(CNN) -- U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who spearheaded the investigation that led to the arrest Tuesday of the governor of Illinois, is regarded by many as a lawman who rose from a modest background by dint of hard work.
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald "got his job based on pure merit alone," a former prosecutor says.
"He's a totally honorable guy, straightforward," said Murray Richman, a criminal defense lawyer in the Bronx who has been practicing for 44 years. Richman knew Fitzgerald when he was an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, before he was named U.S. attorney in Chicago by the Bush administration.
"When Bush appointed him as U.S. attorney in Chicago, I was pleased," said Richman, a lifelong Democrat. "I have not enough good words to say about him."
"He's an outstanding prosecutor, a pure professional," said William Devaney, a former federal prosecutor who spent four years with the securities fraud unit in the U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey and now does white-collar criminal defense.
"He's one of the few U.S. attorneys that essentially got his job based on pure merit alone," Devaney said.
In comments Tuesday, Illinois Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn described Fitzgerald's crime-fighting efforts as heartfelt.
"I heard most of what the U.S. attorney said today in his press conference," Quinn said. "I don't think there are any words that can be added to what he said; you could tell from his tone of voice how strongly he felt about the legal action that he took today on behalf of the people of our country."
Born 47 years ago in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn to Irish immigrants -- his father was an Upper East Side doorman, according to Time magazine -- Fitzgerald attended Catholic schools, majored in economics and mathematics at Amherst College, went to Harvard Law School and then got a job as a federal prosecutor, according to his biography from the U.S. attorney's office.
For 13 years, he was an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, serving as chief of the organized crime-terrorism unit and handling mob cases, drug cases and the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa. In 2001, four defendants were convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
In 1995, he participated in the trial of U.S. v. Omar Abdel Rahman against 12 defendants who conspired in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
He also oversaw the 1996 prosecution of Ramzi Yousef and others who participated in a conspiracy in the Philippines in 1994 and 1995 to detonate bombs simultaneously on 12 American airliners.
In 2001, he was lured to the job of U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago. He prosecuted Canadian newspaper mogul Conrad Black for misconduct at Hollinger International.
In 2003, he was named special counsel to investigate who leaked the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson.
The investigation led to the conviction of Vice President Dick Cheney's then-chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, on four of five counts that included lying to a grand jury and obstruction of justice.
But not everyone viewed his efforts as laudable. One of them was CNN's Lou Dobbs, who railed at Fitzgerald for jailing then-New York Times reporter Judith Miller for 85 days for refusing to testify about her source.
"I think it is an onerous, disgusting abuse of government power," he said.
Today, Fitzgerald oversees an office with more than 300 employees, including 160 assistant U.S. attorneys and two dozen paralegals, according to his biography.
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