In the early months of his presidency, at arguably the peak of his frustration with U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, President Donald Trump wanted a question posed to the third-in-command at the Justice Department: Rachel Brand.

It was the summer of 2017, and Trump was feuding with Sessions, who had infuriated the president months earlier with his decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation, setting in motion Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s appointment of Robert Mueller III as special counsel.