Wendy J. Olson was sworn in on June 25, 2010 as United States Attorney for the District of Idaho. She joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in March of 1997, and was serving as its Senior Litigation Counsel at time of her appointment as U.S. Attorney. As an Assistant United States Attorney for 13 years, she prosecuted white collar crime, crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children and criminal civil rights violations.

Prior to joining the United States Attorney’s Office, Olson was a trial attorney in the Criminal Section, Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice in Washington D.C. for four and a half years. She also served as assistant to the legal director of the National Church Arson Task Force. Prior to joining the Department of Justice, Olson served as a law clerk for United States Chief District Court Judge Barbara Rothstein in Seattle from 1990-1992.

Olson was born and raised in Pocatello, Idaho, and graduated from Pocatello High School in 1982. Olson graduated from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, with a B.A. in news/editorial journalism in 1986 and from Stanford Law School in Stanford, California, with a J.D. in 1990.