“Drug czar” nominee Rep. Tom Marino withdrew his name from consideration Tuesday after reports on the effect of unanimously passed opioid-related legislation he championed. But had he not stepped aside, scandals were certain to emerge at his confirmation hearing.
Before being elected to Congress in 2010, the Pennsylvania Republican — a former state and federal prosecutor — earned a reported $250,000 salary working for convicted felon Louis DeNaples.
As U.S. attorney, Marino wrote a letter of recommendation for DeNaples as he sought successfully to open a casino, despite the fact that — according to the Associated Press — Marino’s office had an open investigation into DeNaples.
Marino did not receive permission from superiors in Washington to issue the recommendation, and the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility was investigating Marino’s conduct when he resigned in 2007 to work for DeNaples, the Allentown Morning Call reported.
A spokesperson for the OPR told the Washington Examiner after Marino’s nomination that reports on its internal investigations generally are not released to the public.
Prior to being a federal prosecutor, Marino was an elected Lycoming County district attorney.
In that position, Marino attracted controversy when he allegedly went “judge-shopping” in 1998 to get a cocaine-dealing conviction expunged for a friend who owned a car dealership.
Marino hand-delivered the request to a first-year judge after a more senior jurist refused to issue the expungement.
The second judge reversed himself when he learned what happened and ordered copies of the expungement order returned. But Jay Kilheeney, who went on to commit more crimes, kept a copy and used it to open a Ford dealership, The Citizens’ Voice of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., reported.
Marino denied any wrongdoing in either of the scandals that made headlines when they were used as political attacks by then-Rep. Christopher Carney, D-Pa., during the 2010 election.
Despite Marino’s controversial past, his nomination came undone because of legislation passed the House and Senate without opposition in 2016 before being signed by former President Barack Obama. The bill limited the Drug Enforcement Administration’s ability to interrupt suspicious prescription opioid sales.
A pair of coordinated Sunday reports by the Washington Post and “60 Minutes” highlighted the legislation’s effect amid the nationwide surge in overdose deaths from opioid addiction.
Trump said during a press conference on Monday he would review the reports. On Tuesday morning, Trump tweeted that Marino — facing growing Democratic opposition — had withdrawn himself from consideration for the job, which requires Senate confirmation.
Marino previously was dropped from consideration to be “drug czar” as director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy in a still-murky series of events earlier this year.
After reports of his past scandals resurfaced, Marino — reportedly in the final stages of paperwork — said in May he was no longer interested in the job, citing his mother’s heart condition but saying he would stay in Congress.
