This week, the Department of Justice announced the appointment of Chuck Rosenberg to serve as Acting Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).  

A veteran of the Justice Department, Rosenberg currently serves as Chief of Staff to the Director of the FBI.  In this role, he works closely with Director James B. Comey and other senior FBI officials on counterterrorism, intelligence, cyber and criminal investigative issues, including with international, federal, state and local law enforcement partners.  He also works closely with Director Comey on management, policy and personnel issues.

“Throughout his distinguished career in law enforcement and public service, Chuck has earned the trust and the praise of his colleagues at every level,” said Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch.  “He has proven himself as an exceptional leader, a skilled problem-solver, and a consummate public servant of unshakeable integrity.  And he has demonstrated, time and again, his deep and unwavering commitment not only to the women and men who secure our nation, but to the fundamental values that animate their service.”

Rosenberg was presidentially appointed and confirmed as the U.S. Attorney of the Eastern District of Virginia, from 2006 through 2008, and appointed by the Attorney General to serve as the U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of Texas, from 2005 through 2006. Rosenberg was hired out of law school through the Attorney General’s Honors Program and has served in numerous positions throughout the Department of Justice, including Chief of Staff to the Deputy Attorney General from 2004 through 2005, Counselor to the Attorney General from 2003 through 2004, Counsel to the Director of the FBI  from 2002 through 2003, an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia from 1994 through 2000, and a Trial Attorney for the Tax Division’s Criminal Enforcement Section  from 1990 through 1994. Rosenberg has also spent time working in private practice as Counsel at Hunton and Williams, from 2000 through 2002, and as a partner at Hogan Lovells US LLP (2008-2013).

Rosenberg will assume the role of Acting Administrator on May 18. He will replace Administrator Michele Leonhart, who previously announced her retirement.

“Michele has devoted her professional career to the security of our nation and the protection of the American people,” said Attorney General Lynch. “I want to thank her for her 35 years of service to the DEA, to the Department of Justice and to the country, and I wish her well as she embarks on a new chapter in her already extraordinary life.”