California: Indian American attorney Uttam Dhillon, who has been serving in the White House since the advent of the Trump administration, was appointed as the acting administrator of the Drug Enforcement Agency.
Dhillon currently serves as Deputy Counsel and Deputy Assistant at the White House. He is perhaps best known as the White House attorney who tried to stop President Donald Trump from firing former FBI Director James Comey last year; Dhillon was concerned that if Comey were fired, the Trump presidency could be imperiled, because it would force the Justice Department to open an investigation into whether Trump was trying to derail the Russia investigation. Dhillon argued that the president needed cause to fire Comey; Trump went with the advice of a junior attorney who said Comey was like any other employee and could be fired for any reason.
Dhillon, who served in the Justice Department early in his career, worked for Comey from 2003-2006 as associate deputy attorney general. Comey was deputy attorney general from 2003-2005. “With one American dying of a drug overdose every nine minutes, there can be no doubt that we are facing the deadliest drug epidemic in our history,” US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement.
“The work of the Drug Enforcement Administration is critical to fighting this crisis, and President Trump and I are committed to continuing to give it the strong leadership it deserves. That is why I am pleased to appoint Uttam Dhillon as Acting Administrator.”
“Uttam is a dedicated public servant who has served with distinction in the White House, the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, Congress, and as a career federal prosecutor taking on drug traffickers at the highest levels,” said Sessions in the announcement.
Dhillon will replace Robert Patterson, who has served as DEA administrator for 30 years. He began serving in the new role on the same day the announcement was made.
