Matt Olsen | |
|---|---|
 | |
| United States Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division | |
| Assumed office November 1, 2021 | |
| President | Joe Biden |
| Preceded by | John Demers |
| Director of the National Counterterrorism Center | |
| In office August 16, 2011 – July 2014 | |
| President | Barack Obama |
| Preceded by | Michael Leiter |
| Succeeded by | Nicholas Rasmussen |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Matthew Glen Olsen February 21, 1962 Fargo, North Dakota, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Fern Shepard |
| Children | 3 |
| Education | University of Virginia (BA) Harvard University (JD) |
Matthew Glen Olsen (born February 21, 1962) is an American attorney who has served as the Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division since 2021. He is the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center.
Born in Fargo, North Dakota, Olsen is a graduate of the University of Virginia and Harvard Law School. Olsen began his career as a law clerk for District Court Judge Norma Holloway Johnson, before entering private practice and working as a trial attorney for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division in 1992.
He moved to the United States Attorney's office for the District of Columbia where he was a federal prosecutor and served as the first director of the Office's National Security Section from 2004 to 2005. In 2006 Olsen was appointed by President George W. Bush to be the Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Justice Department's National Security Division, where he served until 2009 when he became the acting director of the Division. In 2009, he was appointed by Attorney General Eric Holder to become the Head of the Guantanamo Review Task Force, a commission set up to oversee the legal justifications of the detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Olsen later briefly served as Associate Deputy Attorney General and as the general counsel of the National Security Agency.
On July 1, 2011, President Barack Obama nominated Olsen to become the director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Olsen was confirmed by the Senate on August 16, 2011. He left that post in July 2014.[1]
Olsen was once a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council,[2] but resigned on July 18, 2018, over immigration decisions to separate families.[3]
- ^ Kevin Liptak (October 22, 2014). "Ex-counterterror chief: U.S. lost track of terrorists after Snowden". CNN. Retrieved October 25, 2014.
- ^ "Homeland Security Advisory Council Members". U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
- ^ Clare, Foran; Tal, Kopan. "Homeland Security Advisory Council members resign over 'morally repugnant' immigration policy". www.cnn.com. Retrieved 24 July 2018.