Trump's DEA Chief Vetted Candidates and Then Took the Job Himself, Riling Police Groups

(apologies if already posted)

WASHINGTON—As one of President Trump’s top compliance and ethics attorneys in the White House, Uttam Dhillon had urged several candidates for Drug Enforcement Administration chief to withdraw from consideration, citing concerns about their background checks. Then, he accepted the job himself. Mr. Dhillon’s rise to the top of the world’s largest drug-fighting agency—after being closely involved in the selection process—has riled police groups that had pushed the White House to choose a DEA administrator with a law-enforcement background.

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His appointment as acting administrator in July also illustrates a persistent issue in the Trump administration nearly halfway through the president’s first term: Some jobs have been filled multiple times, while vacancies remain at about half of the roughly 700 key offices that require Senate confirmation. Mr. Dhillon, for example, is the third-consecutive acting administrator for the DEA during Mr. Trump’s two years in office. That is unprecedented in the agency’s 40-year history, according to a roster of prior administrators.

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Before joining the White House, Mr. Dhillon was chief counsel for the House Financial Services Committee. He was an assistant U.S. attorney in California and worked under James Comey when the former FBI director was a deputy attorney general. Five years after Mr. Dhillon was confirmed as head of the Office of Counternarcotics Enforcement under President George W. Bush, the inspector general in the Department of Homeland Security reported that the office “has had trouble fulfilling statutory responsibilities.” It was closed under President Obama.

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The most serious contender for the DEA job before Mr. Dhillon’s appointment was Michael A. Braun, a former DEA operations chief. Mr. Braun, who is currently president of an international security-consulting firm, had been interviewed by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who told associates that he supported Mr. Braun’s nomination, and he was backed by several law-enforcement groups. He also completed a background check performed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Office of Government Ethics, according to people familiar with Mr. Braun’s vetting.

After the check had been completed, Mr. Dhillon called Mr. Braun in March and encouraged him to withdraw, suggesting there was an issue in the background check, according to people briefed on the call. Mr. Braun disputed that possibility, the people said, and declined to remove his name from consideration. Mr. Braun was named in a 2014 report by the Justice Department inspector general that investigated a Florida-based financial planner’s Ponzi scheme, which Mr. Braun and some DEA employees had invested in. While the report didn’t recommend any action against them, a White House official said that the report was a factor in eliminating Mr. Braun from contention.

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Mr. Dhillon still hasn’t been formally nominated by Mr. Trump, and administration attorneys have determined he doesn’t need to be in order to remain in the job.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-dea-chief-vetted-candidates-and-then-took-the-job-himself-riling-police-groups-1540497182 (paid subscription)