Justice loses another top official

WASHINGTON -- Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson is stepping down in a few weeks, the latest in a string of senior Justice Department officials involved in the grueling war against terror to leave the agency.

Thompson, 58, is expected to take a position at the Brookings Institution think tank after he leaves the department at the end of the month, a senior Justice Department official said Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Thompson has been at the forefront of the government's campaign to detect and prevent terrorists from acting after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He also headed a task force appointed by President Bush to crack down on corporate fraud, overseeing prosecutions against officials at Enron Corp., HealthSouth Corp. and others.

A former U.S. attorney in Atlanta, Thompson was also a partner at King & Spalding law firm in that city. Thompson is currently the highest-ranking black person in federal law enforcement.

The long hours and intense pressure involved in trying to prevent terrorist attacks during the nearly two years since the attacks on the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon has taken its toll recently among senior Justice Department officials.

Others who have left include:

Michael Chertoff, who headed the criminal division, was appointed a judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. Christopher Wray, who had been Thompson's deputy, was chosen to take Chertoff's place.

Viet Dinh, who ran the office of legal policy and was a key author of the antiterrorism USA Patriot Act, returned to academia at Georgetown University. Daniel Bryant, previously a senior adviser to Attorney General John Ashcroft, is Dinh's replacement.

Alice Fisher, the top deputy in the criminal division, resigned at the end of July, with David Nahmias named as her replacement.