The U.S. Senate Thursday confirmed Eric Olshan as the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
President Joe Biden had nominated him in March.
The Western District covers 25 counties and has courthouses in Pittsburgh, Johnstown and Erie.
Olshan will replace Troy Rivetti, who has been the acting U.S. attorney since former U.S. Attorney Cindy Chung was confirmed as an appellate judge.
Olshan has been an assistant U.S. attorney since 2017 and is part of the prosecution team in the ongoing death penalty trial of Robert Bowers, accused of gunning down 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue building in 2018.
Rivetti is also part of that team along with Assistant U.S. Attorney Soo Song and lawyers from the Justice Department.
Prior to coming to Pittsburgh, Olshan served in the public integrity section of the criminal division of the Justice Department in Washington, D.C.
He joined the Justice Department in 2007 and had previously served as a clerk for Judge Richard Tallman of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Olshan received his B.S. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2003 and his law degree from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law in 2006.
Torsten covers the courts for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Reach him at jtorsteno@gmail.com.
