WASHINGTON (AP) — In a final response to his critics, the head of the Justice Department's criminal division is defending his record on a pair of defining issues of his four-year tenure — the absence of prosecutions against Wall Street executives and his conduct in the controversy over a botched arms-trafficking investigation in Arizona.

Lanny Breuer addressed the issues Tuesday in announcing he is stepping down after running a Justice Department division with 440 attorneys, a $174 million annual budget and a mandate to bring wrongdoers to account in some of the nation's most high-profile criminal cases. His last day at the Justice Department will be March 1. He said he has no immediate plans for his next career move.