Brian Murphy

Brian Murphy was the acting United States Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Intelligence and Analysis from March 2018 until July 31, 2020. Career He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Government from the College of William & Mary, and a Master’s degree in Islamic studies from Columbia University. He is currently a doctoral student at Georgetown University. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1994 to 1998 as an infantry officer. Murphy began his FBI career in 1998 and worked there for 20 years, culminating in a position responsible for the FBI’s national level counterterrorism programs. As a junior special agent assigned to the FBI's New York Field Office his work in counterterrorism were noted in an Esquire article called Brian Murphy V. The Bad Guys Murphy was also a leading counterterrorism investigator who focused on illicit financing. He led an FBI investigation called Blackbear. The Blackbear illicit counterterrorism case was among the first of its kind in the post 9-11 environment. Murphy took a leave of absence from the FBI and was called back to active duty as a Marine Officer. As an infantry officer, Murphy served with a Marine reserve infantry battalion 2/24 in Iraq in 2004. He later moved to DHS as the Principal Deputy for Intelligence and Analysis, and in May 2020 became Acting Under Secretary for the Office of Intelligence and Analysis. He was temporarily reassigned from that position two months later after it was alleged his office had compiled dossiers of public information about journalists who were reporting on the George Floyd protests. Murphy has appeared as an expert witness on both international and domestic terrorism.