Welcome to Gonzales Watch - Blawging the Ex-Attorney General

Here is the text of Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty’s resignation letter that he gave to the Department of Justice’s top lawyer Alberto Gonzales today.

Gonzales watch has reprinted the text of the letter for visually challenged readers who use text-to-speech technology on their computers:

U.S. Department of Justice
Office of the Deputy Attorney General

May 14, 2007

Honourable Alberto R. Gonzales
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
Washington, D.C. 20530

Dear Attorney General Gonzales:

This is to advise you of my intention to step down from my position as Deputy Attorney General on a date to be determined later this summer. The financial realities of college-age children and two decades of public service lead me to a long overdue transition in my career.

I greatly appreciate the opportunity and privilege I have enjoyed for the past seven years to serve my country at the Department of Justice as both a United States Attorney and the Deputy Attorney General. The history of the Department will record the extraordinary challenge we faced after September 11, 2001, and in particular, how those of us who served as United States Attorneys embraced our new mission of preventing another terrorist attack.

I am grateful for your friendship and support, and the tireless efforts of the men and women in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General. I look forward to working with you to ensure a smooth transition in my office.

Sincerely,

Paul J. McNulty
Deputy Attorney General

Sen. Patrick Leahy (Dem. - Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, had a prompt reaction to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty’s resignation announcement today.

“This is not the first resignation from the Department of those involved in the United States Attorney scandal,” Leahy cautioned. “We see a Department rief with scandal and another agency this Administration seeks to manipulate as a political arm of the White House.”

WaPo’s Dan Eggen reports that McNulty acknowledged providing “inaccurate information” to Congress early this year about the firing of U.S. Attorneys, but shifted blamed to others he alleged were “more deeply involved in the removals.”

Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty (inset, left) is resigning from the No. 2 position in the Justice Department.

According to a prepared statement released by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, McNulty will “leave the Department later this summer.”

Prior to working in the DOJ’s headquarters in 2005, McNulty was the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virignia, prosecuting some of the highest profile terrorism cases. These included the successful prosecutions and convictions of:

• 9-11 Frenchman and Moroccan-born Zacarias Moussaoui
• American Talib John Walker Lindh
• The Khobar Towers bombing case where Hezbollah terrorists attacked a U.S. Military residence in Saudi Arabia
• The espionage case against FBI mole Robert Philip Hanssen

With McNulty leaving, it seems very likely that his Chief of Staff (and former Assistant U.S. Attorney in Virginia) Michael Elston (inset, below) will also be announcing his resignation soon.

Elston’s resignation also seems likely, given that fired U.S. Attorneys Paul K. Charlton of Phoenix, Arizona and John McKay of Seattle, Washington reportedly told the House Committee on the Judiciary that they felt threatened by McNulty’s aide in telephone calls that he made to the former prosecutors just before Gonzales testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on January 18, 2007.