WASHINGTON: The US Justice Department’s third-ranking official, RachelBrand, will resign and take a senior job at Walmart Inc, with sourcesfamiliar with her decision saying on Friday that she had grown increasinglyuncomfortable with President Donald Trump’s attacks on her department andthe FBI.
The department said Brand will be leaving her post in the coming weeks.Attorney General Jeff Sessions, himself repeatedly criticized by Trump ,praised her “critical role in helping us accomplish our goals as adepartment.”
Brand, 44, was next in line of succession to Deputy Attorney General RodRosenstein for oversight of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigationinto potential collusion between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign andRussia and whether the Republican president has unlawfully sought toobstruct the ongoing probe.
She became the latest senior law link>enforcementlink> official to either resign or befired since link>Trumplink> took office in January 2017, a list thatincludes a Federal Bureau of Investigation director and deputy director,and an acting attorney general.
link>Trump link> alsoousted all remaining US link>attorneys, the chieffederal prosecutors in each state, who had served under Trump’s Democraticpredecessor Barack Obama.
Brand’s resignation is different in that she was hand-picked for the job bylink>Trump link> ,assuming her post just five days after Mueller’s appointment in May 2017.
News of Brand’s departure came a week afterlink>Trumplink> approvedthe release of a previously classified memo written by Republican lawmakersthat portrayed the Russia investigation, initially handled by the FBI andnow headed by Mueller, as a product of political bias againstlink>Trump link> atthe FBI and Justice Department.
After just nine months on the job, Brand had become more and more uneasywith Trump’s escalating attacks on the Justice Department and the FBI,which she and other law link> enforcementlink> professionals feared was beginningto undermine the rule of law link> , according tosources familiar with her thinking.
In a statement, Brand defended her department, saying, “The men and womenof the Department of Justice impress me every day.”
The attacks have escalated in recent weeks as Republicans in Congress havecriticized the handling by the Justice Department, FBI and the FederalIntelligence Surveillance Court of warrants for surveillance of alink>Trumplink>campaignadvisor, Carter Page, who had ties to Russia.link>Trump link> calledthe matter “a disgrace.”
In a statement, Walmart said Brand will join the company as executive vicepresident for global governance and corporate secretary. “We are fortunateto have a leader of Rachel Brand’s stature join the company,” President andCEO Doug McMillon said.
‘Block out the turmoil’Mary McCord, who served as acting head of theJustice Department’s National Security Division from October 2016 untilApril 2017 and helped oversee the FBI investigation into the collusionmatter, said Brand’s resignation would further shake morale at thedepartment.
“When the associate attorney general steps down after just nine months inthe midst of a barrage of attacks on the department from the White Houseand Capitol Hill, it is another blow to the career women and men of thedepartment who have been doing their jobs diligently while trying to blockout the turmoil around them,” said McCord, now a visiting professor atGeorgetown University’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy andProtection.
The department is also facing a major backlog on leadership positions thatstill need confirmation by the US link> Senate.
Rosenstein oversees Mueller’s investigation because Sessions recusedhimself from the matter last year. link>Trumplink>also has criticized Sessions for recusinghimself. Brand on Friday lauded Sessions’ “commitment to the rule of lawlink> .”
Rosenstein is the only official with legal authority to fire Mueller, andit is widely believed he would resign if ordered to do so without goodcause. If Rosenstein resigned, that authority would have fallen to Brandunder the department’s succession line. With her gone, the next person inline is Solicitor General Noel Francisco.
Any permanent replacement for Brand would have to be confirmed by theSenate and would likely face tough questioning about their willingness topreserve the Russia probe’s independence.
link>Trump link> coulduse a 1998 law link> on executive branchvacancies to appoint a temporary replacement of his choice, as long as thatperson was an experienced Justice Department employee or anotheradministration official already confirmed by the Senate.
link>Trump link> firedthen-FBI Director James Comey, who was leading the agency’s Russiainvestigation, in May 2017, saying he took the action because of “thisRussia thing.”
The FBI’s deputy director, Andrew McCabe, stepped down in January afterlink>Trumplink> repeatedlycriticized him on Twitter. McCabe’s wife previously ran as a Democrat for aseat in Virginia’s state Senate and received donations from then-VirginiaGovernor Terry McAuliffe, a close ally of Hillary Clinton and formerpresident Bill Clinton.
Brand oversees the Justice Department’s civil, antitrust, tax andenvironmental and natural resources divisions. She played a crucial role inhelping push for Congress to reauthorize the National Security Agency’swarrantless internet surveillance program after it faced opposition fromsome privacy-minded lawmakers in both parties. The measure passed, andlink>Trump link>signedit into law link> in January.
A Justice Department official said that Jesse Panuccio, the PrincipalDeputy Associate Attorney General, will temporarily take over Brand’s jobuntil a replacement is named.
He previously served as acting associate attorney general until Brand wasconfirmed and sworn in.