He dismissed the Associate Attorney General, the department's third-ranking official, and is considering abolishing the office.

The principal problem is that it would present too great a conflict of interest for the department to prosecute its former third-ranking official.

He was the third-ranking official at the CIA under William Casey.

The Secretary is the third-ranking official in the State of Michigan.

The other is Clair E. George, who as the agency's third-ranking official supervised covert operations worldwide.

By then, Chief of Department Joseph Dunne, the department's third-ranking official, had been sent from police headquarters to take charge of the situation.

R. Nicholas Burns, the under secretary of state for political affairs, who is the department's third-ranking official, would be the logical front-runner for the job.

The department must also find a replacement for John Schmidt, its third-ranking official, who previously announced his own resignation.

Local 100's recording secretary, Noel Acevedo, the third-ranking official in the union, is leading the fight against the contract.

As a deputy prime minister during the fall of Saigon, he was, at age 36, essentially the country's third-ranking official.