The unsettled Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section continues to go through some unsettling times. Here’s the latest, but not likely, the last of the unsettling news. Welch is moving. He and five other members of his unit are still under criminal and internal investigation. In other words, it’s kind of a mess.
By Carrie Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — William M. Welch II, head of the Justice Department’s public integrity unit, will step aside and return to Massachusetts, where he spent the bulk of his career exposing corruption in state government, according to two sources familiar with the move.
Welch reached the decision after consulting with authorities about his family responsibilities and professional opportunities in his home state, the sources added. Welch notified subordinates in the public integrity unit late Monday. He will remain an employee of the department’s criminal division.
The unit, which leads some of the Justice Department’s most explosive investigations of political figures, came under fire earlier this year when Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. abandoned the conviction against former senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), citing multiple lapses by the prosecution team in evidence-sharing.
