U.S. Attorney David Hickton gave no reason for his surprise resignation serving the Western District of Pennsylvania on Monday.
His office said his last day will be Nov. 28.
“The opportunity to serve as a United States Attorney in this administration has been the professional privilege of a lifetime and the highlight of my career,” Hickton said in a press release.
The United States Attorney is the chief federal prosecutor and law enforcement officer in each of the nation's 93 federal districts. He or she decides which cases to pursue, what priorities to set and whether to charge a suspect or drop a case for lack of evidence.
"I identified this job long ago," Hickton told University of Pittsburgh professor David Harris in June. "That if I could get it, I would not let any moss grow under my feet."
Hickton took the job in August 2010.
"Of all of the positions that you could serve in public life, this is the one that I wanted to do," he said this year.
Hickton spoke at length in June about the job on episode 12 of the Criminal Injustice podcast, hosted by Harris. Hear more about Hickton's background and the controversial decision not to prosecute the three police officers on proactive patrol who shot and paralyzed Jordan Miles in January 2010.
Soo C. Song will take over as acting U.S. Attorney on Nov. 29. She has spent more than 20 years in the Department of Justice and graduated from Yale University and the George Washington Law School.
