Prosecutor in Anthrax, Blackwater Cases Resigns

WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal prosecutor who became the public face of the Justice Department's investigation into the 2001 anthrax attacks, the killing of Chandra Levy and the Blackwater Worldwide shooting is resigning.

Washington U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor, a holdover from the Bush administration, will leave the Justice Department on Friday. He will join the auditing firm Ernst & Young, where he will lead their fraud investigation practice.

Taylor inherited the anthrax and Chandra Levy investigations and declared both long-unsolved matters closed.

The Justice Department declared that Army scientist Bruce Ivins was responsible for the anthrax mailings that killed five people in 2001. Ivins killed himself before he could be indicted. ...

Taylor previously served as counselor to Attorney Generals John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales. He has also served as counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee and as a line prosecutor in San Diego.

Taylor took the top job in Washington on an interim basis in 2006 and, though the Senate never acted on his nomination, federal judges in Washington unanimously voted to extend his tenure. ...

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