2015: Chuck Rosenberg
American Politics and Policy
Chuck Rosenberg
Administrator, Drug Enforcement Administration
Public Address: “Battling ISIS and al Qaeda abroad and Heroin Addiction at home”
Watkins Room, Trone Student Center, Furman University
7:30 p.m., September 28, 2015
Presented by Furman University’s Riley Institute, the head of the DEA and former FBI chief of staff spoke about some of our greatest challenges as a nation in his address, “Battling ISIS and al Qaeda abroad and Heroin Addiction at home.”
After a brief welcome by Matt Rosenberg, sophomore physics major at Furman, Liz Smith, chair of the Department of Political Science, provided context for the evening by reminding the audience of the attacks on September 11 that woke up many of us to the threats from terrorists and noting the dire consequences of rising heroin addiction.
Using just two slides to demonstrate the prevalence of terrorism and addiction, Acting Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Chuck Rosenberg briefly looked at the evolution of ISIS and al Qaeda as well as the rising number of deaths in America due to heroin overdoses. A lively discussion followed as Mr. Rosenberg fielded numerous well-thought-out questions from Furman students, ranging from whether we are responding appropriately to the conflicts in the Middle East–and particularly, the threat of ISIS–to how the federal government is responding to several states’ decisions to legalize marijuana.
About Chuck Rosenberg
Chuck Rosenberg was appointed Acting Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on May 13, 2015 by Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
Prior to joining DEA, Mr. Rosenberg served as the chief of staff and senior counselor to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Comey. Rosenberg was a partner at a Washington, D.C. law firm and prior to that, he served as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, which is routinely entrusted with many of the nation’s most sensitive terrorism and national security prosecutions. As the chief federal law enforcement officer for the district, Rosenberg supervised the prosecution of all federal crimes and the litigation of all civil matters involving the federal government. From June 2005 until March 2006, he served as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas – one of the largest districts in the nation with six offices, including one in Houston and three on the border of the United States and Mexico.
Rosenberg also served in several senior posts at the Department of Justice, where his work focused on counterterrorism, counterintelligence, national security, and criminal matters, including service as chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Jim Comey (2004-2005), counselor to Attorney General John Ashcroft (2003 – 2004), and counsel to FBI Director Robert Mueller (2002 – 2003). From 1994 to 2000, he was an assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia. There, he tried dozens of cases before juries and briefed and argued many of those cases to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He prosecuted cases that ranged from complex financial fraud crimes to violent crimes and espionage.
Rosenberg is a graduate of Tufts University (B.A.), Harvard University (M.P.P.), and the University of Virginia (J.D.).