Jodi Cohen, special agent in charge of the Boston field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has been promoted to an agency job in D.C., an agency spokesperson told GBH News this week.
Boston FBI spokesperson Kristen Setera told GBH News that Cohen, the first woman to run the Boston office, “has been promoted to an executive leadership position at FBI HQ.”
Cohen is leaving the post she took in 2023, leading the office that oversees Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island.
The local agency has been criticized by some former local law enforcement for being too involved with federal agents deporting undocumented immigrants.
Cohen had arrived in Boston after serving as special agent in charge of the field office in Louisville, Kentucky. She has been absent from her post for weeks if not months.
Setera had told GBH News in February that Cohen wasn’t available for an interview because she had traveled to Washington to help “the new leadership team with the transition.”
What role Cohen will play in the FBI’s reorganization is not clear. A national FBI spokesperson in an email wrote “we do not have further comment about her role at this time.”
Her elevation comes as the federal agency, under the direction of FBI Director Kash Patel, has begun the process of dismantling the agency from within and transferring 1,500 agents to different parts of the country.
It’s unclear yet who will be taking over Cohen’s post in Massachusetts.
