No. 3 Official at the Justice Department Is Stepping Down (After only 9 months)

NYT ^

[Bigtigermike]

WASHINGTON — Rachel L. Brand, the No. 3 official at the Justice Department, plans to step down after nine months on the job as the country’s top law enforcement agency has been under attack by President Trump, according to two people briefed on her decision.

Ms. Brand’s profile had risen in part because she is next in the line of succession behind the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, who is overseeing the special counsel’s inquiry into Russian influence in the 2016 election. Mr. Trump, who has called the investigation a witch hunt, has considered firing Mr. Rosenstein.

Such a move could have put her in charge of the special counsel and, by extension, left her in the cross hairs of the president.

[Will88]

Ms. Brand, who became the associate attorney general in May 2017, is leaving for a job as general counsel in the private sector. She has held politically appointed positions at the Justice Department over the past three presidential administrations.

So, she's been in the DOJ for ten to seventeen years.

[Signalman]

And another domino falls.

[NotAlwaysTruculent]

CNN’s panelist just called this a win for Russia. They put up a graphic of those who’ve resigned, were fired or recused (Sessions) and noted that it’s terrible how some of these people felt they had to swear personal loyalty to Trump. Also, tsk-tsk that the Justice Dept. is not functioning as well as it could were this not happening.

No one on the panel suggested these rats might be abandoning their posts because of the illegal activities alleged in the memos. When the underlying documents are released, if they corroborate the memos, will CNN and their ilk continue to ignore this? I’ve never seen them quite this bad.

[heights]

Its like one a day.

[Bigtigermike]

I don’t know. You’re the one with a personal vendetta against her for the past decade

[Vlad The Inhaler]

Odd career move because the handwriting is on the wall - Rosenstein’s days are numbered.

He will be leaving one way or another and probably sooner rather than later.

She is in position to move up to the #2 slot.

After that the world is her oyster if she avoids becoming involved in plots, scams and sedition.

[DaveA37]

Supposedly, she accepted a “dream job” outside of the DOJ. (Maybe!)

Seems a number of employees in the FBI, the DOJ and a few more departments see their fate much like passengers on the Titanic as many are abandoning ship. Some of them may be innocent of any wrong doing but the appearance of wrong doing is hard to overcome.

[DaveA37]

Supposedly, she accepted a “dream job” outside of the DOJ. (Maybe!)

Seems a number of employees in the FBI, the DOJ and a few more departments see their fate much like passengers on the Titanic as many are abandoning ship. Some of them may be innocent of any wrong doing but the appearance of wrong doing is hard to overcome.

[Enchante]

I thought that Rachel Brand was reputed to be the only conservative in the DOJ.... but maybe that’s just in DC terms, and/or she got sucked into something she should have steered clear of.... but I’d heard that she was supposed to be one of the only hopeful signs for the future.

[semantic]

Getting out so that they're aren't compelled to testify (as part of their employment agreement). Once they're just normal civilians - like all the rest of us - then they can plead the 5th.

Not gonna work, however. They can put up whatever kind of vigorous defense they want, they are still going to lose. And that's assuming some $billion dollar 'resist' legal defense fund is created to defend each & everyone of the traitors with the best teams the proglibs can mount.

Hmmm, perhaps that's where Trump's EO comes in cutting off potential financial resources? 4D chess many moves ahead?

[Migraine]

They’re taking romney’s advice and self-deporting.

[ryderann]

Rachel L. Brand was sworn in as Associate Attorney General on May 22, 2017, after confirmation by the Senate. As Associate Attorney General, she serves as the third-ranking officer in the Department of Justice and oversees the following Department components: Antitrust Division, Civil Division, Civil Rights Division, Environment and Natural Resources Division, Tax Division, Executive Office for U.S. Trustees, Office of Justice Programs, Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), Office on Violence Against Women, Community Relations Service, Office of Access to Justice, Office of Information Policy, Foreign Claims Settlement Commission, and the Service members and Veterans Initiative. She also serves as the Department’s Regulatory Reform Officer and chairs the Regulatory Reform Task Force.

Prior to becoming Associate Attorney General, Ms. Brand had a diverse legal career in public service and outside of government. From 2012 – 2017, she has served as one of five Senate-confirmed Members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, appointed by President Obama. In that capacity, she provided advice and oversight to U.S. counterterrorism agencies to ensure that privacy and civil liberties are balanced with national security objectives.

Ms. Brand previously served in the Department of Justice from 2003 – 2007, first as the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy, and then as the Senate-confirmed Assistant Attorney General for Legal Policy, appointed by President George W. Bush. In that capacity, Ms. Brand served as chief policy adviser to the Attorney General, handling a broad range of national security, law enforcement, and civil justice issues. She also oversaw the development of all regulations promulgated by the Department of Justice and managed the Department’s role in selecting federal judges, including running the confirmation process for Chief Justice John G. Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito. Earlier, Ms. Brand was an Associate Counsel to President George W. Bush in the White House.

Outside of the federal government, Ms. Brand has been an Associate Professor of law at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, an adjunct professor at George Washington University Law School, and a lawyer in private practice in Washington, D.C.

She served as a law clerk to Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States during the 2002 – 2003 Term and to Justice Charles Fried of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. Ms. Brand graduated from Harvard Law School, where she served as deputy editor-in-chief of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, and earned a B.A. from the University of Minnesota-Morris.

[humblegunner]

It’s not my fault that those of her family that ain’t
in jail are drunk or in the hospital from being drunk.

[miniTAX]

“I don’t think so. She was appointed by Trump. I would hope that Trump would not appoint a swamp creature. But who knows?”

---

Where do you get that she was “appointed by Trump”, please? I hope not from the fakenews NY Times.
She, like Rosenstein, is more probably appointed by abominaSessions.

[MNDude]

I believe there were just too high and FBI people that resigned yesterday also. I’m hoping the end is soon.

[Alberta's Child]

She may have been an honorable person who stepped down for a damn good reason.

If I was the Associate AG and I reported to the Deputy AG (Rosenstein), I would have had serious concerns about my job -- and the entire DOJ -- if my boss's name showed up as one of the people who signed the fraudulent FISA warrant applications involving Carter Page and he didn't step down from his post.

I'd also be alarmed at seeing another one of those signatories -- Dana Boente (former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia) -- named as general counsel of the FBI just a couple of weeks ago.

[Dog]

So did i...

[Enchante]

BUt since it says she’s accepting a pvt sector “General Counsel” job, that could pay well upwards of $500K per year or even a great deal more, depending upon the company. Once she had any reasons at all to think about leaving DOJ, the temptations for a pvt sector salary may simply have been too great. It is not everyone’s dream to be Deputy Attorney General.

[billyboy15]

Please remember that Donald Trump is a novice in government and because of this relied and probably still does rely mainly on advice from other government employees who are entrenched. He takes advise from the Deep Staters because there is nobody else and it’s only after having them on board for a while that he may be able to learn enough about them to come to his own conclusions.

[Leaning Right]

> Where do you get that she was “appointed by Trump”, please? <

From her biography on Wikipedia. “She was sworn in as the United States Associate Attorney General on May 22, 2017, after being nominated to the position by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the United States Senate.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Brand