After a decade as the inspector general of the Justice Department, Glenn A. Fine told President Obama and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Monday that he will step down early next year.
In letters to Mr. Obama and Mr. Holder, Mr. Fine said “it is time for me to pursue new professional challenges” and he would resign at the end of January 2011.
“I am proud” of his office’s “significant contributions to the Department of Justice,” Mr. Fine wrote. “Through our audits, investigations, inspections, and special reviews, we have sought to improve the department’s performance, promote economy and efficiency in its programs, and detect and deter waste, fraud, and abuse in its operations.”
Mr. Fine had already served about five years in lower positions in the office of the inspector general when President Bill Clinton appointed him to become its top official in 2000. He went on to become among the most prominent watchdogs in the federal government.
His office attracted particularly widespread attention during its investigations into Justice Department scandals during the Bush administration — including documenting politicized hiring practices in the department’s Civil Rights Division and the circumstances behind the firing of nine United States attorneys in 2006.
Mr. Fine’s office also audited the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation over its use of expanded surveillance powers after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 – including bringing to light widespread problems with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s use of administrative subpoenas called “national security letters.”
In a statement, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, commended Mr. Fine for his “excellent work” in helping to ensure that the Justice Department operated “efficiently, effectively, within the scope of the law, and with integrity and commitment to American values.”
“I particularly applaud his work to shed light on improper political influence in hiring and prosecutions, which helped bring the department through a particularly dark chapter in its history,” Mr. Leahy said, adding that “all Americans should appreciate Inspector General Fine’s audits of the use of surveillance authorities” – investigations that “led to greater public accountability and triggered important reforms by the F.B.I.”
Attorney General Holder also praised Mr. Fine.
“For more than fifteen years, Glenn Fine’s commitment to integrity and professionalism has helped the Department of Justice fulfill its most important responsibilities,” Mr. Holder said in a statement. “Throughout his decade-long tenure as inspector general, he has embodied the Justice Department’s highest ideals and greatest traditions of service.”