RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The special agent in charge of the FBI’s Richmond division announced Tuesday that he is retiring from the bureau and going to work for Virginia’s largest electric utility.
Adam Lee, 50, has worked for the FBI for 22 years and headed the Richmond division since 2014.
Lee led the FBI’s public corruption investigation into former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell. In 2017, Lee was on a short list of candidates to replace former FBI director James Comey after he was fired by President Donald Trump.
Dominion Energy said Lee will join the company Dec. 1 as vice president and chief security officer responsible for physical and cybersecurity across the company’s footprint.
Lee spent his FBI career working in intelligence, white collar, cybercrime and corruption cases.
He told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that he believes his handling of the McDonnell investigation was part of the reason Comey brought him to Richmond from Washington, D.C.
In Sept. 2014, McDonnell and his wife were convicted of participating in a scheme to violate federal public corruption laws by using their official positions to enrich themselves and family members. Their convictions were later overturned as the U.S. Supreme Court narrowed the definition of public corruption.
“These are the kinds of cases where there’s no joy, there’s no victory lap,” Lee said. “It’s simply an exercise in professional leadership.”
During Lee’s tenure in Richmond, the division handled several high-profile counterterrorism cases, including one against Heather Elizabeth Coffman, who was sentenced in 2015 to four years in prison for lying to the FBI about her support of the Islamic State group.
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