WMT Walmart Inc

By Aruna Viswanatha and Del Quentin Wilber 

The Justice Department's third-ranking official, Rachel Brand, resigned Friday to take a senior job at Walmart Inc., adding to the turmoil at an agency facing multiple vacancies and criticism from various sources, including the White House.

Ms. Brand will be Walmart's executive vice president for global governance, the company announced Friday. Her exit caught senior Justice Department officials by surprise, and after news of the departure was reported, the department issued a statement confirming it. Attorney General Jeff Sessions praised Ms. Brand, saying she had "played a critical role in helping us accomplish our goals as a Department."

Ms. Brand, in the same release, said she was proud of her time at the agency.

Ms. Brand's portfolio was broad, focusing on civil matters rather than criminal or national security issues. She had taken the lead on several initiatives championed by Mr. Sessions, including revoking guidance documents issued by previous administrations on an array of subjects. She also oversaw efforts to combat human trafficking, hosting a daylong summit on the topic last week.

President Donald Trump nominated Ms. Brand early last year; she was confirmed by the Senate to be associate attorney general in May. Serving such a senior department role for less than a year is unusual.

The Justice Department is still awaiting Senate confirmation for multiple members of its leadership team, including individuals to run the civil, criminal and national security divisions, all high-profile areas. Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Wray has been on the job about six months, after Mr. Trump fired his predecessor, James Comey.

Ms. Brand's departure, first reported by the New York Times, also comes as Republicans, including the president, have butted heads with the Justice Department and FBI over the investigation of ties between Mr. Trump's associates and Russia.

A memo released last week by House Republicans alleging abuses of the surveillance process against a former Trump campaign aide was criticized by Justice and FBI officials as incomplete and misleading. After Mr. Trump criticized the agency's leaders last Friday in advance of the memo's release, suggesting that the Russia investigation amounted to a political conspiracy, Mr. Sessions singled out for praise Ms. Brand and the department's No. 2 official, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

A classified Democratic memo that rebuts the Republican document was awaiting clearance by the White House on Friday.

One person close to Mr. Trump said last week that the president's interest in releasing the GOP memo stemmed in part from his belief that it would undermine Mr. Rosenstein's credibility. Mr. Rosenstein oversees the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and any potential links to the Trump campaign. That investigation, which is also looking into potential obstruction of justice by the president and his aides, has returned indictments of two Trump campaign aides and guilty pleas by two other advisers.

Ms. Brand would likely have assumed oversight of the special counsel's investigation if Mr. Rosenstein were to be fired.

Before coming to the Justice Department, Ms. Brand served on the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, which vets national-security surveillance practices to ensure they don't violate individual liberties. It is unclear who will now move into Ms. Brand's role at the Justice Department.

Write to Aruna Viswanatha at Aruna.Viswanatha@wsj.com and Del Quentin Wilber at del.wilber@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 09, 2018 19:56 ET (00:56 GMT)

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