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DEA Chief Chuck Rosenberg Slams Trump’s Endorsement Of Police Brutality

Rosenberg, an ally of James Comey, offered “a strong reaffirmation of the operating principles to which we, as law enforcement professionals, adhere.”

By Ryan J. Reilly

WASHINGTON ― The act­ing head of the Drug Enforcement Administration has joined law enforce­ment lead­ers in con­demn­ing President Donald Trump’s endorse­ment of police bru­tal­i­ty in a speech to police offi­cers last week.

Chuck Rosenberg, the DEA’s act­ing chief, sent an email to his entire work­force on Saturday express­ing con­cern that Trump, his boss, had “con­doned police mis­con­duct regard­ing the treat­ment of indi­vid­u­als placed under arrest by law enforcement.”

“In writ­ing to you, I seek to advance no polit­i­cal, par­ti­san, or per­son­al agen­da. Nor do I believe that a Special Agent or Task Force Officer of the DEA would mis­treat a defen­dant. I know that you would not,” Rosenberg wrote.

“So, why do I write? I write to offer a strong reaf­fir­ma­tion of the oper­at­ing prin­ci­ples to which we, as law enforce­ment pro­fes­sion­als, adhere,” he con­tin­ued. “I write because we have an oblig­a­tion to speak out when some­thing is wrong. That’s what law enforce­ment offi­cers do. That’s what you do. We fix stuff. At least, we try.”

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI VIA GETTY IMAGES

Rosenberg’s email went on to empha­size what he called the “core val­ues” of the DEA, and the impor­tance of respect­ing every­one the agency encoun­ters, includ­ing vic­tims, wit­ness­es, sub­jects, and defendants.

“We must earn and keep the pub­lic trust and con­tin­ue to hold our­selves to the very high­est stan­dards,” he wrote. “Ours is an hon­or­able pro­fes­sion and, so, we will always act honorably.”

The email was first obtained by The Wall Street Journal and sep­a­rate­ly obtained by HuffPost.

White House spokes­woman Sarah Huckabee Sanders claimed this week that the pres­i­dent of the United States was just jok­ing with offi­cers about slam­ming sus­pects’ heads on car doors, an act of vio­lence that con­sti­tutes a fed­er­al crime.

Rosenberg, a close asso­ciate of for­mer FBI Director James Comey, was made act­ing head of the DEA fol­low­ing the res­ig­na­tion of for­mer DEA chief Michele Leonhart in 2015. He has stayed on in the posi­tion dur­ing the Trump administration.

Writing at the blog Lawfare on Tuesday, Benjamin Wittes said that Rosenberg’s mes­sage demon­strates “what it looks like when a law enforce­ment agency head is will­ing to speak seri­ous­ly in response to Trump’s abu­sive treat­ment of law enforce­ment and abu­sive vision of it.”

“It’s no sur­prise that a law enforce­ment offi­cer of Rosenberg’s stature has rebuked Trump for his com­ments and risked his wrath in doing so,” Wittes went on. Rather, he said, the sur­prise is that nei­ther Attorney General Jeff Sessions nor Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein “has had the guts” to say some­thing similar.

Rosenberg’s mes­sage to the agency notwith­stand­ing, the DEA has its own his­to­ry of trou­bling inci­dents of alleged brutality.

In 2003, the agency drew nation­wide out­rage after an agent fatal­ly shot a 14-year-old girl in Texas dur­ing a drug inves­ti­ga­tion. The agent did not face charges in that shooting.

In 2012, a col­lege stu­dent sus­pect­ed of deal­ing drugs was left unat­tend­ed and hand­cuffed in a DEA cell for five days, dur­ing which he was forced to drink his own urine to sur­vive. An inspec­tor general’s report lat­er found that DEA offi­cials at the facil­i­ty had heard the sus­pect in his cell, but had ignored him because they assumed he was some­one else’s responsibility.

Rosenberg’s email is reprint­ed in full below. A DEA spokesman did not imme­di­ate­ly respond to a request for comment.

The President, in remarks deliv­ered yes­ter­day in New York, con­doned police mis­con­duct regard­ing the treat­ment of indi­vid­u­als placed under arrest by law enforcement.

In writ­ing to you, I seek to advance no polit­i­cal, par­ti­san, or per­son­al agenda.

Nor do I believe that a Special Agent or Task Force Officer of the DEA would mis­treat a defen­dant. I know that you would not.

So, why do I write?

I write to offer a strong reaf­fir­ma­tion of the oper­at­ing prin­ci­ples to which we, as law enforce­ment pro­fes­sion­als, adhere.

I write because we have an oblig­a­tion to speak out when some­thing is wrong. That’s what law enforce­ment offi­cers do. That’s what you do. We fix stuff. At least, we try.

Our Core Values are clear and applicable:

* Rule of Law

* Respect and Compassion

* Service

* Devotion

* Integrity

* Accountability

* Leadership and Courage

* Diversity

This is how we con­duct our­selves. This is how we treat those whom we encounter in our work: vic­tims, wit­ness­es, sub­jects, and defen­dants. This is who we are.

I am incred­i­bly grate­ful that you endeav­or to live up to our Core Values, each day. It is not always easy, but it is always important.

We must earn and keep the pub­lic trust and con­tin­ue to hold our­selves to the very high­est stan­dards. Ours is an hon­or­able pro­fes­sion and, so, we will always act honorably.

Thank you for all that you do.

I am proud to be your colleague.

Chuck

Rosenberg had pre­vi­ous­ly spo­ken out about his belief in the so-called “Ferguson effect,” a point of dis­agree­ment with the Obama White House.
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