U.S. attorneys furor claims official

WASHINGTON – Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty said Monday he will resign, becoming the highest-ranking Bush administration casualty in the furor over the firing of U.S. attorneys.

McNulty, who has served 18 months as the Justice Department’s second-in-command, announced his plans at a closed-door meeting of U.S. attorneys in San Antonio. He told them he would remain at the department until late summer.

“I thought this made a lot of sense,” McNulty said in a phone interview after talking to the prosecutors. “The U.S. attorneys have been very supportive. I’ve got a good relationship with them, and they were very kind, and I appreciate that.”

He also sent a one-page letter of resignation to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, whose own job has been put in jeopardy by the firings and their aftermath, noting “financial realities of college-age children” as one factor in his decision. The letter did not mention the firings controversy.

Neither did Gonzales, in a responding statement that praised McNulty as “a dynamic and thoughtful leader.”

“Paul is an outstanding public servant and a fine attorney who has been valued here at the department, by me and so many others, as both a colleague and a friend,” Gonzales said.

McNulty has been considering leaving for months, and he never intended to serve more than two years as deputy attorney general. His decision to step down was hastened by frustration over the prosecutors’ purge that Congress is investigating to determine if eight U.S. attorneys were fired for political reasons, according to Justice officials familiar with his thinking.

McNulty also irked Gonzales by testifying in February that at least one of the fired prosecutors was ordered to make way for a protege of Karl Rove, President Bush’s chief political adviser. Gonzales, who has resisted lawmakers’ calls to resign, maintains the firings were proper and rooted in the prosecutors’ performances.

Two other former Justice Department officials – Gonzales chief of staff Kyle Sampson and White House liaison Monica Goodling – have resigned in the past two months over the U.S. attorney firings.