Acting DEA chief reportedly stepping down

(Image credit: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)

Chuck Rosenberg, the acting chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration, has sent employees an email letting them know he is stepping down, a person familiar with the move told The Associated Press.

Rosenberg, who has been the temporary head of the DEA since 2015 and was once chief of staff for former FBI Director James Comey, will leave Oct. 1, the person who spoke with the AP said, and in his email to staff, he thanked them for their hard work. The Trump administration has yet to nominate a permanent chief, but the frontrunner is Col. Joseph Fuentes of the New Jersey State Police, the AP reports.

Following President Trump's controversial remarks last month about police officers being too "nice" by making sure they don't hit suspects' heads as they are lowered into police cars, Rosenberg told the DEA the comments "condoned police misconduct." Law enforcement sources told The New York Times Rosenberg "had become convinced that President Trump had little respect for the law."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.