Legal News

NJ USA Christie Resigns, SDNY?s Garcia to Announce Resignation Today

By Amir Efrati

Two down, one to go? New Jersey U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie (pictured, right) has announced his resignation, effective Dec. 1, after nearly seven years at the office. (Click here for a recent NYT profile.)

Meanwhile, as expected, people close to the Southern District of New York U.S. attorney’s office tell the Law Blog that USA Michael Garcia will notify prosecutors of his departure during a 5 p.m. meeting.

With the two announcements, all eyes in the tri-state region turn to the Eastern District of New York and Interim USA Benton Campbell, who took the reigns in Brooklyn only last fall. A spokesman at Eastern declined to comment.

Christie (Delaware ‘84, Seton Hall Law ‘87), who was born and raised in New Jersey, had no trial, criminal law or investigative experience before becoming U.S. attorney, but he was a top-tier fund-raiser for Bush 43’s campaign, according to NYT.

He will be known for having obtained guilty pleas or convictions against more than 130 Republican and Democratic public officials, without an acquittal, but also for the controversy over how he awarded tens of millions of dollars in no-bid contracts to political allies such as former AG John Ashcroft.

In the white collar arena, his term will be remembered for, among other things, the deferred-prosecution agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb (though the securities fraud prosecutions of two former executives haven’t exactly gone according to plan), and his office’s prosecution of former executives involved in accounting fraud at Cendant Corp.

There’s been some speculation that Christie may run for governor, but Michael Drewniak, his press officer, declined to comment, though he did put together this compendium of significant cases brought under Christie’s watch.

UPDATE: As predicted, Garcia announced his departure just after 5 p.m., saying he will leave his post on Dec. 1.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on November 17, 2008 (boomark / email).