Jesse Panuccio. Courtesy photo

Jesse Panuccio, the acting official in the Justice Department's third-highest ranking job, is resigning his post Friday to return to the private sector.

Panuccio joined the Justice Department in February 2017 and held the dual roles of principal deputy associate attorney general and acting associate attorney general. He's occupied the acting AAG position twice—first before Rachel Brand was confirmed for the role in 2017, and then after she left the position for Walmart in 2018.

He submitted his resignation last week to U.S. Attorney General William Barr, who is assembling his own team.

“When I came in the first time, it was intentionally to be [Brand's] principal deputy eventually, but knowing that it would take a while for her to get confirmed, and we came in basically as a beachhead team with a change of administration,” Panuccio said.

“All the hot-button issues, the litigation, was sort of mid-streamed from the last administration, so those first few months were really intense,” he added. “And then when she left to come into the role again it was really fulfilling and [I] got to carry out all those management duties again, but I would say … by that time we had kind of settled into more of a routine at the department.”

During Panuccio's tenure the office took aim at the opioid crisis through first-of-their-kind civil injunctions under the Controlled Substances Act; tackled campus First Amendment issues; and helped the department resolve seven residential mortgage-backed securities cases for $12 billion.

As he exits government, Panuccio said he intends to remain involved in issues relating to the litigation, policy-reform and enforcement work he did at the department.

“My legal practice when I was in private practice, centered around high-stakes litigation, administrative law, often issues of public policy, and so I think there's always role when you're at a law firm or private practice to stay engaged in those important issues,” Panuccio said.

Panuccio was mum on his precise next steps. Prior to entering President Donald Trump's administration, he was partner at Foley & Lardner, general counsel to then-Florida Gov. Rick Scott and counsel on Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's presidential campaign.

He said his home remains Florida and he expects any future legal practice to involve a mix of work between the Sunshine State and the nation's capital. In the immediate future, he will moderate a panel next week at the Federalist Society's Seventh Annual Executive Branch Review Conference in Washington, D.C.

Claire Murray, formerly of the White House Counsel's Office and now a member of Barr's team, is expected to take Panuccio's place in the Justice Department. A Justice Department spokesperson directed questions about a nominee to the associate attorney general position to the White House. Jessie Liu, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, withdrew her nomination to be the associate attorney general last month after private grumbling from Republican U.S. senators who were skeptical of her conservative credentials.

Panuccio insisted that the slow-moving Senate confirmation process had not altered the work of the associate's office. Brand was not confirmed until May of Trump's first year in office, and the third-ranking position has remained without a Senate-confirmed occupant since her departure in February 2018.

“I think especially this department, but I'm sure other agencies as well, have gotten used to working with acting leadership,” Panuccio said of the unfilled vacancies in the administration. “And I think what you're seeing is those folks, if they have the backing of the—say in this instance the attorney general—they can be effective and get things done.”

To whoever replaces him, Panuccio said his advice is, “Try not to get distracted by the little things.”

“These jobs are a public trust and you get limited time in them,” he said. “So come in every day trying to move the ball on those issues that are important to you. Because for everybody who holds any of these roles, there's a fleeting amount of time and so you just have to maximize the time you have in office.”