Richard Lambert Jr. Selected to Report as SAC in Knoxville

Washington, D.C.August 25, 2006

FBI National Press Office(202) 324-3691

Washington , D.C . – Richard Lambert Jr., an 18-year veteran of the FBI, has recently been named the Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the FBI’s Knoxville Office by FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III. T he Knoxville Division covers the Eastern District of Tennessee, comprising 42% of the counties in the state. The Division is staffed by approximately 150 employees in the headquarters city, and in resident agencies in Johnson City, Chattanooga, Cleveland, and Tullahoma.

Mr. Lambert brings extensive experience to the new position, entering on duty with the FBI as a Special Agent in 1988 in the St. Louis Division as an investigator for the Violent Crimes/Major Offenders Program and the White Collar Crime Program. He was promoted in 1992 to Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) in the Civil Litigation Unit and Employment Law Unit of the Legal Counsel Division at FBI Headquarters (HQ) in Washington, D.C.

In 1995, Mr. Lambert was appointed SSA in the Office of Professional Responsibility, the FBI’s Internal Affairs component. A year later, he was appointed SSA in the Norfolk Field Office. During his tenure supervising an Organized Crime/Drug Squad, the Squad dismantled a local chapter of the Renegades, a national outlaw motorcycle gang and the chief importer of methamphetamine into the Tidewater area of Virginia. Under Mr. Lambert’s leadership, the Squad also dismantled an international Jamaican drug trafficking enterprise by indicting and arresting 43 subjects responsible for importing 23 tons of marijuana into the U.S. and laundering more than 13 million dollars.

Mr. Lambert was named an Assistant Inspector/Team Leader in the Inspection Division at FBI HQ in 1999, and was subsequently assigned as an Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the San Diego Field Office, where he was responsible for management of the FBI's Foreign Counterintelligence and Counterterrorism Programs, including oversight of the Joint Terrorism Task Force and coordination of the Field Office's investigation of the terrorist attacks of 9/11. In September 2002, Mr. Lambert was appointed Inspector in the Inspection Division at FBI HQ and was detailed to the Washington Field Office to oversee the AMERITHRAX case, the FBI's investigation into the anthrax bio-terrorism attacks which occurred in the fall of 2001.

A native of the State of Texas, Mr. Lambert graduated from Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls in 1981 and 1982 with a Bachelors Degree in English and a Masters Degree in Political Science. He then received a Doctor of Jurisprudence Degree in 1986 and a Master of Public Administration Degree in 1987, both from the University of Houston. From 1986-1988, he was employed at Booth & Newsom, P.C., a law firm in Austin specializing in the representation of political subdivisions in administrative, water rights and environmental law matters.