FBI has new agent in charge of Pittsburgh field office

FBI Director Christopher Wray on Monday named Michael A. Christman as the special agent in charge of the Pittsburgh Field Office.

Christman, who most recently served as a deputy assistant director for the Criminal Justice Information Services Division in West Virginia, previously worked in Pittsburgh overseeing violent crime, gang, drug and organized crime investigations. In 2014, he was promoted to assistant special agent in charge of criminal, intelligence and administrative programs in Pittsburgh.

He started with the FBI in 1992 as a special agent and served on the Safe Streets Task Force in Salt Lake City, targeting gangs and Mexican drug-trafficking organizations. He transferred to the Cleveland Field Office in 1997, serving on the Caribbean Gang Drug Task Force and on the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

In 2005, he was promoted to supervisory special agent and assigned to the Criminal Investigative Division at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. He transferred to the Pittsburgh Field Office in 2007. He was appointed in 2015 to oversee Pittsburgh’s cyber and intelligence programs.

Christman was promoted in 2017 to chief of a cyber operations section at FBI Headquarters, managing all cyber-criminal investigations. He also chaired the International Cyber Crimes Working Group.

In 2018, he was named deputy assistant director of the Criminal Justice Information Services Division’s Operational Programs Branch where he supervised the Global Law Enforcement Support Section, National Threat Operations Section and Resources Management Section.

Christman has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Youngstown State University and a law degree from the University of Akron in Ohio. Prior to joining the FBI, he worked in the Akron city prosecutor’s office.