The DEA Confirmation Hearing and the Anonymous Letter

Yesterday, Senate confirmation hearings began for President Trump’s nominees to head DEA and the U.S. Marshal’s Service. As a retired DEA agent, I am certainly interested in the hearings. The DEA nominee is former supervisory DEA agent Terrance Cole. Unsurprisingly, it appears the Democrats are going to oppose his nomination. Now it has been revealed that Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has received an unsigned letter from several former DEA agents urging him to dig into Cole’s alleged possible role in two incidents involving Colombia and Mexico. This is how CNN is reporting the letter and the two incidents in question. Note that the article mentions “roughly a dozen” authors of the letter. Other reports say 22.

Without going through the details of the “allegations”, I note that Cole was working in Colombia when the massacre of the Colombian police officers occurred in 2006. Cole himself was not present. In the Mexican case, about 5 years later, Cole was a supervisory agent in Dallas during the period in question.

Having worked overseas with DEA during my career (Thailand in the 1970s and Italy in the 1980s), I can state that it is routine for DEA offices overseas to pass on intelligence to their foreign counterparts for whatever enforcement action the host country counterparts deem appropriate. Whether DEA agents participate in any enforcement action is up to the discretion of the host country counterparts since American agents, of course, have no arrest powers overseas. Even if DEA agents participate in an enforcement operation overseas, the operations are directed by host country counterparts. In addition, DEA agents overseas have to follow the so-called Mansfield Amendment (22 U.S.C. § 2291(c)), which prohibits American government agents from participating in the arrests of people in other countries- a topic for a whole new discussion. Thus, from what I gather in the news reports, Cole’s non-presence in the Colombian operation in question appears to be a non-issue.

In the Mexican matter, it is routine for DEA domestic offices (in this case, Dallas) to pass on intelligence regarding a foreign country to the DEA office in that country. Whether that intelligence is passed to foreign counterparts would normally be a decision by DEA HQs and/or the overseas office in question, primarily due to the danger of compromise due to corruption. Based on what I have read, I find it difficult to blame the Dallas Field Office for what ensued in Mexico.

“Three former DEA agents who support Cole, however, told CNN that neither internal report found fault with Cole, and that he bore no blame for violent deaths in countries on the front lines of the drug wars. Those agents declined to share the internal reports with CNN to verify those findings. The Cole critics who spoke to CNN had not reviewed those reports.”

-CNN

Former DEA agents would not be in possession of DEA reports-even if they were the authors of those reports. They are sensitive documents by their very nature and are the property of DEA. Like every other retired DEA agent, I wrote thousands of reports over the course of my career. I possess none of them today; thus, CNN is making a misleading insinuation here. The former agents supporting Cole are not trying to withhold anything from the media. They cannot provide anything they don’t have.

“The detractors, though, say Congress has a responsibility to demand a more public accounting of his record.

“There’s bad luck, but how many times do you have lightning strike twice?“

-CNN

All I can say to that is that over the course of every DEA agent’s career, bad luck and lightning striking happen a lot more than just twice. Virtually every man or woman who has carried the DEA badge has experienced many bad incidents over the years. Drug enforcement is a very dangerous job. You are dealing with vicious criminal organizations. There is violence. There are murders. There are shootouts. Fellow agents and informants occasionally lose their lives. I could go on and on. I wish I could say that bad luck and lightning only struck twice in my career. The above statement is ridiculous on its face.

I should also add that I do not know Mr Cole though I have heard good things about his enforcement background. Thus, I am hoping that he will be confirmed. This leads me to my final point: As far as I am concerned, anonymous letters should carry no weight. If those who sent the letter are so concerned about Mr Cole’s nomination and have knowledge of anything that would disqualify him, they should attach their names and be willing to come forward to testify. As anyone who reads this blog knows, I write about very contentious issues and have created enemies in the process. My name goes on every posting. It should go without saying that I sign my letters as well.

*Note to CNN: The DEA is the Drug Enforcement Administration, not the Drug Enforcement Agency. It was established in 1973. You would think that after more than 50 years, the media would get it right.