Is it churn, an exodus or a purge?



That is the key question for a series of departures and reassignments that are reshaping who runs law enforcement in the Trump administration. Rachel Brand, the prosecutor next in line, after Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, to oversee the special counsel Robert Mueller, confirmed her departure on Friday night, after just nine months on the job.

She follows the F.B.I. director James Comey, his deputy, his general counsel, an acting assistant attorney general (in the National Security Division) and other top officials who are now fired, gone or reassigned.

After President Trump fired Mr. Comey, in fact, a news report listed the top “three officials” left running the Russia probe last May. Two of them are now out. The third, Mr. Rosenstein, was recently publicly undercut by Mr. Trump, who suggested to reporters that he did not have confidence in him.

These dramatic staffing shifts are occurring against the backdrop of a sustained attack on law enforcement by the president and his allies. If this is a partisan purge, it is slowly grinding forward in plain sight.