Top FBI agent in Minneapolis leaving for promotion at D.C. headquarters

Michael Paul had served as special agent in charge of the Minneapolis division since 2020.

July 20, 2022 at 6:46PM
Michael Paul has been with the FBI since joining as an intern in 1994. (Glen Stubbe, Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

The top FBI agent in charge of the bureau's Minneapolis division is leaving for a promotion at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., the agency announced Wednesday.

FBI Director Christopher Wray appointed Michael Paul as assistant director of the bureau's operational technology division, wrapping up Paul's tenure as special agent in charge in Minneapolis. Paul had led the Minneapolis division since 2020.

Paul has been with the FBI since joining as an intern in 1994. His tenure has included positions in Detroit as a special agent, work as a supervisory special agent in the counterterrorism division and a senior position under the FBI's weapons of mass destruction directorate. He worked as a joint terrorism task force field supervisor in Cleveland and assistant special agent in charge in the Norfolk Field Office in Virginia before being named chief of the domestic terrorism operations section of the FBI's counterterrorism division in 2015.

Paul came to Minneapolis after spending two years as chief of the technology and data innovation section.

According to a news release, the operational technology division that Paul will now help lead "develops and deploys technology-based solutions to enable and enhance the FBI's intelligence, national security, and law enforcement operations."

The FBI has not yet named a successor for Paul in Minneapolis.

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about the writer

Stephen Montemayor

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Stephen Montemayor covers federal courts and law enforcement. He previously covered Minnesota politics and government.

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