Timothy P. Murphy (FBI)

A new agent has taken over the FBI’s no. 2 spot, at least on a temporary basis. 

Associate Deputy Director Timothy P. Murphy, the no. 3 official at the FBI, has taken over the Deputy Director spot on an acting basis, Paul Bressen, an FBI spokesman, confirmed Monday. He replaces former Deputy FBI Director John Pistole, who was confirmed to head the Transportation Security Administration last week.

Bressen said a permanent replacement had not yet been named. Murphy is the leading candidate to replace Pistole on a permanent basis.

The website Tickle The Wire first reported that Murphy took over the position on an acting basis.

Additional reporting by David Johnston.

Murphy’s FBI bio is reprinted below:

Timothy P. Murphy began his career with the FBI when he entered on duty as a special agent in September 1988.

As a more than 20-year veteran of the FBI, he has worked a number of investigative matters, including counterterrorism and organized crime/drugs. He has served as a pilot in the aviation program and within the special operations, technical operations, undercover operations, and surveillance programs. He has held a number of supervisory and leadership positions at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. and in the field, including special agent in charge (SAC) of the Cincinnati Division, and he was a member of the Director’s SAC Advisory Committee.

Mr. Murphy has served as a special assistant to Director Mueller. In this position, Mr. Murphy provided counsel to the Director on a variety of policy, budget, and administrative matters. He also assisted in the preparation for the Director’s events and meetings, domestic and international travel, and ensured the resolution of day to day issues.

Mr. Murphy has also served as the assistant director/chief financial officer at FBI Headquarters. In this position, Mr. Murphy was responsible for formulating and executing the FBI’s then-$6.2 billion budget.

In January 2008, Mr. Murphy was appointed associate deputy director. In this position, Mr. Murphy oversees the management of the FBI’s personnel, budget, administration, and infrastructure.

Prior to entering the FBI, Mr. Murphy worked in the private sector and as a police officer in Michigan. He graduated from Ferris State University in 1983 with a Bachelor of Science degree in criminal justice.

Eric Holder, flanked to the left by U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Benton J. Campbell and Deputy FBI Director John S. Pistole, at a press conference Monday (photo by Ryan J. Reilly).

A smile spread across Justice Department spokesman Matt Miller’s face as Attorney General Eric Holder answered a final question at his press conference announcing that Najibullah Zazi pleaded guilty today in the Eastern District of New York.

After telling The New York Times that he had to do a better job in explaining his decisions and be more forceful in advocating for why he believed terrorism trials should be held on the civilian side, Holder seemed to do just that on Monday.

Holder was well prepared for his 20-minute press conference in the seventh floor conference room of the Robert F. Kennedy building, and used the guilty plea to hit back at critics of the Justice Department’s handling of terrorism cases. As part of the media strategy, Holder made several strong statements in easily digestible soundbites – making it clear that the U.S. is at war with an adaptable enemy and arguing that leaving a number of options available for handling terrorism suspects is the best way to prevent attacks.

Holder was flanked by interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Benton J. Campbell (a George W. Bush appointee) and Deputy FBI Director John S. Pistole.

In his first press conference focusing on terrorism issues since he announced the decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York City, Holder forcefully defended the use of civilian courts as a tool to use against terrorism.

Framing the idea of removing the option of putting terrorism suspects through the criminal justice system as “handcuffing” federal law enforcement officials, Holder struck back at critics of his use of civilian courts for terror suspects. Holder cited the Zazi case as an example of the use of civilian courts.

“This is a demonstration of the facts,” Holder said about the case. “This is not some kind of partisan, political attempt to shape something for purposes of an election. I’m only dealing here with the facts. Let’s look at the history, let’s look at the factual material and on that basis make a determination about how these matters will be handled.”

He also struck back at Republican critics of his handling of terror cases. Former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, among others, have sharply criticized Holder for his decision to move the trial to civilian courts, arguing that military courts are the more proper venue.

In the news conference Monday, Holder reiterated his preference for using that U.S. civilian courts to try terrorists.

The criminal justice system, Holder said, is “a valuable tool in our fight against terrorism. It doesn’t mean it is the only tool that we should use.

“To take this tool out of our hands to denigrate the use of this tool flies in the face of the facts, in the face of the history of this tool, is more about politics than it is about facts,” he said.

“We need not make more of these people than they are. [They] are thugs. They are people who engaged in criminal warlike activities against the United States but they are people who are not different from people we have shown we have the ability to handle in the past,” Holder added.

Holder stayed on message, declining to take a position on the Office of Professional Responsibility report released Friday that found former Justice Department lawyers John Yoo and Jay Bybee exhibited “poor judgment” in approving memos that allowed the use of waterboarding and other coercive interrogation techniques.

This story has been updated since it was first posted.

Video embedded below.

Michele Leonhart (DOJ)

President Barack Obama will tap the acting administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration to be the next presidentially appointed head of the agency, the White House announced.

Acting chief Michele Leonhart became a DEA agent in 1980, rising through the ranks to become deputy administrator in 2004 and the leader of the agency, which is within the Department of Justice, in November 2007. Read more about her here.

The Obama administration also interviewed FBI deputy director John Pistole, Southern District of New York Assistant U.S. Attorney Boyd M. Johnson III and former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California Greg A. Vega for the post.

The acting head of the Drug Enforcement Administration has emerged as the frontrunner to be the component’s next permanent chief, Ticklethewire.com reported today.

Michele Leonhart (DOJ)

Michele Leonhart, who has been acting DEA administrator since November 2007, has appeared to move ahead of three other people the White House has interviewed for the post, according to the news Web site.

We reported in August that the White House had also interviewed FBI deputy director John Pistole, Southern District of New York Assistant U.S. Attorney Boyd M. Johnson III and former San Diego U.S. Attorney Greg A. Vega.

Pistole was considered to be the front-runner at the time of our previous report.

According to the Web site, Leonhart, who became a DEA agent in 1980, rose through the ranks and was named deputy administrator in 2004. In November 2007, she was named acting administrator.

A DEA spokesperson declined to comment to Ticklethewire.com.

A new audit report by Department of Justice Inspector General Glen Fine says the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been slow to complete translations of electronic data collected in foreign languages. But the Bureau has shown improvement, according to the report, which was released today.

While the FBI managed to slog through 4.8 million pages of foreign-language texts from 2004 to 2008, the agency had only translated two thirds of its backlogged electronic information from the same period. That left 25 percent of its audio from 2005 to 2008 untranslated. The agency’s translation staff was also reduced, from 1,338 in 2005 to 1,298 in 2008. According to an article in the New York Times, The FBI met its hiring targets in 2008 for only two of 14 targeted languages.

In 2004, Fine wrote, there were “significant backlogs” of audio information collected on the FBI’s “highest priority” cases. In 2005 that backlog, even on the most important cases, had increased, and the FBI “was not prioritizing” the translation of the material, the report said.

For fiscal year 2008, according to the OIG audit, the FBI recorded almost 880,000 hours of audio in foreign languages and English, 1.6 million pages of text and almost 28 million electronic files.

While Fine’s report praised the FBI for its catch-up efforts, the Inspector General noted that the FBI left more than 180,000 hours of data in terrorism and counterintelligence investigations untranslated. The recommended the FBI improve its quality control standards for its translators and revamp its record-keeping system to better keep track of its data.

It’s crucial the FBI have the resources to translate non-English material, the OIG report said, because “without accurate and timely translations, the FBI’s ability to effectively investigate criminal enterprises that communicate in a foreign language is severely hampered.”

FBI Deputy Director John Pistole said in a written statement that the FBI’s translation efforts were making progress. “With regard to counterintelligence collections, we are doing a careful job of prioritizing and monitoring the most important material,” Pistole said.

The FBI released another statement on its Web site in response to the OIG’s audit, in which it described further efforts to improve its translation operation, including a two-week crash course for new department linguists, “and the establishment of the Quality Control Standards Unit, which ensures compliance with the linguist quality control standards.”

Since the World Trade Center attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the FBI said, its effort to translate foreign language data and information has doubled.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released a statement urging the FBI to redouble its efforts. ‘These shortcomings just make it harder to get the bad guys,” Grassley said in the written statement. “The FBI needs their feet held to the fire in order to make substantive changes in the translation area.”

Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation John Pistole is being vetted to head the Drug Enforcement Administration, Tickle the Wire reports. The federal law enforcement blog said Pistole now appears to be the frontrunner.

John Pistole (FBI)

The Bureau is the big-foot of law enforcement agencies, often muscling out agents from smaller agencies like the DEA on hot cases. Retired DEA agent William Coonce wrote in a recent Tickle the Wire column: “To consider a current FBI official is an insult to ever DEA agent either on duty or retired.” Still, Coonce conceded that agents widely consider the DEA’s best administrator ever to have been former FBI agent John “Jack” Lawn, who ran the agency from 1985 to 1990.

During the Clinton Administration, the Justice Department considered folding the DEA into the FBI, but the plan was abandoned. Both the DEA and FBI are agencies under the Justice Department.

Who else has been interviewed for the job? According to Tickle the Wire, Boyd M. Johnson III, an assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York with experience prosecuting drug cases, made the cut. Johnson headed the public corruption unit that brought charges in the prostitution ring whose customers included then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York. New U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in the SDNY recently promoted Johnson to Deputy U.S. Attorney.

Other candidates who’ve gotten interviews are former San Diego U.S. Attorney Greg  A. Vega and Michele Leonhart, the DEA’s acting chief, Tickle the Wire reports. Read the Tickle the Wire story here.