CHICAGO — Patrick Fitzgerald, known as one of the most relentless U.S. attorneys and the architect of convictions against two governors and a former vice presidential aide, announced Wednesday that he is stepping down from the post he has held for more than a decade in Chicago.
Fitzgerald has overseen thousands of prosecutions, including against former Govs. Rod Blagojevich and George Ryan, former Vice President Dick Cheney’s top aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby and media mogul Conrad Black. He took on public corruption, international terrorism, corporate fraud and organized crime.
His office announced Wednesday that he’s stepping down effective June 30. A statement gave no reason for his decision to leave the presidentially appointed post he has held for the Northern District of Illinois since Sept. 1, 2001. It said he did not immediately have any future employment plans and would take the summer off before considering job possibilities.
