US Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, second-in-command to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and caught in the firestorm over the firing of federal prosecutors, resigned on Monday citing family financial reasons.
In a letter to Gonzales, who faces his own calls to resign for the scandal over last year's controversial firings, McNulty said he was stepping down "on a date to be determined in the late summer."
McNulty is the latest senior Justice Department official to resign since March as the Democratic-controlled Congress investigates a controversial department decision to fire eight of the country's 93 US attorneys last year. A ninth federal prosecutors said last week he was pushed out as well.
The sacked prosecutors and opposition Democrats say they were purged because they did not bow to political pressure to follow up legal cases which would benefit US President George W. Bush's Republican party.
McNulty told the Washington Post that the political tumult over the prosecutor dismissals, including his role in giving inaccurate information to Congress, did not play a part in his decision to resign after 18 months on the job.
"It's been a big issue for the past few months, but the timing of this is really about other things," McNulty told the paper.
He also said he wanted to leave enough time for an orderly transition before his departure, the newspaper reported.
The administration has insisted the decision to dismiss the prosecutors was justified, though mishandled. Congressional investigators are attempting to determine if the firings were politically motivated.
According to documents released by the Justice Department, Gonzales aides said that the attorney general was upset by McNulty's testimony on Capitol Hill in February.
McNulty testified that only the federal prosecutor in Arkansas was let go so the job could be given to a former White House aide, with the others fired for performance-related issues.
When later information suggested otherwise, Gonzales said both he and his deputy were misinformed by top aides.
Democratic Senator Charles Schumer, who has been among those pressing the Senate Judiciary Committee investigation of the firings, used McNulty's resignation to criticize the administration.
"It seems ironic that Paul McNulty, who at least tried to level with the committee, goes, while Gonzales, who stonewalled the committee, is still in charge. This administration owes us a lot better," he said.
McNulty's resignation follows that of former Justice Department aide Monica Goodling, who abruptly quit last month. Goodling, as counselor to Gonzales and Justice Department White House liaison, was involved in the prosecutor firings.
In March, Kyle Sampson resigned as chief of staff to Gonzales after acknowledging that he did not tell other department officials sooner about his dealings with the White House over the firings.
Michael Battle, the Justice official who informed prosecutors that they were being dismissed also quit in March. Justice officials said at the time that his resignation had long been planned.
In his resignation letter, McNulty wrote, "The financial realities of my college-age children and two decades of public service lead me to a long overdue transition in my career."
Gonzales praised McNulty's record of service.
‘CROSSING THE LINE’: China’s embassy in Seoul criticized US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, asking if his ‘hostile’ remarks were authorized by Washington South Korea and the US are in talks over recent public remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday, after the comments drew sharp criticism from China. In a recent podcast interview, US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson described South Korea as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s east coast, prompting the Chinese embassy in Seoul to say that he had “truly crossed the line.” The interview came amid growing speculation that Washington might seek to expand the role of US Forces Korea in countering the growing regional influence of China, a key
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
RSS