RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Republican federal prosecutor who stayed in his post three years into the Obama Administration to avoid disrupting investigations into former presidential candidate John Edwards and former North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley announced his resignation Friday.

George E.B. Holding will step down as U.S. attorney for eastern North Carolina on July 8 after five years in the office. He had previously been the first assistant U.S. attorney in the office for four years.