Sixth top Justice official resigned this weekend.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/22/AR2007062201291.html?nav=rss_politicsThird-in-Command at Justice Dept. Resigns
Mercer to Leave Washington Job but Keep U.S. Attorney's Position in Montana
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 23, 2007; Page A04
The Justice Department's third-in-command announced his resignation yesterday, becoming the sixth aide to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to leave amid the political uproar over the firings of nine U.S. attorneys last year.
William W. Mercer -- who had been acting associate attorney general since September -- withdrew his nomination for the job just days before he was scheduled to appear at a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing Tuesday.
Mercer said he will return to his regular assignment as the U.S. attorney in Montana, writing in a letter to Gonzales that there was "no end in sight" to his nomination because of opposition from Senate Democrats.
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Mercer is among half a dozen officials who have fled the senior ranks at Justice in the wake of the prosecutor firings, which have prompted congressional and internal investigations and have led lawmakers of both parties to call on Gonzales to resign. Mercer's departure means that nearly all of Gonzales's top aides, including Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty, have tendered their resignations within the past four months.
"The attorney general is running out of fall guys," said Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), one of Gonzales's congressional critics. "Six resignations into the U.S. attorney firing scandal, the attorney general inexplicably still acts as though he has the confidence and support of the country. He has neither."
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