Former Canyon County prosecutor and gubernatorial candidate John Bujak has resigned from the Idaho State Bar, ending proceedings in which the bar was attempting to have him disbarred on ethical grounds. "This should mark the end of my five-year battle with the state and federal governments in Idaho," Bujak said in a statement.

Bujak, 46, represented himself in five criminal trials in three years, and was acquitted in every one, though he did plead guilty to one count of contempt of court. He was charged with misuse of public funds after setting up a contract whereby the Canyon prosecutor’s office handled prosecution for the city of Nampa, and Bujak himself profited from the deal; he contended county officials had approved the arrangement. He resigned as prosecutor in 2010 and went bankrupt; he ran unsuccessfully for governor as a Libertarian in 2014, but took just 4.1 percent of the vote.

Bujak said he decided to give up his law license rather than continue to fight efforts to disbar him. “Had I chosen to continue the fight, I would not have been able to effectively practice law during the ethics proceedings and I would have spent the next year rehashing events from the past five years,” he said in a statement. “I was tired of living in the past, and no one should have to live in a continual state of conflict. Resigning from the practice of law brings closure, allows me to finally put the events of the last five years behind me and move on. I feel a new sense of exhilaration as innumerable new paths have opened before me. I now see how limited the scope of my experience had become, and my resignation has allowed me to think outside the box as I ponder where I go from here. I cannot tell you which path I will take right now, but I can tell you that I have a new zest for life and am looking forward to the adventure of each new day.”

The Idaho Press-Tribune has a full report here.