On February 28, 2017, the FBI issued a press release: “Carl Ghattas Named Executive Assistant Director of the National Security Branch.” It states: “FBI Director James B. Comey has named Carl Ghattas as the executive assistant director of the National Security Branch at FBI Headquarters (FBI HQ) in Washington, D.C. Mr. Ghattas most recently served as the assistant director for the Counterterrorism Division at FBI HQ.” It says he “will assume this role in late February.”
A Duke advisory-board biography and a 2021 UNLV event biography state that, as EAD of the National Security Branch, he “was the fourth highest ranking official in the FBI and led the FBI’s operations and intelligence efforts involving all national security matters, ranging from terrorism to espionage to weapons of mass destruction.” That ranking sentence is those bios, not the FBI press release. This page repeats it as the bios state it.
C-SPAN’s person page lists him as Executive Assistant Director, National Security Branch, Federal Bureau of Investigation, with one 2017 Senate committee video in the C-SPAN library. The page does not, in the public card this pass retrieved, print a hearing title beyond that listing.
He is not Peter Strzok. He is not E.W. “Bill” Priestap. A later Senate list that includes all three names is not proof he made their decisions. See the 2020 Graham authorization post.