The Justice Department’s Third Highest Ranking Official Has Resigned

Yet another high-ranking official who might find themselves having to deal with the Trump administration’s ties to Russia has resigned. This time, it’s Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand, the third highest-ranking official at the Department of Justice.

Brand has left to take the Executive Vice President, Global Governance and Corporate Secretary position at Wal-Mart.

While people close to Brand say the job was simply too good to turn down, the politics and conflicts surrounding the Russia investigation undoubtedly had to influence her decision. As CNN justice reporter Katie Benner said to Wolf Blitzer on a televised phone call, “It would be naive of us not to note that the Justice Department has been in a swirl of controversy as of late, and that there are a lot of questions on who is going to stay, who is going to go, and it must be a very tense place to work.”

Blitzer went on to point out that should Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the second highest-ranking official at the department, be fired or forced to resign, Brand would have been in charge of deciding whether or not to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Benner explained that this would have been an uncomfortable position for Brand to be in, because if Trump were to ask her to fire Mueller, it would put her political career on shaky ground. Brand has worked at the Justice Department for the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations.

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The list of people who were either fired or resigned from their posts because of their involvement in the Russia probe includes:  former FBI Director James Comey and his chief of staff, former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, FBI General Counsel James Baker, FBI assistant director for public affairs Mike Kortan, and Justice Department Counterintelligence and Export Control Section David Laufman.

With so many senior officials resigning, Trump’s goal of discrediting and ending the investigation only get easier.