What Sent a Top Justice Department Official Running and Screaming to Walmart?

Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand is number 3 in line at the Justice Department, but she just can’t stay.

It was announced last week that she would be leaving, but we may be hearing more about the “why.”

First of all, there’s the pressure.

Brand has confided to friends and associates over the last few months that she felt overwhelmed and unsupported. Apparently, an uncomfortable bulk of work is being laid on her shoulders. Key positions under her jurisdiction remain vacant.

There are 4 out of 13 divisions she oversees that have yet to be filled. Two of those 4 are the civil rights division and the civil division.

It’s a lot to ask.

She also has a cushy position lined up elsewhere.

From NBC News:

She will be leaving the Justice Department in the coming weeks to take a position with Walmart as the company’s executive vice president of global governance and corporate secretary, a job change that had been in the works for some time, the sources said.

I don’t know if a Walmart job would be less stressful than a DOJ job, or not, to be honest.

But then, there’s that other thing.

While Brand has largely stayed out of the spotlight, public criticism of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein by President Donald Trump worried Brand that Rosenstein’s job could be in danger.

Should Rosenstein be fired, Brand would be next in line to oversee Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, thrusting her into a political spotlight that Brand told friends she did not want to enter.

Brand has worked for both the George W. Bush administration, as well as the Obama administration.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions called her a “lawyer’s lawyer.” She’s a graduate of Harvard Law School, and a former clerk for the Supreme Court.

She’s no hack.

In the same statement, Brand said, “I am proud of what we have been able to accomplish over my time here.”

But she can’t stay.

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