Trump to nominate Jessie Liu for No. 3 spot at Justice Dept.

March 5, 2019, 10:41 PM GMT

by Julia Ainsley

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump intends to nominate Jessie Liu, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, to be the associate attorney general, a senior U.S. official familiar with decision NBC News.

The # 3 position at DOJ has been open since last February, when Rachel Brand left to take a position as a lawyer for Walmart.

If confirmed by the Senate, Liu will oversee the civil division, the civil rights division, the antitrust division, the oversight office reform police, and other divisions not related to criminal prosecutions or national security. Trump's intention to nominate her was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Liu was nominated by Trump to serve as the chief prosecutor in December 2017. Paul Manafort and longtime confidential Roger Stone .

Liu also served on Trump 's transition team, a position that Democrats raised as a potential conflict of interest during his confirmation as U.S. attorney.

Last month, Trump nominated Jeff Rosen, the Transportation Department deputy secretary, to the No. 2 post at the Justice Department, the deputy attorney general.

Rod Rosenstein, the current deputy attorney general, is expected to leave the post in the coming weeks.

Under then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Rosenstein oversaw the special advocacy investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election after the recusal of Sessions. That left whoever was in the No. 3 spot in a de facto position to take oversight powers if Rosenstein was fired, something Trump often killed publicly.

New Attorney General William Barr announced Tuesday that he would not recuse himself from the Mueller probe.

Liu is a graduate of Harvard University and Yale Law School.