.
READ MORE: Harmeet Dhillon Resigning as Head of Justice Department's Civil Rights Division
No Reason Given
There is no public evidence that Eisenberg's resignation was tied to the election, and Blanche did not initially offer a detailed explanation for the departure.
Eisenberg held one of the department's most important national security jobs. He was confirmed by the Senate and sworn in on June 5, 2025. The division sits at the center of the government's most sensitive investigations.
As head of the National Security Division, he oversaw prosecutors handling counterterrorism, counterintelligence, espionage, cybersecurity and export-control cases, and he served as the department's main liaison with the intelligence community.
His duties also covered the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and litigation before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Those responsibilities make the post one of the most sensitive in the federal government.
A Veteran of Trump's First Term
Eisenberg previously served as legal adviser to the National Security Council and as deputy counsel to the president during Trump's first administration. He was also a partner at Kirkland & Ellis.
Before joining the Trump White House in the first term, Eisenberg had already held senior positions inside the Justice Department, giving him deep experience with the department he would later help lead.
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A Yale Law School graduate, he clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and for former federal appeals judge Michael Luttig.
Under his leadership, the division aggressively pursued cases involving China and artificial intelligence. In March, he announced charges against three defendants accused of conspiring to divert high-performance servers containing restricted American AI technology to China.
Prosecutors alleged that scheme involved billions of dollars in servers and hundreds of millions of dollars in restricted technology. Eisenberg said at the time that protecting American technological leadership was a national security priority.
In January, a federal jury convicted former Google engineer Linwei Ding on seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of trade-secret theft involving confidential AI technology.
Replacing Him Gets Harder
Blanche also praised Quiñones for fighting violent crime, drug trafficking, sex trafficking and transnational crime during his time as U.S. attorney. His departure removed another Senate-confirmed Trump appointee from a major post.
The timing could make permanent replacements more difficult. Senate-confirmed Justice Department posts require approval from the chamber, and Democrats will control the Senate when the new Congress begins, though the administration can use acting officials.
The departures leave Trump and Blanche facing another major personnel decision at a department handling some of the administration's most sensitive national security cases.
His resignation adds to a rapidly growing list of high-level departures as the Justice Department prepares for the final two years of Trump's presidency under divided government.