WASHINGTON — Since President Bush took office, one of the administration's most loyal and valued advisors at the Justice Department has been William W. Mercer.
When a team of young White House and Justice Department staffers decided to fire a group of U.S. attorneys on Pearl Harbor Day 2006, it was left to Mercer to be the bearer of the bad news to some of the prosecutors.
And when other department attorneys decided to apply an ideological litmus test to candidates for honors and internship positions, Mercer went along, or at least failed to exercise diligent oversight, according to a report last month by Justice Department watchdogs, the Office of the Inspector General and the Office of Professional Responsibility.
Mercer also had the distinction of simultaneously holding two Justice Department jobs about 2,000 miles apart. Eventually, he had to relinquish one, a senior post at headquarters here.
Mercer remains the top federal prosecutor in Montana -- despite periodic calls for his resignation by a federal judge there and by one of the state's Democratic senators. He is one of only a few U.S. attorneys who may survive all eight years under Bush.
How a prosecutor from one of the nation's least populous states -- and who has had so many brushes with scandal -- became such an influential person at the Justice Department mystifies some of his critics.
"It is remarkable how he has survived all this," said Kevin O'Brien, a spokesman for the Montana Democratic Party.
Many of the Justice officials involved in the controversies that led to the resignation of former Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales left the department. Mercer stayed on -- but he left Washington, which probably helped him avoid the spotlight of congressional investigators and media coverage.
Today, Mercer is still a popular figure within the Bush administration. The 44-year-old career federal prosecutor has on occasion been considered a potential Republican candidate for governor or senator in Montana, although he is not on the ballot this year.
"Bill Mercer continues to serve effectively and ably as United States attorney for the district of Montana," said Peter Carr, a Justice Department spokesman.
Mercer, who through a spokeswoman declined to be interviewed, was appointed by Bush as a U.S. attorney in 2001, and early on he made a mark as a hard-charging advocate of tough sentences for people convicted of federal crimes.
