Attorney General removes self from Madoff probe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey has removed himself from involvement in the financial fraud investigation of former Nasdaq chairman Bernard Madoff, the Justice Department said on Wednesday.

Department spokesman Peter Carr said Mukasey, who is leaving office in January, "has recused himself from the Madoff probe." He declined to discuss the reason.

Marc Mukasey, a son of the attorney general, told Reuters on Wednesday that he represents a senior official at Madoff's firm, Frank DiPascali.

"I represent Mr. DiPascali, for the record, we are trying to sift through the facts like everybody else," he said.

Marc Mukasey leads the white-collar defense and special investigations practice at law firm Bracewell & Giuliani in New York. Madoff has confessed to perpetrating a securities fraud that is suspected of totaling $50 billion, one of the biggest frauds in Wall Street history.

The investigation is being handled by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Carr said he did not immediately know who would be handling any Madoff-related issues that came to the central Justice Department.

Carr said he did not believe Mukasey had any investments related to Madoff. Mukasey's most recent financial disclosure form, from 2005, showed his investments were limited to well-known mutual funds and a utility.

(Reporting by Randall Mikkelsen, Jim Vicini and Martha Graybow, Editing by Doina Chiacu)