As Trump attacks U.S. law enforcement, another top official quits

[rooster59]

As Trump attacks U.S. law enforcement, another top official quits

By John Walcott and Sarah N. Lynch

 

FILE PHOTO: Rachel Brand, nominee to be Associate Attorney General, testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein/Files

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department's third-ranking official, Rachel Brand, will resign and take a senior job at Walmart Inc <WMT.N>, with sources familiar with her decision saying on Friday that she had grown increasingly uncomfortable with President Donald Trump's attacks on her department and the 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 a department."

 

Brand, 44, was next in line of succession to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for oversight of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into potential collusion between Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and Russia and whether the Republican president has unlawfully sought to obstruct the ongoing probe.

 

She became the latest senior law enforcement official to either resign or be fired since Trump took office in January 2017, a list that includes a Federal Bureau of Investigation director and deputy director, and an acting attorney general. Trump also ousted all remaining U.S. attorneys, the chief federal prosecutors in each state, who had served under Trump's Democratic predecessor Barack Obama.

 

Brand's resignation is different in that she was hand-picked for the job by Trump, assuming her post just five days after Mueller's appointment in May 2017.

 

News of Brand's departure came a week after Trump approved the release of a previously classified memo written by Republican lawmakers that portrayed the Russia investigation, initially handled by the FBI and now headed by Mueller, as a product of political bias against Trump at the FBI and Justice Department.

 

After just nine months on the job, Brand had become more and more uneasy with Trump's escalating attacks on the Justice Department and the FBI, which she and other law enforcement professionals feared was beginning to undermine the rule of law, according to sources familiar with her thinking.

 

In a statement, Brand defended her department, saying, "The men and women of the Department of Justice impress me every day."

 

The attacks have escalated in recent weeks as Republicans in Congress have criticized the handling by the Justice Department, FBI and the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court of warrants for surveillance of a Trump campaign advisor, Carter Page, who had ties to Russia. Trump called the matter "a disgrace."

 

In a statement, Walmart said Brand will join the company as executive vice president for global governance and corporate secretary.

"We are fortunate to have a leader of Rachel Brand's stature join the company," President and CEO Doug McMillon said.

 

'BLOCK OUT THE TURMOIL'

 

Mary McCord, who served as acting head of the Justice Department's National Security Division from October 2016 until April 2017 and helped oversee the FBI investigation into the collusion matter, said Brand's resignation would further shake morale at the department.

 

"When the associate attorney general steps down after just nine months in the midst of a barrage of attacks on the department from the White House and Capitol Hill, it is another blow to the career women and men of the department who have been doing their jobs diligently while trying to block out the turmoil around them," said McCord, now a visiting professor at Georgetown University's Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection.

 

The department is also facing a major backlog on leadership positions that still need confirmation by the U.S. Senate.

 

Rosenstein oversees Mueller's investigation because Sessions recused himself from the matter last year. Trump also has criticized Sessions for recusing himself. Brand on Friday lauded Sessions' "commitment to the rule of law."

 

Rosenstein is the only official with legal authority to fire Mueller, and it is widely believed he would resign if ordered to do so without good cause. If Rosenstein resigned, that authority would have fallen to Brand under the department's succession line. With her gone, the next person in line is Solicitor General Noel Francisco.

 

Any permanent replacement for Brand would have to be confirmed by the Senate and would likely face tough questioning about their willingness to preserve the Russia probe's independence.

 

Trump could use a 1998 law on executive branch vacancies to appoint a temporary replacement of his choice, as long as that person was an experienced Justice Department employee or another administration official already confirmed by the Senate.

 

Trump fired then-FBI Director James Comey, who was leading the agency's Russia investigation, in May 2017, saying he took the action because of "this Russia thing."

 

The FBI's deputy director, Andrew McCabe, stepped down in January after Trump repeatedly criticized him on Twitter. McCabe's wife previously ran as a Democrat for a seat in Virginia's state Senate and received donations from then-Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, a close ally of Hillary Clinton and former president Bill Clinton.

 

Brand oversees the Justice Department's civil, antitrust, tax and environmental and natural resources divisions. She played a crucial role in helping push for Congress to reauthorize the National Security Agency's warrantless internet surveillance programme after it faced opposition from some privacy-minded lawmakers in both parties. The measure passed, and Trump signed it into law in January.

 

A Justice Department official said that Jesse Panuccio, the Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General, will temporarily take over Brand's job until a replacement is named.

 

He previously served as acting associate attorney general until Brand was confirmed and sworn in.

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-02-10

[soalbundy]

1 hour ago, stevenl said:

So far no draining the swamp by your hero, and corrupt? Vivid imagination you have.

Only the best will leave and even the worst are having their doubts about the ginger man groper in chief.

[Rhys]

Attention Greenlight Special Aisle 69 at row 45

 

[Basil B]

9 hours ago, rooster59 said:

The U.S. Justice Department's third-ranking official, Rachel Brand, will resign and take a senior job at Walmart Inc <WMT.N>, with sources familiar with her decision saying on Friday that she had grown increasingly uncomfortable with President Donald Trump's attacks on her department and the FBI

I am sure they can find a good a Trump poodle and wife basher to take her place... 

[Scott]

Troll post and replies removed.  

[Ulic]

9 hours ago, gr8fldanielle said:

As Trump attacks U.S. law enforcement, another top official quits

should read:

As Trump drains the swamp, another corrupt law enforcement official quits.

Considering Trump appointed her I am not sure what point you are making.

[Benmart]

9 hours ago, soalbundy said:

Only the best will leave and even the worst are having their doubts about the ginger man groper in chief.

The veiled name calling does little to support the first part of your post. Please provide the names of the "best", who will leave, as well as the names of the "worst". I prefer to deal with verifiable facts and not wishfull, partisan fortune-telling.

[mtls2005]

Even being a greeter at Walmart would be better than having to quit later in protest , aka "a Ruckelshaus".

[Silurian]

With Rachel Brand gone, the WH is one step closer to removing Mueller from the Russian investigation. First, Rosenstein will be forced out and then he will be replaced by some flunky that will do the bidding of the WH. The new Deputy Attorney General will find some reason to remove Mueller. After Mueller is gone, the dismantling of the independent Russian investigation will begin until it is no longer has any teeth or even exist at all.

 

Rachel Brand will resign from the DOJ. That could be bad news for Mueller

https://www.vox.com/2018/2/9/16997508/rachel-brand-resigns-doj-trump-mueller

 

[anon467367354]

14 hours ago, Ulic said:

Considering Trump appointed her I am not sure what point you are making.

it's OK not to be sure. Ever wonder why Trump brought in a whole team that was out to get him to investigate the fake Russian collusion?

Keep your enemies close, very close. He selected Meuller didn't he? You make it sound like just because someone selects somebody they know if they have skeletons in their closet or not. People have been fired by the person that hired them. It happens. 

[Dumbastheycome]

On  one  side or  the other  of  the  wall  of  silence  there are  some  unspoken  truths that  eventually  will  out.

The   polarizing   debacle which continues  to  damage  the increasingly fragile image  of  the  USA as  a genuine   entity  may prove  to  be  it's  nemesis .

 

 

[Trouble]

No matter which side of the political spectrum, anyone who does not believe that there was/is not something wrong within the Justice Department/FBI senior leadership, can't be thinking straight. There has been just too many issues, whether one supports Trump or not, to not see that something stinks.  Why Brand feels uneasy with the attacks on the Justice Department and feels it would undermine the rule of law would be interesting to find out.  What I want to see is a house cleaning so that we have a Justice Department and FBI free of political bias and people bending to political pressure to further their careers in these departments.  It's not just the current Administration but what obviously happened under the previous Administration as well. If she feels uneasy then she was probably not the right person for the job.  We will all see how this whole investigation plays out but it certainly appears there was something rotten taking place in the FBI. 

[Credo]

14 hours ago, gr8fldanielle said:

it's OK not to be sure. Ever wonder why Trump brought in a whole team that was out to get him to investigate the fake Russian collusion?

Keep your enemies close, very close. He selected Meuller didn't he? You make it sound like just because someone selects somebody they know if they have skeletons in their closet or not. People have been fired by the person that hired them. It happens. 

Trump did NOT appoint Mueller.   

 

“In my capacity as acting attorney general I determined that it is in the public interest for me to exercise my authority and appoint a special counsel to assume responsibility for this matter,’’ Rosenstein said in a statement.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/deputy-attorney-general-appoints-special-counsel-to-oversee-probe-of-russian-interference-in-election/2017/05/17/302c1774-3b49-11e7-8854-21f359183e8c_story.html?utm_term=.baa186c8bc2b