Embattled DEA head reportedly readying to resign
DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart testifying before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. (Photo: Manual Balce Ceneta/AP)
Michele Leonhart is expected to resign her position as head of the Drug Enforcement Administration soon, the Associated Press reported Tuesday, just five days after the bipartisan House Oversight and Government Reform Committee issued a rare statement of “no confidence” in Leonhart’s ability to properly lead the DEA.
Last week, Leonhart testified before the committee on the findings of a recent report that revealed widespread sexual misconduct and corruption by DEA agents as well as the agency’s failure to properly investigate and discipline such behavior.
The statement from the House committee came in response to Leonhart’s claim that government employee protections made it difficult to fire agents and restricted her ability to reprimand. Committee members on both sides of the aisle were frustrated by her apparent indifference to — as she put it in an email to employees — “the disgraceful conduct of a few individuals several years ago.”
“After over a decade of serving in top leadership positions at the DEA, Administrator Leonhart has been woefully unable to change or positively influence the pervasive ‘good old boy’ culture that exists throughout the agency,” the committee’s statement declared. “From her testimony, it’s clear that she lacks the authority and will to make the tough decisions required to hold those accountable who compromise national security and bring disgrace to their position.”
The last several years of Leonhart’s tenure as head of the DEA have been shrouded in scandal. Most notable are the allegations that DEA agents based in Bogota, Colombia, attended “sex parties” with prostitutes sponsored by local drug cartels.
A report released by the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General last month included interviews with Colombian police officers who claimed to have organized the so-called sex parties on behalf of agents at their government-leased dwellings and provided security for the agents’ weapons and other personal belongings while they reveled with prostitutes. According to the report, local DEA administrators in Colombia were aware of allegations that agents had visited brothels or engaged in sexual activity with prostitutes, but did not report them. In fact, at least one of the leaders was among those who participated.
The report also noted that the DEA had interfered with the investigation by redacting or withholding certain information. Internal documents later demanded by the House oversight committee revealed a history of sexual misconduct within the DEA going back to at least 2001.
After three years as the agency’s deputy administrator, Leonhart — a career DEA agent and the first woman to run a field office — became acting administrator in 2007. She wasn’t officially confirmed, however, until December 2010 by President Barack Obama, whose administration, according to CNN, “long ago soured on Leonhart” because of her apparent reluctance to embrace relaxed marijuana enforcement at the federal level in response to the drug’s legalization in several states.
“We do have concerns about what’s been reported by the Office of the Inspector General,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters after Leonhart’s testimony last week. “We do have high expectations for those who serve this government and serve the American people.”
Earnest refused at the time to comment on whether the president was confident in his DEA head, prompting The Washington Post to predict that Leonhart’s “days are short.” According to an Obama administration official who spoke anonymously to the Associated Press, the Post’s prediction was right on.
