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.