Washington: The Obama administration’s top drug enforcement official will step down next month, Attorney General Eric H. Holder junior announced on Tuesday, after her agency was tarnished by a scandal over sex parties with prostitutes and she broke with President Barack Obama on drug policy.
Michele M. Leonhart, the administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), told Holder that she intended to retire, ending a 35-year tenure at the agency. In a statement, he called her a “trailblazer for equality” and a “good friend”, but in recent years she had faced accusations of mismanagement.
Leonhart’s impending departure after eight years in the top job follows a hearing last week in which lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee expressed outrage about her handling of reports that DEA agents stationed in Colombia had participated in sex parties with prostitutes paid for by drug cartels.
It also comes after Leonhart parted with the White House on marijuana policy, opposing moves by states like Colorado and Washington to legalise its use, even as the president said they should be allowed to go forward, and resisting a push to reduce penalties for its use and distribution.
Her retirement could set off a battle on Capitol Hill over the nomination of her successor, with some liberal Democrats calling for Obama to name an administrator who backs a change in policy on marijuana, and conservative lawmakers opposing such a move.
“I encourage the president to use this as an opportunity to fill this important role with someone who understands the outdated federal approach to marijuana isn’t working,” said Rep. Earl Blumenauer, Democrat-Oregon.
He added: “The American public has moved on. Most now feel marijuana should be legalised.”
While some of Leonhart’s views on drug enforcement had long been in conflict with Obama’s, the deciding factor in her decision to step down appeared to be her handling of the prostitution scandal.
Suspensions
Seven agents who admitted to the accusations were given suspensions of two to 10 days, and under harsh questioning from the House panel, Leonhart said that she had been powerless to take more aggressive action such as firing them or revoking their security clearances.
Holder has ordered a review of the DEA’s Office of Professional Responsibility, including over how to improve investigations of misconduct and disciplinary procedures, said Emily Pierce, a Justice Department spokeswoman.
After the hearing last week, Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, pointedly refused to defend Leonhart or say that the president had confidence in her. He said only that the allegations against the DEA agents were “troubling” and that Obama had “high expectations” for everyone serving in his administration.
Obama nominated Leonhart to lead the DEA in 2010 after she had been the acting administrator for three years. Last year, during a closed-door speech to law enforcement officials, she reportedly criticised the president for having said in an interview with The New Yorker that marijuana was no more dangerous than alcohol.
Even as Obama expressed guarded support for allowing states to experiment with legalising marijuana, Leonhart has remained a staunch opponent. She refused during a 2012 hearing on Capitol Hill to say whether she believed that marijuana was less dangerous than crack cocaine, methamphetamine or heroin, saying that “all illegal drugs are bad”.
Still, Holder praised her long service at the DEA, where she was the first woman to hold the rank of special agent in charge.
“Over the past decade, under her leadership, there have been innumerable instances of the DEA dismantling the most violent and most significant drug trafficking organisations and holding accountable the largest drug kingpins around the world,” he said.
But proponents of liberalising marijuana laws said her departure was overdue.
“Ms. Leonhart consistently and recklessly undermined President Obama’s mandate that public policy be guided by science instead of ideology,” said Dan Riffle, the director of federal policies for the Marijuana Policy Project. “Her resignation will allow the president to appoint an administrator who will rely on the facts, rather than ignore them.”
