people did because, under Federal personnel law, if the person holding the title is still in the Department, you don't use the acting title. So, although a lot of people refer to me in emails and elsewhere as the Acting DAG, I didn't actually use that title myself.
Q I see. But, in effect, you functioned as the Acting Deputy Attorney General even if Federal personnel laws didn't allow you to use that title. Is that fair?
A Yes. That's correct.
Q Okay. And then you—I'm going to come back, obviously, to a lot of detail about what occurred during the time that you were acting as the DAG, even without the title. But I just want to finish with respect to your DOJ career. When did you actually leave the Department?
A So I left Washington at the end of January. I was there through the transition. Because I was a career employee as opposed to a political employee, I did not have to leave at the end of the administration, but, of course, that had always been my intent to leave.
I was on detail from the Eastern District of New York to Washington. That detail expired January 31st. I returned to New York. I took leave. I had, you know, many weeks of leave saved up. So I took leave. I did some work in the Eastern District of New York, really just wrapping up cases and records and things like that. And then I ultimately retired in April of this year, April 2021, from the Justice Department.
Q I see. And then are you currently employed?
A No. As I said, I retired in April. I've been in discussions with—took the summer off basically, and I've been in discussions with a number of law firms, and I expect to be starting one in the next few weeks.
Q Got it. Okay. All right. Let me go back now into a couple of things that happened when you were in that Acting DAG capacity. Is there at the Department,
