Patrick J. Fitzgerald (born 1961) is the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. On December 31, 2003, he made national headlines by being appointed to continue the investigation into the Valerie Plame CIA leak, a case sometimes referred to by the media as "Leakgate".[1] Fitzgerald was named to this role after Attorney General John Ashcroft recused himself from the case.[2]
Fitzgerald attended Amherst College and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1985. After practicing civil law, he became an Assistant United States Attorney in New York in 1988. He handled drug-trafficking cases and in 1993 helped prosecute John Gambino of the Gambino mafia family. In 1994, he became the prosecutor in the case against Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and 11 other individuals charged in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.[3]
In 1996, Fitzgerald became the National Security Coordinator for the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. There, he served on a team of prosecutors investigating Osama bin Laden.[4] He served as chief counsel in prosecutions related to the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa.[5]
Patrick Fitzgerald was nominated for his position as U.S. Attorney on September 19, 2001 on the recommendation of U.S. Senator Peter Fitzgerald (R-IL), and confirmed on October 24, 2001. Peter Fitzgerald and Patrick Fitzgerald are not related.[6]
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Last updated: 10-13-2005 13:35:18
