Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli to Leave DOJ in March

The guy in charge of–among other things–the elusive foreclosure fraud settlement with the banksters just told NPR’s Carrie Johnson he’ll be leaving in March.

Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli will leave the third highest-ranking post at the Justice Department in March after nearly three years managing a bustling portfolio that has run the gamut from mortgage abuses and the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to stamping out domestic violence in Indian country.

Perrelli, 45, says that he’ll take several months off to spend with his growing family. He and his wife have a five-year-old, a two-year-old, and a pair of twins due in May. “This is the best job I’ll ever have,” Perrelli tells us, “you really couldn’t ask for better.” But, long hours spent overseeing Justice Department units that handle tax, civil rights, environment, antitrust, civil cases and billions of dollars in federal grant programs has taken “an enormous amount of energy and commitment and sacrifice.”

As Johnson points out, Perrelli has had his fingers in a number of contentious issues: the Cobell settlement and the BP investigation. But I suspect it also sets a finite deadline for the foreclosure fraud settlement, rumored to be imminent for about a year.

One of his biggest efforts has yet to come to fruition. For more than a year, the Justice Department and state attorneys general have been hammering out a settlement with the country’s largest mortgage servicing companies over faulty paperwork and forclosure abuses known as “robo signing” that helped push people out of their homes. The process has been complicated and sometimes fractious, as top lawyers for the state of California and New York criticized the process as going too soft on the banks.

And then, of course, there’s the question of a replacement–because there’s no way Republicans are going to confirm anyone for a functional post at a Department of Justice they like to claim is responsible for sending guns to Mexican drug cartels.

Just what this country needs, a DOJ even more hampered by missing key operational executives.

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17 replies
  1. jo6pac says:

    Shouldn’t you start a pool on were he ends up at? The few months off are to see who has the best offer.

  2. rugger9 says:

    Well, is his departure really a loss, given how the BP “investigation” has turned out? Eleven dead and zero indictments. However, I will agree that the GOP will not allow anyone competent as that would place their masters at risk.

    Given how dysfunctional DOJ is, combined with the burrowed Bu$hies, we aren’t going to see justice for a long time.

  3. MadDog says:

    Should Obama somehow prevail this November, I have little doubt that AG Holder will be one of those “spending more time with family”.

    “…And then, of course, there’s the question of a replacement–because there’s no way Republicans are going to confirm anyone for a functional post at a Department of Justice they like to claim is responsible for sending guns to Mexican drug cartels.”

    I’m in strong agreement with your suspicion. I would go even further and suggest that few if any Administration nominees will get an up or down vote in the Senate during 2012.

    Add the ongoing deliberate Repug obstructionism to any Obama Administration nominee, policy or program with their snit about Cordray’s “maybe recess, maybe not” appointment to the CFPB, and you have a recipe for a do-nothing Congress this session that makes the last one seem like a candidate for the most productive.

  4. Benjamin Franklin says:

    Wasn’t he the one stone-walling the Bank deal the Administration was pushing?

    “Spending more time with his family” is a dead giveaway.

  5. Peterr says:

    @Benjamin Franklin:

    Under most circumstances, I’d agree with you, but then there’s this from the first blockquote:

    He and his wife have a five-year-old, a two-year-old, and a pair of twins due in May.

    I can easily see Perrilli’s wife saying “Ahem. The honor of your presence is requested, to take care of the two running around the house while I take care of the two on the way.”

    In this case, the “more time with the family” line sounds a lot more honest than it does when spoken by an empty-nester.

  6. Bob Schacht says:

    I’m getting ready for a round of mild corporate wrist slaps, and a statement that, gee, sorry, no one is indictable.

    However, that won’t help Obama’s re-election any. I wonder if Team Obama has decided that, in view of the popularity of the OWS movement, that they had better come up with something more than Parrelli was going to come up with. Who will the acting replacement be? Will that person be able to make any indictments?

    Bob in AZ

  7. Quanto says:

    @jo6pac:
    Can I get three picks, their all interchangeable..MPAA, RIAA, or the U.S. Chamber of Commerce . He will probably get another gig after SOPA passes like BP (Marcy) or BofA (MadDog).

  8. jo6pac says:

    Oh sure just bounce around with who goes with govt. whores.

    No, it just 1 what do think this is if I’m close it’s good enough. Think whore shoes or ? it’s govt. after all.

    rugger9 I’ve just amazed by how many if not all are still there. WTF

  9. bmaz says:

    Listen, people, I am usually Mr. Cynical right with you; but Perrelli was a big law firm guy when he came to the Admin, and I would be shocked if he did not go back to one. He may not be the greatest DOJ AAG in the history of the world, but in the spectrum at DOJ, I do not think he was/is anywhere near the worst either.

  10. bmaz says:

    @EH: Heh, no; white shoes do not make a white hat. It is just that from what I have seen of his record, and what I have heard, he is much more of a big law kind of guy than a corporate shill. Guys that have that kind of experience can and do slide very easily right back into it.

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