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Former AG William Saxbe Dies

By Leah Nylen

William Saxbe, who served as Attorney General from 1974 to 1975 under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, has died.

William B. Saxbe (Wikimedia)

Saxbe, 94, died at his home in Mechanicsburg, Ohio on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.

Saxbe served as a Republican in the U.S. Senate from 1969 until he was selected as Attorney General in December 1973.

He was the fourth Attorney General to serve in the Nixon administration, taking office after Elliot Richardson resigned in protest of when Nixon ordered him to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who was investigating the Watergate break-in. (Cox was later fired by acting Attorney General Robert Bork.)

After Nixon resigned, Saxbe remained Attorney General under President Ford until February 1975, when he stepped down to become ambassador for India.

During his tenure as Attorney General, Saxbe oversaw the filing of an antitrust suit against telephone giant AT&T. That lawsuit would lead eventually to the break-up of the company.

His year in office was not without controversy, such as when Saxbe called Patricia Hearst, the daughter of a newspaper publisher who was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army, a “common criminal.”

Saxbe was succeeded by Edward H. Levi, the first Jewish Attorney General who served in the post from 1975 to 1977.

Full post as published by Main Justice on August 25, 2010 (boomark / email).