A longtime NBC News star will retire after thirty years on the air, the network announced on Thursday.
Pete Williams, 70, has covered the U.S. Supreme Court and the Department of Justice for NBC News through five presidential administrations. He is going off the air officially in July.
“He is quite simply one of the most respected, trusted, and steadfast names in news,” NBC News president Noah Oppenheim said in a statement, emailed to NBC News employees on Thursday.
“In a journalism career that spanned five U.S. presidential administrations, Williams established himself as one of the most dedicated reporters in Washington, known by colleagues and viewers for his calm authority and peerless expertise,” NBC News reporter Daniel Arkin wrote on Williams.
He “has been synonymous with accuracy and steadiness, reporting quickly on some of the defining Supreme Court cases of the modern era, including the 2015 ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide and the decisions upholding the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare,” Arkin said.
Williams’ last huge story was breaking the news that Justice Stephen Breyer was retiring this summer.
“Stephen Breyer is leaving, so I think this is a good time for me to go, too,” Williams said about his retirement.
But his work isn’t quite done yet, he said.
“We’ve got 35 Supreme Court decisions to go through, so there’s still a lot of work to be done and probably some surprises from the Justice Department,” he told colleagues.
The Horn editorial team