Former U.S. attorney McKay says he was ordered to resign

John McKay, the former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington, said he was ordered to resign in early December by a senior official at the U.S. Department of Justice.

McKay said Michael Battle, director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, did not give McKay an explanation when he called to give him the news.

"I received a phone call from the Department of Justice on Dec. 7, and I was told to resign by the end of January," McKay said today.

"Ultimately I serve at the pleasure of the president," McKay continued. "I accept that now and I accepted that then, and that's why I resigned."

McKay announced a week later, on Dec. 14, that he was stepping down to return to the private sector. His last day in office was Jan. 26.

A Department of Justice spokeswoman was not immediately available to respond to McKay's comments.

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty said seven federal prosecutors were asked to resign in December for "performance-related" issues.

McNulty did not mention McKay by name, and the Justice Department Tuesday declined to confirm that McKay had been asked to resign.

At the hearing, McNulty told senators he would not discuss publicly why individual prosecutors were asked to step down, but promised to brief senators on the committee privately about the reasons for the dismissals.

A Justice Department official said Wednesday that those briefings will take place "in a week or so."

"It was not a willy-nilly decision that was taken lightly," the Justice Department official said.

Robert Lasnik, the chief U.S. District judge for the Western District of Washington, said he and his fellow judges could not understand the firing and were dismayed that the Justice Department implied there was anything wrong with Mckay's performance.

"This is unanimous among the judges: John McKay was a superb U.S. attorney," Lasnik said. "For the Justice Department to suggest otherwise is just not fair."

"By every measure, the performance of his office improved during his tenure," he added. "If you talk to local prosecutors, or local sheriffs, or the FBI or the ATF, they never had the kind of service from the U.S. attorney's office in terms of service, cooperation and aggressive handling of cases that they had under John McKay's leadership. We're busier than ever before because they're bringing more cases."

A Seattle native who grew up on Capitol Hill and attended the University of Washington, McKay was nominated by President Bush to be U.S. attorney just days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He has overseen the federal prosecutor's office during a time of sweeping legal changes that include passage of the Patriot Act, which he avidly supports, and technological advancements.

He has led efforts, for example, to create an immensely helpful computer network called Northwest LInX (Law Enforcement Information Exchange) that allows 113 local, state and federal law-enforcement agencies to share information.

McKay's priorities while in office have included terrorism, organized crime, identity theft and the rising toll of methamphetamine abuse.

Before working at the U.S. Attorney's Office -- where his older brother Mike McKay had held the same post -- McKay worked for Republican Congressman Joel Pritchard, for a law firm and as a White House fellow, serving as a special assistant to the director of the FBI.

During his tenure at the U.S. Attorney's Office, he personally prosecuted several high-profile cases, including the sentencing and appeals of Ahmed Ressam, who was convicted in 2001 on terrorism and explosives charges for plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on the eve of the millennium. Customs agents in Port Angeles caught Ressam with explosives in his rental car in December 1999.

McKay was lead negotiator in a $35 million settlement between the Department of Justice and the University of Washington over illegal billing by doctors, and he urged the FBI to continue investigating the murder of Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Wales, who was shot in his Queen Anne home on Oct. 11, 2001. There has been no arrest in that case.

David Bowermaster: 206-464-2724 or dbowermaster@seattletimes.com

Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.