Matthew G. Olsen
Matt Olsen | |
|---|---|
Official portrait, 2021 | |
| United States Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division | |
| In office November 1, 2021 – January 20, 2025 | |
| President | Joe Biden |
| Preceded by | John Demers |
| Succeeded by | John Eisenberg |
| 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 served as the Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division from 2021 to 2025. He is the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center.
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. Olsen was once a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council, but resigned on July 18, 2018, over immigration decisions to separate families.