No. 3 Official at the Justice Department Is Stepping Down

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WASHINGTON — Rachel L. Brand, the No. 3 official at the Justice Department, plans to step down after nine months on the job as the country’s top law enforcement agency has been under attack by President Trump, according to two people briefed on her decision.

Ms. Brand’s profile had risen in part because she is next in the line of succession behind the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, who is overseeing the special counsel’s inquiry into Russian influence in the 2016 election. Mr. Trump, who has called the investigation a witch hunt, has considered firing Mr. Rosenstein.

Such a move could have put her in charge of the special counsel and, by extension, left her in the cross hairs of the president.

Ms. Brand, who became the associate attorney general in May 2017, is leaving for a job as general counsel in the private sector. She has held politically appointed positions at the Justice Department over the past three presidential administrations.

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In her current job, she reports directly to Mr. Rosenstein and Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, who has recused himself from the Russia investigation.

Mr. Trump in recent weeks has escalated his criticism of the department for its handling of the inquiry and suggested that top law enforcement officials should face consequences for conduct he called “a disgrace.”

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Jimmy Garoppolo deal set to have impact on QB market

Jimmy Garoppolo became a dangerously wealthy man on Thursday. He’s about to have company.

Garoppolo’s massive five-year, $137.5 million contract with the San Francisco 49ers made him the richest player in NFL history — a feat destined to be topped by Kirk Cousins when he hits free agency next month.

Garoppolo’s $27.5 million annual earnings — after just seven pro starts under center — sets the floor for Cousins and his camp as they haggle with suitors pining after the former Redskins starter.

“That’s the difference between being on the open market and not on the open market,” NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo said Thursday. “And we saw that at other positions, too. I mean look at [defensive lineman] Olivier Vernon getting $17 million per year from the Giants a couple of years ago when guys that were [franchise] tagged were getting somewhere in the area of $15 million.”

The Garoppolo pact provides a crystal-clear baseline for quarterback pay, but Garafolo noted that “people around the league already expected the Cousins deal to be in the area of $30 million anyway.”

Free agency lends itself to open-market bidding wars, but Garoppolo’s money — and what Cousins is about to earn — won’t go unnoticed by a flock of longtime, Super Bowl-winning starters whose latest deals have a prehistoric feel amid this new money.

Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers, arguably the finest passer league-wide, is slated to make $19.8 million next season and just $20 million in 2019. Tom Brady’s base salary next autumn? A dainty $14 million. In Philadelphia, meanwhile, the combined salary for Carson Wentz and Nick Foles — south of $10 million combined for 2018 — looks like the steal of the decade.

Still, recent deals for Matthew Stafford ($27.0 million annually) and Derek Carr ($25.0 million annually) circle close to a Garoppolo contract that will fall back into the pack as new superstar arms get theirs.

As cap room continues to expand, the pay scale for reliable starting quarterbacks is set to skyrocket into new hemispheres.

Long underpaid in comparison to, say, even marginal baseball players, the NFL quarterback — the most important position in sports — is entering a golden age of cash-earned glories.

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NFL’s biggest contracts for 2018

Check out the highest paid NFL players for the 2018 season, as ranked by their average yearly salary according to Over the Cap.

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