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U.S. attorney in Miami targeting Cuban Communist leaders with new initiative, sources say

By
Sarah N. Lynch
Sarah N. Lynch
Senior Justice Department Reporter
Sarah N. Lynch is the senior Justice Department reporter for CBS News, based in Washington, D.C.
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Sarah N. Lynch

/ CBS News

The top federal prosecutor in Miami is spearheading a new initiative targeting Cuban leaders for prosecution, sources familiar with the plan tell CBS News.

Jason Reding Quiñones, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, is working with officials from federal and local law enforcement agencies and the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, to establish a new Cuban prosecution working group, the sources said. OFAC is the office responsible for imposing sanctions.

The group plans to focus on prosecutions involving economic crimes, drugs, violent crimes and immigration-related violations, with a focus on targeting those in the Communist Party leadership, the sources added.

A Justice Department spokesperson told CBS News: "Federal prosecutors from across the country work every day to pursue justice, which includes efforts to combat transnational crime."

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office could not be immediately reached for comment. The plans for the new working group were reported earlier by .

President Trump has indicated he's been eyeing Cuba's leaders, after the U.S. ousted Venezuelan President Nicolàs Maduro and brought him to the United States to face drug charges in January, and recently launched a joint war with Israel against Iran last week that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

The president told CNN in an interview on Friday that Cuba's communist government was likely to be toppled next.

"Cuba is gonna fall pretty soon," Mr. Trump said, according to CNN.

Quiñones and First Assistant U.S. Attorney Yara Klukas are the same prosecutors who are separately leading an investigation into former Obama-era intelligence officials, including former CIA Director John 91³Ô¹ÏÍø, over an intelligence assessment that determined that Russia had tried to interfere in the 2016 presidential election to help benefit Mr. Trump.

Late last year, Quiñones' office sent subpoenas to former government officials requesting a broad swath of records, including paper or digital documents, text messages and emails associated with the preparation of the intelligence community's January 2017 assessment.

In recent weeks, updated subpoenas that expanded the date range for the documents were issued in the matter.

Sara Cook contributed to this report.

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