Trump picks U.S. attorney in Miami. As criminal prosecutor, he received poor evaluations
On paper, President Donald Trump’s new nominee to head the U.S. Attorney’s Office in South Florida seems to have solid credentials.
He formerly served as a federal prosecutor in the Miami office, was appointed as a Miami-Dade County judge a year ago by Gov. Ron DeSantis, and he’s a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserve.
But there are a couple of things in the background of Jason A. Reding Quiñones that were not highlighted in Trump’s glowing post about him on his media platform, Truth Social, on Sunday, including a name change and that he received poor evaluations as a criminal prosecutor in the same office he has been nominated to head.
After a lifetime of only going by the last name “Reding,” he added “Quiñones” to his surname in December 2023 when he applied for judicial openings on the county bench — a not so uncommon strategy in the so-called name game of judicial politics in Miami-Dade, where the majority of voters are Hispanic. It’s not clear whether Quiñones is a family name, however, because the 44-year-old Reding has never publicly explained why he appended it to his application to the Florida Judicial Nominating Commission in his bid for county judge.
Long before he set his sights on that goal, Reding, as he was known, graduated from Florida International University’s law school in 2008, practiced corporate law for few years, did a stint as a JAG/military lawyer for the Air Force, and then joined the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., in 2018. Later that year, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami hired Reding as a prosecutor in the major crimes section, the starting place for most newly hired assistants.
Poor job evaluations; he claims discrimination
During his four years in the major crimes section, which focuses on lower-level felony cases, Reding received poor evaluations from supervisors who cited his incompetence, the Miami Herald has learned. In turn, Reding filed a complaint against the office, claiming it was discriminating against him as a white man whose temporary work as an Air Force reservist prevented him from performing at the same full-time level as other federal prosecutors in the major crimes section, the Herald has learned.
Reding then took an extended leave from the office in 2020-2021 to serve in the Air Force Reserve. When he returned to his prosecutor’s job, Reding dropped his discrimination complaint against the office and agreed to be reassigned to the civil division, which deals mostly with non-criminal prosecutions. In the civil division, Reding received satisfactory job evaluations.
Reding did not respond to emails and a call to his office at the Miami-Dade County Court, where he has worked in the domestic violence section over the past year. The Herald not only requested an interview with Reding, but also sought responses to questions about the change to his last name and his poor job reviews at the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida said it could not comment on personnel matters.
Miami office one of the busiest
Trump was effusive in his praise of Reding when he announced his nomination for the U.S. Attorney’s position on Sunday afternoon. The office, one of the busiest in the country, has about 250 prosecutors who focus on fraud, corruption, drug trafficking and violent crime — though Trump has made it clear that a sweeping crackdown on immigration offenses is the main priority of his administration.
“It is my honor to nominate Judge Jason Reding Quiñones as the next United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida,” Trump posted on his media platform, Truth Social. “A former Federal prosecutor and Justice Department National Security Official, Judge Reding Quiñones currently serves as a highly respected State Trial Judge in Miami, and a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force Reserve.
“As the next U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Judge Reding Quiñones will restore Law and Order, prosecute violent crimes and, MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN. Congratulations Jason!”
Federalist Society member
Reding, who is a member of the conservative Federalist Society like many of Trump’s appointments to U.S. Attorney’s posts and federal judge openings, still must go through a Senate Judiciary Committee review and full Senate vote.
If confirmed, he would replace interim U.S. Attorney Hayden O’Byrne, who was temporarily appointed to the position by the Justice Department after U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe stepped down last month before Trump was sworn in as president.
Lapointe, a Haitian-American immigrant who became the first Black lawyer to serve in the most powerful federal law enforcement position in South Florida, announced his resignation after two years on the job.
Lapointe, 56, who assumed the U.S. Attorney’s position in January 2023 after being nominated by Democratic President Joe Biden, presided over a post-COVID-19 office that cracked down on government loan scams, false Medicare claims and nursing-school diploma mills, as well as Venezuelan corruption, developer Sergio Pino’s murder-for-hire plot targeting his wife, and the South Florida-led conspiracy to kill Haiti’s president.
READ MORE: Miami developer Sergio Pino found dead amid FBI ‘murder for hire’ investigation
Senior prosecutors have left
Lapointe’s exit was not the only significant departure from the office, which has lost a half dozen senior career prosecutors who either retired or moved into private practice, causing a brain drain and leadership void. Moreover, morale in the South Florida office has sunk to a new low, partly because of Trump’s Justice Department firing prosecutors and forcing others to resign in key places, including Washington and New York City.
In late January, one of the Miami office’s most well-respected prosecutors, Michael Thakur, was fired along with more than a dozen federal prosecutors in the Justice Department by Acting Attorney General James McHenry as political retribution for the special counsel’s indictments of Trump during the Biden administration.
In an emailed letter to Thakur and others, McHenry cited their roles in either the classified documents case involving an FBI search of Trump’s estate in Palm Beach or the election-interference case arising from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — both brought against Trump by the former special counsel, Jack Smith.
This story was originally published February 19, 2025 at 9:24 AM.
