Patrick Fitzgerald
Patrick J. Fitzgerald (born 1961) is the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. On December 31, 2003, he made national headlines when he was appointed to continue the investigation into the Plame affair CIA leak. Fitzgerald was named by Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey after then Attorney General John Ashcroft recused himself from the case due to potential conflicts of interest.
Career
Fitzgerald attended Amherst College, receiving degrees in economics and mathematics, and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1985. After practicing civil law, he became an Assistant United States Attorney in New York in 1988. He handled drug-trafficking cases and in 1993 helped prosecute John Gambino of the Gambino mafia family.
Patrick Fitzgerald was nominated for his position as U.S. Attorney for Northern Illinois on September 19, 2001 on the recommendation of U.S. Senator Peter Fitzgerald (R-IL), and confirmed on October 24, 2001. Peter Fitzgerald and Patrick Fitzgerald are not related.[1]
Al Qaeda
In 1994, he became the prosecutor in the case against Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and 11 other individuals charged in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.[2]
In 1996, Fitzgerald became the National Security Coordinator for the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. There, he served on a team of prosecutors investigating Osama bin Laden.[3] He served as chief counsel in prosecutions related to the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa.[4]
CIA leak
On 30 December 2003, Fitzgerald was appointed Special Counsel (under Department of Justice regulation 28 CFR Part 600) in regard to what is popularly known as the "Plame affair" regarding the leak of the CIA identity of Valerie Plame. This involved delegating "all the authority of the Attorney General" with respect to that matter. In February 2004, Acting Attorney General Comey clarified Special Counsel Fitzgerald's delegated authority to state that the authority previously delegated to him is plenary. It also states, "Further, my conferral on you of the title of Special Counsel' in this matter should not be misunderstood to suggest that your position and authorities are defined and limited by 28 CFR Part 600."[5]
Illinois
On July 18, 2005, Fitzgerald's office indicted a number of top aides to Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, alleging numerous instances of corruption in hiring practices at City Hall.
Sen. Fitzgerald chose not to run for re-election in 2004, leaving U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald without a congressional patron. In summer 2005, there were rumors that he would not be reappointed to a second four-year term in retaliation for his vigorous and largely leak-free investigations into corruption in Illinois and Chicago government, as well as for his investigation of the Plame scandal. [6]
See also
External links
- USDOJ Office of Special Counsel Homepage News and documents from Fitzgerald's investigation
- US Attorney's Office, Northern District of Illinois - Patrick J. Fitzgerald official profile including his major cases
- Boston Globe, 31 December 2003, "Ashcroft steps aside in probe into CIA leak"
- Why Did Attorney General Ashcroft Remove Himself From The Valerie Plame Wilson Leak Investigation? Signs that a Key Witness May Have Come Forward, by John W. Dean in Writ, including discussion of Fitzgerald's appointment as special prosecutor for Plamegate
- Washington Post, 2 February 2005,"The Prosecutor Never Rests: Whether Probing a Leak or Trying Terrorists, Patrick Fitzgerald Is Relentless"
- New York Times, 22 October 2005,"Leak Prosecutor Is Called Exacting and Apolitical"