The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is expected to step down amid mounting pressure over a sex scandal at her agency, according to multiple reports.
{mosads}DEA chief Michele Leonhart will resign, CBS and CNN are reporting, after she was grilled by lawmakers over alleged “sex parties” funded by Colombian drug cartels in which her agents participated.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle accused Leonhart of covering up the “sex parties” during a hearing last week on Capitol Hill.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee issued a statement after the hearing saying it has “no confidence” in Leonhart’s leadership.
“After over a decade of serving in top leadership positions at DEA, Administrator Leonhart has been woefully unable to change or positively influence the pervasive ‘good old boy’ culture that exists throughout the agency,” the lawmakers wrote.
The top Democrat on the committee called the revelations “deplorable.”
What’s more, Republicans accused the DEA of giving the agents a “two-week vacation” by punishing them with paid leave suspensions of no more than 10 days.
“So these agents compromised our national security and then essentially got a vacation,” House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said at the hearing.
Leonhart was confirmed as the head of the DEA in December 2010 but had presided over the agency since 2007 as acting administrator.