Justice Dept.'s No. 3 Resigns

Mercer Is Sixth Official to Leave in Wake of Prosecutor Firings

By Dan Eggen
Washington Post

The Justice Department's third-in-command announced his resignation today, becoming the sixth high-level official to quit in the wake of ongoing controversy over the firings of nine U.S. attorneys last year.

William W. Mercer, who has been acting associate attorney general since September, formally withdrew his nomination for the permanent job just days before a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing scheduled for Tuesday. Officials said he will return to Montana, where he also has a permanent job as the state's only U.S. attorney.

Mercer wrote in a letter to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales that there was "no end in sight" to his nomination, and that he could no longer hold on to both his Washington and Montana jobs.

"After much consideration, I have concluded that it is highly unlikely that both the Judiciary Committee and the Senate will take prompt action on my nomination in the near term, if ever," Mercer wrote. "The prospects of my confirmation seem as distant today as they have been over much of the last ten months since my nomination."

Mercer is the latest of a half dozen officials to leave the senior ranks at Justice in the wake of the prosecutor firings, which have prompted congressional and internal investigations and have led Democrats and some Republicans to call on Gonzales to resign.

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