Carol Leonnig
Investigative Reporter, The Washington Post
Leonnig briefed National Press Foundation fellows in January 2024: Deep Sourcing Is A key Measure For Washington Reporters.
Carol Leonnig is a four-time Pulitzer winner, author of three New York Times bestselling books, and investigative reporter who has worked at the Washington Post since 2000. Two of her books document the unprecedented presidency of Donald J. Trump with co-author and fellow Post reporter Philip Rucker. The first, “A Very Stable Genius”, chronicles Trump’s first 30 months as president, and the second, “I Alone Can Fix It”, tells the the story of his catastrophic and final year in office.
Her investigative reporting revealed the misconduct and failures of the Secret Service that had put President Obama’s life in danger, winning Leonnig the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 2015 and leading to her third book, “Zero Fail”, the modern history of the Secret Service. She was a lead reporter in the Post’s Pulitzer Prize-winning project in 2022 on the January 6 attack on the Capitol. She was part of a Post team that won the Pulitzer in 2017 for its coverage of the Russian interference in the presidential election and President Trump’s efforts to stymie a federal investigation of his campaign’s ties to Russia. She was again part of a team that won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2014 for documenting the NSA’s secret and broad spying on innocent Americans.
She is the two-time winner of the George Polk Award, for her Secret Service investigation and for her work uncovering the gifts and cash that Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife took from a businessman while helping his company with state support. Their coverage culminated in the couple being indicted on bribery and corruption charges and then convicted on 20 felony counts.
At the Post, Leonnig helped lead a reporting team that uncovered how city and federal officials for years failed for nearly two years to warn D.C. residents of record-breaking, toxic levels of lead in their drinking water. The year-long coverage won the Selden Ring Award for public service in investigative journalism.
Leonnig previously worked on the staff of The Charlotte Observer in North Carolina and The Philadelphia Inquirer. A graduate of Bryn Mawr College and MSNBC contributor, she lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and two daughters.
