FILE - In this April 25, 2007 file photo, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald speaks at a news conference at the federal building in Chicago about the arrest of John P. Tomkins, 42, of Dubuque, Iowa, who was arrested and charged with sending dud pipe bombs and threatening letters to investment companies in Denver and Kansas City in an effort to drive up stock prices. On Wednesday, May 23, 2012, Fitzgerald's office in Chicago announced that he was stepping down as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois effective June 30, 2012. Fitzgerald has held the post for more than a decade. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)
FILE - In this April 25, 2007 file photo, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald speaks at a news conference at the federal building in Chicago about the arrest of John P. Tomkins, 42, of Dubuque, Iowa, who was arrested and charged with sending dud pipe bombs and threatening letters to investment companies in Denver and Kansas City in an effort to drive up stock prices. On Wednesday, May 23, 2012, Fitzgerald's office in Chicago announced that he was stepping down as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois effective June 30, 2012. Fitzgerald has held the post for more than a decade. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)
FILE - In this June 27, 2011 file photo, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Patrick Fitzgerald speaks at a news conference after former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was convicted by a jury of 17 of 20 corruption charges. On Wednesday, May 23, 2012, Fitzgerald's office announced that he is stepping down effective June 30, 2012. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File)
FILE - In this Nov. 1, 2011 file photo, Patrick Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, leaves a news conference on crutches at the federal building in Chicago after a jury convicted Illinois powerbroker William Cellini of conspiring to shake down the Oscar-winning producer of "Million Dollar Baby" for campaign cash. On Wednesday, May 23, 2012, Fitzgerald's office announced that he is stepping down effective June 30, 2012. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File)
FILE - In this Oct. 21, 2008 file photo, U.S Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald announces the indictment and arrest of retired Chicago police commander Jon Burge in Florida on federal obstruction of justice and perjury charges during a news conference in Chicago. On Wednesday, May 23, 2012, Fitzgerald's office in Chicago announced that he was stepping down as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois effective June 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)
FILE - In this Dec. 17, 2003 file photo, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald explains a 91-page indictment against former Illinois Gov. George Ryan in Chicago. On Wednesday, May 23, 2012, Fitzgerald's office in Chicago announced that he was stepping down as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois effective June 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Anne Ryan, File)
CHICAGO (AP) ? Patrick Fitzgerald, known as one of the most relentless U.S. attorneys in the nation and the architect of convictions against two Illinois governors and a former vice presidential aide, announced Wednesday that he is stepping down from the post he has held for more than a decade in Chicago.
Fitzgerald has overseen thousands of criminal prosecutions and high-profile cases, including against Illinois governors Rod Blagojevich and George Ryan, former Vice President Dick Cheney's top aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby and media mogul Conrad Black. He took on public corruption, international terrorism, corporate fraud and organized crime.
His office announced Wednesday that he's stepping down effective June 30.
A statement from his office gave no reason for his decision to leave the presidentially appointed post he has held for since Sept. 1, 2001. It said he did not immediately have future employment plans and would take the summer off before considering other job possibilities.
Fitzgerald, who is married to a schoolteacher and has two young children, was scheduled to address a press conference on Thursday morning in Chicago.
In the statement, Fitzgerald recalled how upon his appointment he considered the post "one of the greatest opportunities that one could ever hope for."
"I believe that even more now after having the privilege of working alongside hundreds of dedicated prosecutors and agents," he said.
Fitzgerald is leaving the Justice Department after nearly 24 years, including his time as an assistant U.S. Attorney in New York. As a former senior Justice Department prosecutor, Fitzgerald faces a year of tight restrictions on whom he can interact with at the department.
As the top federal law enforcement official in northern Illinois, Fitzgerald was at the center of some of the biggest legal stories in the state's history, including corruption convictions against Ryan, a Republican, and Blagojevich, a Democrat.
Nationally, Fitzgerald was tapped to be the special prosecutor who investigated the disclosure of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame and eventually won a conviction against Libby for perjury and other offenses. President George W. Bush, who had appointed Fitzgerald, later commuted Libby's 30-month prison term.
To those he targeted since taking over in Chicago in 2001, Fitzgerald became one the most feared U.S. attorneys in the nation, winning convictions for several city workers and trucking executives, as well as some of top figures in the administration of former Chicago Mayor Richard Daley.
It was his reputation as a hard-charging prosecutor that got him the job in the first place. As an assistant U.S. attorney in New York he successfully prosecuted major terrorism cases, including against those responsible for the 1998 bombing of two U.S. embassies in East Africa and Omar Abdel-Rahman, the so-called "blind sheik," convicted of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and conspiring to blow up bridges and buildings around New York city.
In 1993, he helped jail a Gambino crime family capo and three other mobsters for murder, racketeering, narcotics trafficking and other crimes. And he supervised the 1996 trial of three men who plotted to blow up 12 airliners.
The statement from his office said Fitzgerald has notified the White House, Attorney General Eric Holder and Illinois' two U.S. senators of his decision.
In Washington, Holder praised Fitzgerald, saying he "served the American people and the citizens of Illinois with the utmost integrity and a steadfast commitment to the cause of justice."
"From his early consequential years in New York City confronting the terrorist threat to his strong leadership of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois, Pat has rightly earned a reputation over these last 24 years as a prosecutor's prosecutor," Holder said.
Fitzgerald, who was intensely private, also built a reputation for leaving his own political leanings out of his work.
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said Fitzgerald was known for his "aggressive prosecution of wrongdoing ? including politicians in both parties." Durbin added that Fitzgerald "has given fair warning that no one is above the law."
He also established a reputation for relentlessness.
In the CIA leak case, Fitzgerald tried to force former New York Times reporter Judith Miller to testify before a grand jury, with Miller sitting in jail for three months for refusing to do so. She ultimately relented, saying Libby had given her permission to publish Plame's name. And Fitzgerald brushed off heavy criticism after jurors deadlocked on all but one relatively minor charge during Blagojevich's first corruption trial in Chicago, choosing to hold a second trial and winning a 14-year prison sentence for the ex-governor.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., the son of a Manhattan doorman, Fitzgerald spent years advancing his career one criminal case at a time. From the East Coast to Chicago, he earned a reputation as a tough prosecutor who worked, as one observer put it, "28 hours a day."
Joel Levin, who worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in Chicago from 2001 to 2008, said Fitzgerald quickly earned the respect of his staff even though he was appointed from outside of Illinois because he'd "been in the trenches."
"He was able to contribute in meaningful way in supervising cases but at same time he does not meddle," said Levin, who now works at a private law firm. "He is able to give meaningful input behind scenes but is first to give credit" to others.
Fitzgerald was among 10 or more people with strong credentials in law enforcement whose names were mentioned a year ago as possible nominees to succeed FBI Director Robert Mueller as his 10-year term neared an end. President Barack Obama decided to stick with Mueller, keeping him in place for another two years until September 2013.
During an appearance last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mueller said he has had discussions with Obama about potential successors, but "not very recently."
"We are preparing for 2013 when we would expect a new individual to take the helm," Mueller said.
If Fitzgerald were to accept a nomination, he could potentially run into opposition on Capitol Hill from Republicans, some of whom view his prosecution of Libby case as an illustration of prosecutorial overreach.
His strong reputation and name recognition also could make him an ideal political candidate.
But Fitzgerald, who was appointed by a Republican president and has kept his job under a Democrat, has said he has "no intention of ever running for any office."
___
Associated Press writers Tammy Webber in Chicago and Pete Yost in Washington contributed to this report.
Associated Presstupac back tax deadline death race buffet rule carlos santana baa dodgers triple play
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.