# Elliot Richardson **Elliot Richardson** (1920–1999), a Massachusetts Republican who held four Cabinet posts, was the Attorney General who resigned on **October 20, 1973** rather than carry out [[Richard Nixon]]'s order to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox — the [[Saturday Night Massacre]]. His deputy William Ruckelshaus resigned in turn, and Solicitor General [[Robert Bork]] did the firing. Richardson had promised the Senate at his confirmation that Cox would be removable only for "extraordinary improprieties," and treated the promise as binding. He is the vault's benchmark for the norm the [[Attorney General]] page describes: the officer who owes the President loyalty and the law more. > [!note] Stub > Created to resolve links from the Attorney General page. Expand: the confirmation pledge, the Ruckelshaus sequence, his later career and the 1998 Presidential Medal of Freedom. ## See Also - [[Attorney General]] · [[Saturday Night Massacre]] · [[Robert Bork]] · [[Richard Nixon]] · [[Watergate Scandal]]