February 14, 2018

On February 9, 2018, the DOJ announced that Associate Attorney General Brand was leaving to take a job with Walmart as executive vice president of global governance and corporate secretary. Reportedly, this change “had been in the works for some time[.]” A number of actions against Walmart have been resolved during Brand’s tenure at DOJ, including a False Claims Act case for which Walmart paid $1.65 million, and a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act prosecution Walmart settled for nearly $300 million.

CREW requested records about a recusal by Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand from any DOJ matters while she was in talks with Walmart about a possible job. CREW also requested any records that would show steps taken to keep Brand from working on any DOJ matters in light of her potential employment at Walmart.

The requested records will shed light on the extent to which Associate Attorney General Brand’s employment discussions with Walmart raised any conflicts of interest and, if so, how the DOJ dealt with them.

Read the FOIA request here.

 

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