President Donald Trump will not appoint Rep. Tom Marino to be the nation’s "drug czar," a White House official tells U.S. News.

The Pennsylvania Republican was widely expected to be named to lead the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

CBS News reported on April 11 that, according to multiple sources, Marino would be nominated to lead the office, a move that requires Senate confirmation.

Marino was undergoing the final stages of completing his paperwork ahead of an official nomination, one source told CBS.

The White House official could not say why Marino is no longer under consideration, or if he failed a background check.

“We have no comment on this topic,” says Marino chief of staff Sara Rogers.

Issues from Marino’s past have surfaced in the press, including an allegation that as an elected county prosecutor he went judge-shopping in 1998 to win a cocaine-dealing expungement for a friend, hand-delivering the request to a first-year jurist after it was denied by a more senior judge.

In 2006, Marino served as a reference for businessman and convicted felon Louis DeNaples, who sought successfully to open a casino. Marino was a U.S. attorney, and The Associated Press reported his office was investigating DeNaples at the time of the reference.

Marino resigned shortly after the DeNaples reference was reported and earned a roughly $250,000 salary working for DeNaples, according to the AP, before running for Congress.

In the House since 2011, Marino has built a reputation as a legislative drug policy hard-liner. He voted against protecting state medical pot programs from federal authorities and said at a hearing last year that people convicted of drug crimes should be forcibly hospitalized.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy currently is led by an acting director, Richard Baum.

The White House press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.



Update (05/04/17):

Marino issued the following statement on Wednesday evening: