Trump's pick for No. 3 Justice Department job withdraws name

March 29 (UPI) -- U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu has withdrawn herself from consideration for associate attorney general at the Justice Department following concerns raised by Republicans over her past.

In early March, the White House said President Donald Trump planned to nominate Liu, 46, for the Justice Department's No. 3 official following Rachel Brand leaving the position over a year ago for an executive position at Walmart.

Attorney General William Barr said Thursday he instead would be appointing her as chairwoman of the Attorney General's Advisory Committee.

"Jessie will be an integral part of our leadership at the Department," Barr said in the statement announcing her appointment. "We will all benefit from her universally regarded expertise and dedication to public service."

Her withdrawal is the result of issues raised by her serving in 2005 and 2006 as vice president of the National Association of Women Lawyers, a liberal women lawyers group, that supported abortion rights and opposed President George W. Bush's Supreme Court nomination of Samuel Alito, Jr.

Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said, "Unfortunately, a women's lawyers professional organization that Jessie was affiliated with over a dozen years ago took certain controversial positions at the time which have now generated opposition to her nomination at the Senate Judiciary Committee."

Liu had disclosed her membership with the group to the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2017 when she was nominated for the U.S. Attorney for the District of Colombia.

Liu did not sign the group's letter opposing Alito's Supreme Court nomination and she considered her participation in the group as a networking opportunity, CNN reported.

She will be taking over as head of the Attorney General's Advisory Committee from interim chair Southern District of Alabama U.S. Attorney Richard Moore.