Fitzgerald Deserves Top U.S. Law Post, Comey Says (Update3)

By Patricia Hurtado and David Voreacos

July 20 (Bloomberg) -- Patrick Fitzgerald won the convictions of four Osama bin Laden associates in May 2001. In March, he got Lewis ``Scooter'' Libby. Last week, he nailed Conrad Black.

Fitzgerald, 46, isn't saying what he'll do next in his career. Friends and colleagues say he probably will remain a prosecutor rather than join a law firm. One colleague says Fitzgerald's destiny may include the top law-enforcement job in the country: U.S. attorney general.

``I think he would make a spectacular attorney general,'' said former Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Comey, now general counsel at Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin Corp., the world's largest defense contractor. ``He certainly is one of the very best federal prosecutors in America.''

Remaining a prosecutor would distinguish Fitzgerald from predecessors in the Chicago post. James Thompson became Illinois governor and chairman of Chicago's Winston & Strawn. Dan Webb succeeded Thompson as chairman of the law firm, whose partners earn more than $1 million a year. Fitzgerald, son of an ex-Park Avenue doorman, makes $145,400. Yesterday, he eliminated one option, telling a radio show host he won't run for public office.

Fitzgerald ``doesn't look at any of these cases as a springboard for something else,'' said David Kelley, a former U.S. Attorney in New York who ran that office's Organized Crime and Terrorism Unit with Fitzgerald. ``He's drawn upon his own innate sense of what is right and wrong.''

Local Success

Fitzgerald, who has held his job for almost six years, declined to be interviewed by Bloomberg News. His spokesman, Randall Samborn, wouldn't discuss Fitzgerald's career plans.

Like Thompson, who obtained convictions of aides to former Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, Fitzgerald's 145-lawyer office has won several corruption cases against public officials, including former Republican Governor George Ryan of Illinois.

Fitzgerald's latest courtroom victory came with the July 13 fraud conviction of Conrad Black, the former chairman of Hollinger International Inc. Fitzgerald oversaw the Black prosecution, leaving the trial itself to assistants.

The prosecutor also served as a special counsel assigned to probe leaks of an undercover Central Intelligence Agency officer's identity. He personally tried Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney. Libby was convicted March 6 of perjury and obstructing justice in the leak case.

Doorman, Harvard Grad

What sets Fitzgerald apart is ``his brains, his work ethic, and ability to get where he wants to go and inspire others to get there with him,'' said Mary Jo White, a former U.S. attorney in New York.

Fitzgerald, who is single, is the son of Irish immigrants. He grew up in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, and attended Catholic elementary school before going to Regis High School in Manhattan. During summers, he worked as a doorman, like his dad, and has said he worked as a janitor as well.

He went on to Amherst College and Harvard Law School. After a stint in private practice, he was hired in 1988 in New York by then-U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani.

He spent years pursuing mobsters and terrorists before focusing on al-Qaeda leader bin Laden, long before Sept. 11, 2001. Four months before the attacks, he won terrorism convictions of four bin Laden associates for embassy bombings in Africa that killed 224 people.

``This is a guy who's spent time in small rooms in a lot of countries around the world with people who've killed a lot of people,'' Comey said. ``He's not intimidated by pressure.''

Libby Prosecution `Outrageous'

Fitzgerald came under fire in the CIA leak case. After conducting dozens of interviews, including one with President George W. Bush, he charged no one with the leaks, instead accusing Libby of perjury and obstruction of justice. Republicans said he overreached.

``I wouldn't want him as an attorney general if I were a Republican because his prosecutorial mentality may go a bit too far,'' said Stephen Presser, professor of law at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. ``Prosecuting Libby was outrageous.''

Bush, who appointed Fitzgerald to his Chicago position, commuted Libby's 30-month prison sentence on July 2, calling the sentence ``excessive.''

The Black conviction wasn't a total success either. Black, 62, was accused of swindling investors out of $60 million. Jurors convicted him of four of 13 counts, covering $3.5 million in fraudulent activity, defense lawyers said. Black plans to appeal.

NPR Show

Yesterday, in a taped appearance on the National Public Radio program ``Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me,'' Fitzgerald said he has no intent to run for public office.

``I'm not doing that,'' he told Peter Sagal, host of the weekly news quiz show. When Fitzgerald, who lives on Chicago's north side, was introduced, he received a standing ovation from the audience of about 7,000 in that city's Millennium Park.

The program, a joint production of NPR and Chicago Public Radio, is broadcast on 425 member stations and has an audience of about 2.5 million. The show will air this weekend.

``We are so not going to ask you any questions about Scooter Libby,'' NPR news anchor Carl Kasell told Fitzgerald during the taping. Instead, he was peppered with questions about other scooters: the two-wheeled scooter made by Segway Inc., Scooter the stagehand from television's Muppet Show and former New York Yankee Phil Rizzuto, also nicknamed ``The Scooter.''

Rugby and Darts

He credited his recent successes to his office's staff of more than 140 attorneys and 300 support personnel.

Responding to Sagal's questions about his work ethic, Fitzgerald said his philosophy is, ``you take your job seriously, but you don't take yourself seriously.''

He added that ``When you're done, you go home and chill.''

Fitzgerald said in his spare time, he likes to run and ``sometimes to just do nothing.''

Former Deputy U.S. Attorney General Comey, who got to know Fitzgerald as a law student when they shared a summer house in Spring Lake, New Jersey, said his friend once competed fiercely in rugby and darts.

``He drank a lot of beer without paying for it,'' Comey, 46, added with a laugh.

Fitzgerald now enjoys traveling, exploring caves in New Zealand, going white-water rafting, and visiting relatives in Ireland, Comey said.

Fitzgerald may return to New York, said Chicago attorney and best-selling novelist Scott Turow.

``Pat is deeply committed to public service,'' Turow said in an e-mail. ``But I never heard anyone say that he'd like to stay on'' as U.S. attorney in Chicago.

Daniel Richman, a Columbia Law School professor who worked as a prosecutor with Fitzgerald, disagreed.

``I think that something that's gotten lost in the focus of his role in the Libby investigation is how committed and excited he's been to be working in Chicago,'' Richman said. ``And he certainly seems to be in a target-rich environment.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Patricia Hurtado in New York at pathurtado@bloomberg.net and; David Voreacos in Newark, New Jersey, at dvoreacos@bloomberg.net .

Last Updated: July 20, 2007 16:45 EDT

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