Katharine Wagner is Acting Deputy Chief of the Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section (NDDS) in the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division.  In that capacity, Ms. Wagner leads the Litigation Unit, which conducts investigations and prosecutions involving international drug-trafficking organizations, money-laundering organizations, darknet narcotics vendors and the launderers of digital currency, and those who facilitate such conduct.

Ms. Wagner joined NDDS as a Trial Attorney in 2019, before becoming Assistant Deputy Chief in 2021 and Acting Deputy Chief in 2022.  Prior to joining NDDS, Ms. Wagner was an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Massachusetts and a Trial Attorney with the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, where she was a member of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force. Ms. Wagner began her career at the Department of Justice in 2011 as a Trial Attorney in the International Unit of the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section, where she investigated international corruption and money laundering as part of the Attorney General’s Kleptocracy Initiative, developed and conducted trainings on money laundering and asset forfeiture for foreign prosecutors, law enforcement, and financial intelligence officials, and enforced foreign forfeiture judgments in U.S. courts.

Prior to joining the Department of Justice, Ms. Wagner clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.  She earned a bachelor’s degree from Haverford College, an M.Phil. in Russian and East European Studies from Oxford University, and a juris doctorate from the University of Michigan Law School. Between 2001 and 2003, she served as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine.