February 5, 2019

Paul Haertel Named Special Agent in Charge of the Salt Lake City Field Office

FBI Director Christopher Wray has named Paul Haertel as special agent in charge of the Salt Lake City Field Office. Mr. Haertel has most recently served as deputy assistant director for the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division since July 2018.

Mr. Haertel entered on duty in September 1995 and was first assigned as a special agent to the Louisville Field Office, Lexington Resident Agency, where he specialized in rural Appalachia investigations; he also worked drug and violent crime cases and served as a member of the office’s SWAT team.

In 2003, Mr. Haertel was transferred to the Counterterrorism Division at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. He became a unit chief in the division in 2005 with responsibility for terrorism investigations in the northeastern United States.

From 2006 through 2010, Mr. Haertel headed the Columbia Field Office’s Greenville Resident Agency, where he targeted violent gangs while also serving as the leader of the office’s SWAT team.

Mr. Haertel reported to Prague as the assistant legal attaché in June 2010 and was named legal attaché of that office in July 2013. In this role, he oversaw a variety of investigations, including international public corruption, violent crime, and money laundering cases.

In 2015, Mr. Haertel became assistant special agent in charge for the Salt Lake City Field Office, where he was responsible for the criminal program in Idaho, Montana, and Utah.

Mr. Haertel was promoted to chief of the Counterintelligence Division’s Counterespionage Section at FBI Headquarters in 2017.

Prior to his FBI career, Mr. Haertel received a Bachelor of Arts in English literature from Middlebury College in Vermont and served as a SEAL operator in the U.S. Navy.

Mr. Haertel reported to the Salt Lake City Field Office in February 2019.