Hope Olds

Hope Olds was selected as Chief of the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions (HRSP) Section in December of 2022. Previously, she was appointed as the Principal Deputy Chief of the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions (HRSP) Section in March 2020 and in March 2021 she was named Acting Chief of HRSP.

Hope began her public service in 1998, serving as an Assistant District Attorney in the New York County District Attorney’s Office before joining the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey (USAO-DNJ) in 2004.  During her time at USAO-DNJ, Hope detailed to the Guantanamo Review Task Force.  She joined HRSP in 2010 as a trial attorney and was promoted to Deputy Chief in 2017 and Acting Principal Deputy Chief in 2019.  Since her arrival in HRSP, Hope has handled complex cases across all three of the Section’s portfolios, built robust law enforcement partnerships, and led interagency efforts to combat international human smuggling networks.

Hope played significant roles in two high-impact prosecutions brought by HRSP, Operation Outsource and Operation Island Express, and has been widely recognized for her efforts.  She has received the Assistant Attorney General’s Exceptional and Distinguished Service Awards, the Financial Crime Enforcement Network Director’s Law Enforcement Award, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas’s Award for National Security/Public Integrity, and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations’ Executive Associate Director’s Award.   

Hope graduated cum laude from the University of Chicago.  She earned her J.D. at the Boston University School of Law, cum laude, where she was an editor of the Journal of Science and Technology Law.