Elliot Richardson (1920-1999), American politician, lawyer, and government agency administrator. Richardson served in a number of top posts in the administration of President Richard M. Nixon (1969-1974). As attorney general of the United States in 1973, Richardson resigned rather than carry out Nixon's orders to fire Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox, who had been investigating White House involvement in the 1972 break-in at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C. The subsequent Watergate scandal led Nixon to resign the presidency.

Elliot Lee Richardson was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 1941. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II (1939-1945), receiving a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts for bravery in combat, and then returned to Harvard to earn a law degree in 1947. After graduating, he was a clerk for Judge Learned Hand of the U.S. Court of Appeals from 1947 to 1948, and for Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter from 1948 to 1949. From 1953 to 1954 Richardson worked as a legislative assistant in the Massachusetts state Senate. He was assistant secretary in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) from 1957 to 1959, during the administration of President Dwight Eisenhower. Richardson worked as a U.S. attorney for Massachusetts from 1959 to 1961. He subsequently won election as lieutenant governor of that state, serving from 1964 to 1967, and then served as the state's attorney general from 1967 to 1969.

During the Nixon administration, Richardson served as undersecretary of state from 1969 to 1970, and as secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare from 1970 to 1973. He was known for his ability to increase efficiency and morale of the agencies he headed. Richardson served as secretary of defense in early 1973 and was then named attorney general of the United States. Richardson appointed Archibald Cox as special prosecutor to investigate the Watergate affair, and on October 20, 1973, Richardson became a casualty of the Saturday Night Massacre. Nixon ordered Richardson to fire Cox because of the special prosecutor's continual push for more evidence documenting White House involvement in efforts to cover up the Watergate scandal. Richardson refused the president's request and resigned. His deputy, William Ruckelshaus, also resigned rather than dismiss the special prosecutor, leaving Cox to be fired by the next in line, Solicitor General Robert Bork.

Richardson went on to work as a senior partner in a Washington, D.C., law firm from 1980 to 1992. In 1990 he led a United Nations (UN) delegation to observe presidential elections in Nicaragua.