19 Facts About Rachel Brand

Rachel Lee Brand was born on May 1,1973 and is an American lawyer, academic, and former government official.

Rachel Brand served as the United States Associate Attorney General from May 22,2017, until February 20,2018, when she resigned to take a job as head of global corporate governance at Walmart.

Rachel Brand served as Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy in the George W Bush administration and was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.

Rachel Brand was born in Muskegon, Michigan, and raised in Pella, Iowa, where she attended Pella Christian High School.

Rachel Brand studied at the University of Minnesota Morris from 1991 to 1995, graduating with high distinction and honors with a Bachelor of Arts in political science.

Rachel Brand then attended Harvard Law School, where she was deputy editor-in-chief of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy.

Rachel Brand later served as President Bush's assistant counsel and associate counsel.

Rachel Brand's portfolio included shaping the administration's position on reauthorization of the Patriot Act, in which capacity she testified before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary on the benefits of using administrative subpoenas in terrorism investigations.

Rachel Brand was floated by the department's leadership as a top candidate to replace Margaret Chiara, who was ousted as part of the purge.

Rachel Brand ultimately declined the position and resigned from the Department of Justice in June 2007.

In 2012, Rachel Brand was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.

Rachel Brand was confirmed on August 2,2012 to a term ending January 29,2017.

Rachel Brand dissented from several recommendations included in the PCLOB's 2014 report on NSA's bulk metadata collection program under section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act.

Rachel Brand declined to join in the Board's view that the program was illegal as a statutory matter and argued that, in policy terms, it struck a justifiable balance between privacy and national security and, as such, should not be discontinued.

On February 1,2017, President Donald Trump nominated Rachel Brand to be United States Associate Attorney General.

At the Department of Justice, Rachel Brand authored a memorandum entitled "Limiting Use of Agency Guidance Documents In Affirmative Civil Enforcement Cases," which was called the "Rachel Brand memo".

On February 12,2018, NBC News reported that Rachel Brand quit the Justice Department over fear she might be asked to oversee the Russia probe and had taken a position with Walmart as executive vice president of global governance and corporate secretary.

Rachel Brand has served as Chief Counsel for Regulatory Litigation at the US Chamber of Commerce.

Rachel Brand formerly served as the chairman of the Federalist Society's Litigation Practice Group and as co-chair of the American Bar Association Administrative Law Section's Government Information and Right to Privacy Committee.