Chapter 22
Washington, D.C., 2014
At a daylong law enforcement conference in Washington on July 31, 2014, Attorney General Eric Holder urged federal agents to start carrying naloxone, a miraculous drug that can revive overdose victims. He told his audience that there had been a “dramatic, 45 percent increase in heroin-related deaths” between 2006 and 2010. “And 110 people die every day from overdoses, primarily driven by prescription drugs. The shocking increase in overdose deaths illustrates that addiction to heroin and other opioids, including some prescription painkillers, represents nothing less than a public health crisis. It’s also a public safety crisis. And every day, this crisis touches—and devastates—the lives of Americans from every state, in every region, and from every background and walk of life.”
Holder turned to the Marino-Blackburn bill that was pending in the Senate. He began by thanking top Justice Department officials, mentioning Joe Rannazzisi by name.
“I’d particularly like to thank,” Holder said, “Deputy Assistant Administrator Joe Rannazzisi, and the dedicated men and women of the Drug Enforcement Administration—for bringing us together this morning.” He added, “Every day, you stand on the front lines of our fight to confront an urgent and growing threat to our nation and its citizens.”
Holder then brought up Immediate Suspension Orders, or ISOs, saying they “allow DEA to immediately shut down irresponsible distributors, pharmacies, and rogue pain clinics that flood the market with pills prescribed by unethical or irresponsible doctors.”
He continued, “Particularly now, at a time when our nation is facing a heroin and prescription drug abuse crisis, law enforcement tools like ISOs could not be more important. And if Congress were to take them away, or weaken our ability to use them successfully, it would severely undermine a critical component of our efforts to prevent communities and families from falling prey to dangerous drugs.”
Joe couldn’t have been happier. The attorney general’s words might have just doomed the Marino-Blackburn bill. He is standing on the side of the angels, Joe thought.
Joe was right. The Ensuring Patient Safety and Effective Drug Enforcement Act stalled in the Senate and would die in the 113th Congress that year. Joe also knew he had made some powerful enemies. One afternoon that summer, he told Mimi Paredes that he thought the drug industry and certain members of Congress were out to get him.
“What are you talking about?” she said as they stood in his office.
Forces were aligning against him, Joe said. They wanted to bring him down. Congress. The drug companies. Their lobbyists. The Alliance. He cited the questions that Blackburn had asked him during the congressional hearing. They had to have been written by the industry, he said.
“You’re crazy,” Paredes teased him. “Come on. You’re being paranoid.”
A few weeks later, Joe brought the subject up again, calling Paredes at home. A source, he said, had told him the industry and their congressional allies were gunning for him.
For years, Paredes had looked up to Joe. She thought he had impeccable judgment. Now she wondered. Paredes didn’t believe in conspiracies. Her career as a former Navy SEAL lawyer and now as a DEA attorney was grounded in hard facts that could be proven.
On September 18, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations called DEA administrator Michele Leonhart to testify. Marino admonished her, demanding that she and her agency collaborate with “legitimate” drug companies “that want to do the right thing.”
“Big fines make headlines,” Marino said from the dais. “But that is all they do. Press releases do not save lives.”
Then he called out Joe, barely able to control his anger. “It is my understanding that Joe Rannazzisi, a senior DEA official, has publicly accused we sponsors of the bill of, quote, ‘supporting criminals,’ unquote,” Marino said. “This offends me immensely.”
A week later, on September 25, Marino and Blackburn wrote to the Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, requesting that he open an investigation into Joe. Horowitz’s job was to examine allegations of misconduct and violations of criminal and civil laws by Justice Department employees. The offices of inspectors general were created by Congress, and IGs respond quickly to congressional requests.
In their letter to Horowitz, Marino and Blackburn accused Joe of trying to “intimidate the United States Congress,” referencing the ill-tempered July 2 phone call with the congressional staffers. “We believe an accusation of this nature from a DOJ official is totally unacceptable,” they wrote.
Paredes now understood. They were coming after Joe.