Patrick Fitzgerald resigning U.S. attorney post

[Rheo]

CBS News:

(AP) CHICAGO - Patrick Fitzgerald, one of the most feared 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 Northern District of Illinois since Sept. 1, 2001. It said he did not immediately have any future employment plans and would take the summer off before considering other job possibilities. He was scheduled to address a press conference on Thursday morning in Chicago.

 

In the announcement, Fitzgerald recalled how upon his appointment to the post he considered it "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 in the statement.

 

Fitzgerald is leaving the Justice Department after nearly 24 years, including his time as an assistant U.S. Attorney in New York.

[Valin]

He goes back to the Mafia Commission trial.

[Rheo]

Does Tony West then get the job? If so, it will be worse than Holder.