“Twelve days ago I came before you to admit mistakes, to take responsibility, and to announce steps towards giving the office of attorney general an administrative backbone worthy of the great legal work that we were doing in this office,” Dann said. “Unfortunately it is now clear that the last step I must take to fix these problems is to resign as attorney general effective immediately.”

Dann has been under fire since an investigation into sexual harassment allegations led to two staffers being fired and two more resigning.

Dann’s resignation came 6 hours after Inspector General Thomas P. Charles and staffers locked down the Rhodes Tower in Columbus as they searched computers and documents as part of their investigation.

That investigation will proceed though a threatened impeachment will not.

Text of Dann's Resignation Speech
Twelve days ago I came before you to admit mistakes, to take responsibility, and to announce steps towards giving the office of attorney general an administrative backbone worthy of the great legal work that we were doing in this office.

I sincerely viewed it as my fiduciary responsibility to fix the problems on my watch, especially as it concerned my own actions.

Unfortunately it is now clear that the last step I must take to fix these problems is to resign as attorney general effective immediately.

It is my belief that this will preserve the great work being done by the office of attorney general.

We must continue to make effective use of Ohio’s law enforcement, consumer protection and bank regulatory machinery to aggressively take on predatory lenders and their co-conspirators who have decimated the neighborhoods of our state.

We must continue to bring environmental and consumer protection cases in this state to make sure that the quality of life is second to none here in Ohio and that law abiding businesses are protected.

And we must continue to make nonprofit health care institutions more accountable and health care more accessible to uninsured Ohioans.
And we must continue to save the state money in the office of attorney general, by maintaining an objective and nonpolitical process for assigning legal work both inside and outside the office.

It has been my priority over the past few weeks to try to restore those priorities to the forefront of the office’s work, and the vast majority of the 1,400 employees of the attorney general’s office have been doing outstanding, nationally recognized work.

I thank them for the incredible service over the past 17 months.
They deserve both to be recognized and to continue their work without the distractions that the political situation that I find myself in has caused them.

It is now clear to me that the only way to protect these priorities for the office of attorney general and for the people of Ohio is to remove myself from this situation.

It is now my highest priority to focus on my family.

I want to thank my daughter, Mia, for being here with me today.

And I’m anxious to get home to my wife, and my son, Charlie.

My daughter Jessie unfortunately is on her class trip to Washington so I won’t get to see her until Friday.

But I want to thank the people of Ohio for giving me the opportunity to serve in this great office.

Thank you.