On Thursday, officials with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation announced that Tony Mattivi has been confirmed by the Kansas Senate as the KBI’s 13th director.
Former KBI Director Kirk Thompson announced late last year that he would be retiring at the beginning of 2023. Attorney General Kris Kobach nominated Mattivi to be the next KBI director on January 9th.
Director Mattivi served as a federal prosecutor for over 20 years, prosecuting drug trafficking, violent crime, racketeering, organized crime, gangs, money laundering and terrorism cases.
As an Assistant U.S. Attorney, Mattivi was the lead prosecutor for the capital case against the al Qaeda operative who masterminded the bombing of the USS Cole, in 2000. He also worked for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Regime Crimes Liaison Office in Iraq, advising the Iraqi High Tribunal as they tried members of Saddam Hussein’s regime for committing war crimes.
Mattivi led a team of prosecutors with the U.S. Dept. of Justice who convicted three Kansas militia members for plotting to murder Somali Muslim immigrants living and worshipping at an apartment building and mosque in Garden City. He also prosecuted Terry Lee Loewen, a former U.S. Marine who attempted to detonate high explosives at the Wichita airport on behalf of al Qaeda, and John T. Booker, who conspired to detonate a truck bomb at Fort Riley in support of ISIS.
He has also worked for the Kansas Attorney General’s Office, the Shawnee County District Attorney’s Office, and as legal counsel for Medcor, an international healthcare company.
