While both Sessions and Rosenstein expressed their commitment to their positions at a Thursday morning press conference, the headlines involving the pair have cast a spotlight on the third person in the Justice Department hierarchy, Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand.
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Apr 03, 2018 · Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein today announced that Edward O’Callaghan will serve as the Acting Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General. O’Callaghan, who has been serving as the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the National Security Division, will replace Robert Hur, who is succeeding Rosenstein as the United States Attorney …
Associate Attorney General. Vanita Gupta was sworn in as Associate Attorney General of the United States on April 22, 2021. LEARN MORE.
Jeff Sessions | |
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Deputy | Dana Boente (acting) Rod Rosenstein |
Preceded by | Loretta Lynch |
Succeeded by | William Barr |
United States Senator from Alabama |
Matthew Whitaker | |
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Preceded by | Jeff Sessions |
Succeeded by | William Barr |
Chief of Staff to the United States Attorney General | |
In office September 22, 2017 – November 7, 2018 |
Rosenstein initially stepped in as acting attorney general where Russia was concerned after Attorney General Jeff Sessions also recused himself. Sessions had to distance himself for having been a part of Trump's campaign and failing to disclose meetings with Russian officials to the Senate.
Two years out of law school, Brand served as a member of the legal team representing George W. Bush during the Florida recount in 2000. She clerked for Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, then joined the Bush-era Justice Department, first working for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and later for the Office of Legal Policy. There she was in charge of leading the so-called “murder boards ” that successfully prepared John Roberts and Samuel Alito for their nominations to the Supreme Court. A “murder board,” also known as a “scrub down,” is a committee of questioners set up to help people pass a difficult oral examination, in this case the super-intense gauntlet of Senate confirmation hearings.
She is the first woman to hold the no. 3 spot at the Justice Department, a position responsible for the oversight of a number of important departments, among them the Civil Rights Division, the Environment and Natural Resources Division, the Tax Division, and the Office on Violence Against Women.
Rachel Brand, who is currently the associate attorney general — the third-ranked lawyer at the Justice Department — is stepping down, the New York Times reports. The news comes amid reports that Trump is considering firing her boss, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is leading the special counsel's investigation into Russian influence in the 2016 election. That move would have left Brand in charge — and in the middle of White House chaos.
Rachel Lee Brand, 44, has been aligned with Republican politics for decades. At Harvard Law School, New York magazine notes, she was deeply involved with the “ arch-conservative ” Federalist Society. According to Politico, the group has long been considered “a talent pool for anyone interested in serving in the administration of a Republican president or on the Supreme Court.”
On January 21, 2021, it was announced that President Biden had appointed Matthew Colangelo, who most recently worked in the Office of the Attorney General of New York, to serve as Acting Associate Attorney General while the Senate considers the nomination of Vanita Gupta to serve as Associate Attorney General.
The Associate Attorney General advises and assists the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General in policies relating to civil justice, federal and local law enforcement, and public safety matters.
The Office of the Associate Attorney General was created on March 10, 1977, by Attorney General Order No. 699-77.
Vanita Gupta was sworn in as Associate Attorney General of the United States on April 22, 2021.
Justice Department Announces More Than $73 Million to Help Crime Victims and Improve Public Safety in American Indian and Alaska Native Communities
At the time of his confirmation as Deputy Attorney General in April 2017, he was the nation's longest-serving U.S. Attorney. Rosenstein had also been nominated to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in 2007, but his nomination was never considered by the U.S. Senate.
United States Attorney Lynne A. Battaglia hired Rosenstein as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland in 1997.
In his memo Rosenstein asserts that the FBI must have "a Director who understands the gravity of the mistakes and pledges never to repeat them". He ends with an argument against keeping Comey as FBI director, on the grounds that he was given an opportunity to "admit his errors" but that there is no hope that he will "implement the necessary corrective actions ."
In May 2018, Rosenstein reportedly told five U.S. Attorneys in districts along the border with Mexico that, where refugees were concerned, they should not "be categorically declining immigration prosecutions of adults in family units because of the age of a child." The directive, issued under Attorney General Jeff Sessions and other Trump Justice Department officials as part of the Trump administration family separation policy, led to the separation of thousands of small children from their parents, many of whom were seeking asylum in the United States after fleeing violence in Central America. Rosenstein insisted that children should be separated from their parents irrespective of the child's age, even if they were infants.
He also allegedly suggested invoking the 25th amendment to attempt to remove Trump from office.
As United States Attorney, he oversaw federal civil and criminal litigation, assist ed with federal law enforcement strategies in Maryland, and presented cases in the U.S. District Court and in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. In 2012, Attorney General Eric Holder directed Rosenstein to investigate leaks regarding the U.S.'s Stuxnet operation, which sabotaged Iran's nuclear program; as a result of the investigation, former U.S. Marine Corps General James Cartwright pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI and acknowledged leaking information about the operation to New York Times journalist David E. Sanger. During his tenure as U.S. Attorney, Rosenstein successfully prosecuted leaks of classified information, corruption, murders and burglaries, and was "particularly effective taking on corruption within police departments."
After his clerkship, Rosenstein joined the United States Department of Justice through the Attorney General's Honors Program. From 1990 to 1993, he prosecuted public corruption cases as a trial attorney with the Public Integrity Section of the Criminal Division, the latter of which was led by then Assistant Attorney General Robert Mueller.
The attorney general at the time of the Apple subpoena, Jeff Sessions, was recused from all matters related to the Russia probe so a related leak investigation would have fallen under Rosenstein, CNN has reported.
Rep. Mike Quigley, an Illinois Democrat on the committee who told CNN Friday that he doesn't know if his data was seized, said Saturday that the Department of Justice should be coming forward with information. "I think it's time for the Department of Justice to come forward and brief all of Congress on everything they know," he said on CNN's "Newsroom."
The Justice Department has not publicly explained why Apple was being ordered to hand over the data. The Justice Department has also not explained why the request was so broad, who approved it, and what was being investigated. The Department of Justice is launching an Inspector General review into how the investigation was handled.
Former Deputy AG Rosenstein has said he was not aware of subpoena for lawmakers' data, source says - CNNPolitics.