Paul A Hayden

Paul Hayden joined the US Department of Justice’s foreign bribery team from the national security division, where he served for almost five years.

Hayden joined the criminal division in October 2017, according to his LinkedIn. He has been working on a case, announced shortly after his arrival, involving the head of a Chinese non-profit and the former foreign minister of Senegal. The Justice Department has accused the two individuals of conspiring to bribe several high-profile individuals, including the current presidents of Uganda and Chad and the former president of the United Nations General Assembly, on behalf of a Chinese energy conglomerate. Uganda, Chad and the Chinese energy company all deny the allegations.

Before joining Main Justice and the DOJ’s national security division, Hayden served for many years in different areas of the US government. He was first hired by the Justice Department in 2007, and held the position of deputy director, according to his online resume. Starting in January 2009, he spent four months as a legal counsel for the US Department of Defense.

During his time at the national security division, Hayden also served for over a year and a half as a special assistant US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. In 2016, he helped prosecute a man who allegedly ran an oxycodone trafficking scheme. William Granberry created fraudulent prescriptions for pharmaceuticals and recruited drug runners in multiple pharmacies to obtain thousands of oxycodone tablets, which he sold to buyers in Virginia and elsewhere, according to the DOJ. Granberry pleaded guilty to the DOJ's charges. Prosecutors also charged Granberry's wife, but she was later cleared of the charges by a federal judge in Virginia.

Hayden is a veteran of the US Army, having served for eight years on active duty and reserve as an infantryman. Before joining the DOJ, he served from 1997 to 1999 as a staff assistant to the Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona. He was also the deputy director for five years of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, a non-profit veterans service organisation, and a special assistant of the US Department of Veterans Affairs for three years.

Hayden earned his law degree from George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School and his bachelor’s degree in history and political science from the University of Arizona.