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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Idaho attorney approved for federal post

From Staff Reports The Spokesman-Review

The U.S. Senate has unanimously confirmed Wendy J. Olson as the next U.S. attorney for the District of Idaho.

U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Winmill will swear in Olson on Friday.

Olson had been working as an assistant under U.S. Attorney Thomas Moss, who held the position since 2001.

Olson joined the office in March 1997 and tried numerous cases, including the capital murder case involving Joseph Duncan, who murdered three members of a North Idaho family in 2005 in order to kidnap and molest the family’s two youngest children; only one, an 8-year-old girl, survived.

Olson earned her undergraduate degree from Drake University in 1986 and law degree from Stanford Law School in 1990.

From 1992 to 1997, Olson worked for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, according to a Department of Justice news release.