| | Top Gonzales aide backs out on seeking confirmation for Justice Dept. job
 A top aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales removed his name from consideration for a post in the Justice Department late on Friday. Acting Associate Attorney General William Mercer, who also serves as US Attorney for Montana, was set to sit for a confirmation hearing on Tuesday.
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which would have taken up Mercer's nomination, slammed the move by the Justice Department official.
"The White House has found many ways to keep sunlight from reaching some of the darker corners of the Bush Justice Department, but this is a new one," he said in a statement at his website. "With a confirmation hearing looming next Tuesday, they have withdrawn this nomination to avoid having to answer more questions under oath."
Mercer, who will return to working full-time as the sole US Attorney in the vast western state of Montana, reportedly believed he could not be successfully confirmed.
"I have concluded that it is highly unlikely that both the Judiciary Committee and the Senate will take prompt action on my nomination in the near term, if ever," Mercer wrote in a letter to Gonzales, according to the CNN Political Ticker. "This view is informed in part by statements suggesting that some senior Justice nominees will not be voted upon until the Senate receives e-mails and witnesses it has demanded from the White House,” Mercer told the Attorney General."
The Justice Department described Mercer as fulfilling the following functions in the Justice Department:
The Office of the Associate Attorney General advises and assists the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General in formulating and implementing Departmental policies and programs pertaining to a broad range of civil justice, federal and local law enforcement, and public safety matters. The Office oversees the following DOJ components: Antitrust Division, Civil Division, Civil Rights Division, Environment and Natural Resources Division, Tax Division, Office of Justice Programs, Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), Community Relations Service, Office of Dispute Resolution, Violence Against Women Office, Office of Information and Privacy, Executive Office of U.S. Trustees, and the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission.
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