Tester Calls on Montana U.S. Attorney to Resign [View All]

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Source: Washington Post

Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) called yesterday on a top Justice Department official to resign his U.S. attorney's post after revelations that he worked to alter federal law so that he and a handful of other senior aides could escape residency requirements that governed their assignments as federal prosecutors.

Since 2005, William W. Mercer has served as acting associate attorney general at Justice Department headquarters in Washington as well as being the U.S. attorney in Montana, where he spends just three days a month. That has drawn the anger of a Montana federal judge who contends that Mercer is violating a federal law that requires him to live in Montana.

The Washington Post reported yesterday that on the same day in November 2005 that Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales assured the judge that Mercer was in compliance with federal law, Mercer asked Senate aides for new legislation that would allow him and a few others to escape it.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/02/AR2007050202353.html?hpid=sec-nations