Christopher Raia

Biography

Christopher Raia was born on April 17, 1976, in Illinois and graduated from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in 1998. ¹ He served as a Coast Guard officer in Florida before joining the FBI as a special agent in 2003. ^{1 3} For roughly a decade he worked in Texas on violent crime, gang and white-collar cases and later held leadership posts in the Houston field office. ³ According to Wikipedia, he was the case agent in the 2011 investigation of an Iranian-linked plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to the United States. ¹

At headquarters he served as chief of staff to the head of the National Security Branch and then as deputy assistant director of the Counterterrorism Division, overseeing international counterterrorism operations. ³ In spring 2025 he was named assistant director in charge of the New York field office, the bureau's largest. ³ He replaced James Dennehy, whom Director Kash Patel had removed. ¹

Raia was named co-deputy director in January 2026 after Dan Bongino left, and took office on January 12, serving alongside Andrew Bailey. ^{1 5} Unlike Bongino and Bailey, he is a career agent, which was the tradition for the post before 2025. ² Bailey announced on September 28, 2026 that he was leaving, effective October 2, and CBS News reported that Raia remained as the other co-deputy. ² No replacement for Bailey had been reported in the sources reviewed, which leaves Raia as the only deputy director. ^{2 5}