Brian Benczkowski, the Trump-appointed head of the Justice Department's criminal division, is stepping down in early July, ending a two-year tenure in which he embraced corporate enforcement policies seen as benefiting companies.

In a memo to the criminal division staff, Benczkowski said his decision to leave is "my own and has been in the works for some time." Benczkowski said he told U.S. Attorney General William Barr in late 2019 about his plans to resign in the summer of this year.

His resignation takes effect July 3. Benczkowski will be replaced by his top deputy, Brian Rabbitt, a former Trump White House lawyer who joined the criminal division earlier this year after serving as Barr's chief of staff.

Benczkowski, in his memo Wednesday, said he worked with Rabbitt closely during his time as Barr's chief of staff and "came to appreciate that he shared my commitment to maintaining the division's institutional independence and integrity, and to pursuing our mission with objectivity and humility."

"Brian is an outstanding lawyer, leader, and manager, and I am confident that he will serve with distinction as the head of the criminal division," he wrote. Rabbitt joined the Trump administration from Williams & Connolly, where he had been an associate for seven years.

A former Kirkland & Ellis partner, Benczkowski served in the months leading up to Trump's inauguration as a member of the transition team focused on the Justice Department. He was confirmed in 2018 following a drawn-out confirmation process in which he faced questions over his lack of prosecutorial experience and his representation of a Russian bank while in private practice.

In 2019, Benczkowski came under scrutiny over the Justice Department decision not to open a campaign finance investigation into President Donald Trump over his dealings with Ukraine.

More recently, Benczkowski has overseen the Justice Department's efforts to stamp out fraud stemming from the coronavirus crisis. The Justice Department is focusing on fraud against a loan program designed to prop up businesses upended by the pandemic. The government has so far brought six cases.

Meanwhile, the division's public integrity section has played a lead role in the insider-trading investigation of U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican who has come under scrutiny over stock sales made shortly before markets plummeted in response to the pandemic. Burr, represented by lawyers at Latham & Watkins, has denied wrongdoing.

Benczkowski previously presided over new guidance concerning the division's corporate enforcement efforts, including decisions about whether independent compliance monitors should be appointed as part of settlement agreements. He urged prosecutors to consider the "projected costs and burdens" that compliance monitors can impose on companies.

Benczkowski later disputed the notion that the guidance would curtail the appointment of compliance monitors. In early 2019, he pointed to a pair of settlements—each resolving claims that a company paid bribes to build business overseas—that required the appointment of an outside monitor to ensure efforts were being taken to prevent corrupt practices from recurring. He stressed that the guidance was meant to avoid making compliance monitors punitive and to tailor those oversight engagements to the specific misconduct addressed by corporate settlements.

"Brian brought a perspective on white-collar enforcement from his time in private practice, and that perspective helped inform the reform priorities he championed, from the revised monitor policy through the compliance guidance and training efforts," said Morgan, Lewis & Bockius partner Matt Miner, who served until late last year as a top deputy to Benczkowski overseeing the criminal division's fraud section.

Later in 2019, the Justice Department and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reached a settlement with Ericsson AB in which the Swedish telecommunications giant agreed to pay more than $1 billion to resolve a long-running investigation into overseas bribery. As part of the settlement, Ericsson was ordered to retain an independent compliance monitor for three years.

Benczkowski's division issued guidance earlier in 2019 detailing how prosecutors should assess corporate compliance programs, a consideration that is often key to determining whether the Justice Department deems a company deserving of leniency under Trump-era policies for avoiding criminal prosecution. The Justice Department updated the guidance earlier this year and has taken steps to expand the division's expertise with compliance programs, both with training and new hiring.

In a statement earlier this month, Benczkowski said the updates were "in keeping with our continued efforts as prosecutors to improve our own policies and practices to ensure transparency and the effective and consistent enforcement of our laws."