Eric Olshan, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, will join six other top prosecutors from around the country to serve on Attorney General Merrick Garland’s advisory committee, the Department of Justice announced Tuesday.
The committee was created in 1973 to advise the AG on policy and procedures impacting the 94 U.S. attorneys’ offices across the United States.
The former U.S. attorney in Pittsburgh, Cindy Chung, had been the vice chair of the committee but has since become a judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. She has been replaced by Gary Restaino, the U.S. attorney in Phoenix.
“United States Attorneys work every day throughout the country to advance our mission of
upholding the rule of law, keeping our country safe, and protecting civil rights,” Garland said in a statement announcing the appointments. “I am grateful for the perspective the newest members of the Committee will provide on behalf of federal prosecutors across the country and the communities they serve.”
Olshan was sworn in as U.S. attorney in June.
Before that, he was chief of the economic, cyber and national security crimes section. He joined the office in 2017 with a focus on white collar crime. He has also been the coordinator for civil rights, public corruption, environmental and health care fraud cases. He was also the district’s election officer.
Most recently Olshan was one of the prosecutors who secured the federal death penalty this summer against Robert Bowers for the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue massacre.
Before coming to Pittsburgh, Olshan served in the public integrity section of the criminal division of the Justice Department from 2007 to 2017.
Garland also named these U.S. attorneys to the advisory committee: Alexander Uballez, District of New Mexico; Breon Peace, Eastern District of New York; Kenneth Parker, Southern District of Ohio; Natalie Wright, District of Oregon; Alamdar Hamdani, Southern District of Texas; and Christopher Kavanaugh, Western District of Virginia.
Torsten covers the courts for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Reach him at jtorsteno@gmail.com.
