June 16, 2014

Richard T. Thornton Named Special Agent in Charge of Minneapolis Division

Director James B. Comey has named Richard T. Thornton special agent in charge of the FBI’s Minneapolis Division. Mr. Thornton most recently served as chief of the Surveillance and Aviation Section in the Critical Incident Response Group. In this role, Mr. Thornton had operational and management oversight of the FBI’s physical surveillance and aviation programs, which consists of physical surveillance specialists located in all 56 FBI field offices.

Mr. Thornton began his career as a special agent with the FBI in June 1987. Over the next 13 years, he worked a variety of investigative, aviation, and surveillance-related assignments in the St. Louis, New York, and New Orleans Divisions.

In 2000, Mr. Thornton was promoted to supervisory special agent in the Criminal Investigative Division at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. While there, he had program management responsibility for the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Programs. He also served as an FBI assistant inspector-in-place and a detailee to the CIA National Counterterrorism Threat Center.

Mr. Thornton was promoted in 2004 to supervisory senior resident agent over the resident agencies in Jefferson City and St. Joseph, Missouri. In this role, he oversaw all programs in Central and Northwest Missouri, including the mid-Missouri Joint Terrorism Task Force.

In 2008, he was promoted again to assistant special agent in charge of the Minneapolis Division, where he was responsible for the Criminal, Cyber, and Administrative Programs.

Mr. Thornton holds a degree in business administration from the University of Missouri.