Carol Duhurst Leonnig | |
|---|---|
 Leonnig at the 2018 Pulitzer Prizes | |
| Born | Carol Duhurst Leonnig c. 1966 |
| Alma mater | Bryn Mawr College[1] |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Notable credit(s) | The Washington Post, The Charlotte Observer, The Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Spouse | John Reeder[1] |
| Awards | 2015, 2018Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting 2014Pulitzer Prize for Public Service 2014George Polk Award for investigative reporting |
Carol Duhurst Leonnig is an Americaninvestigative journalist. She was a staff writer atThe Washington Post from 2000 to 2025 and was part of a team of national security reporters that won the2014Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for reporting thatrevealed the NSA's expanded spying on Americans. Leonnig also received Pulitzer Prizes for National Reporting in 2015 and 2018.
Leonnig is a native ofUpper Marlboro inPrince George's County, Maryland. She graduated fromQueen Anne School, a former college preparatory school, inLeeland, Maryland, in 1983. She graduated fromBryn Mawr College in 1987.[1]
Her first reporting job was in 1989 atThe Philadelphia Inquirer.[2] She later became a staff writer forThe Charlotte Observer, where she first reported on city government, later covering the state legislature and eventually became the paper's Washington correspondent.During her time atThe Observer, she was a lead reporter on several investigative projects, including one involvingBank of America's use of federal funds to raze low-income housing near its corporate headquarters and another uncovering that Gov.Jim Hunt personally directed state funds to be used to build a major bridge in his rural hometown. Hunt apologized and canceled the project after the story about his involvement was published.[3]
AtThe Washington Post, Leonnig first covered the District of Columbia city government and its problems with corruption, and then spent five years covering the federal courts in Washington. She reported on theBush administration and issues surrounding the indefinitely imprisoned detainees at theGuantanamo Bay detention camp. Leonnig wrote for thePost's National Desk as part of a team that investigated public officials, federal agencies, and government accountability.
She has done numerous radio and television interviews, includingNPR,The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer,[2][4]Fox News, andMSNBC.[5] Her coverage of the Bush administration has been cited in books on the subject.[6][7][8]
In 2011, Leonnig and herPost colleagueJoe Stephens revealed in a series of stories how theObama administration pressed to approve a $535 million federal loan toSolyndra, asolar panel manufacturer whose leading investors were tied to a major Obama fundraiser. Their stories documented how White House aides for the senior-most White House advisers pressured Office of Management and Budget officials to make a decision on approving the Solyndra loan in time for a press conference they had tentatively scheduled for the Vice President to announce the funding. The company was one President Obama himself touted in a visit in 2010, shortly after independent auditors raised concerns about Solyndra's financial stability.[9]
In August 2025, Leonnig left the newspaper to become senior investigative correspondent forMSNBC.[10]
In 2018, Leonnig was part of the team that won thePulitzer Prize for national reporting as a contributor to 10 stories onthe investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election withThe Washington Post.[11]
In 2015, Leonnig won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting "for her smart, persistent coverage of theSecret Service, its security lapses and the ways in which the agency neglected its vital task: the protection of thePresident of the United States."[12]
The Washington Post received the2014Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for its coverage of the National Security Agency's expanded surveillance of everyday Americans based on former NSA contractor Edward Snowden's disclosures. Leonnig was part of the reporting team whose six months of revelatory work exposed the government's secret collection of records for all Americans' phone calls and electronic communications. The team also uncovered how a secret court had authorized much of the communication collection under secret law. Despite President Obama's claims that the court provided a key check on the NSA's spying power, ThePost team revealed how the court's top judges had belatedly learned that the NSA had been violating the court's rules to protect innocent individuals' privacy for years—in fact, from the day the surveillance programs began. The court's chief judge later acknowledged to thePost it had no way to check the NSA's claims that it was properly safeguarding privacy.[13]
Also in 2014, Leonnig was a winner of theGeorge Polk Award for investigative reporting, given byLong Island University, for her 2013 work uncovering a bribery scandal involving Virginia Gov.Bob McDonnell.[14]
In 2005, Leonnig was part of a seven-person team that won theSelden Ring Award forInvestigative Reporting given by theAnnenberg School for Communication at theUniversity of Southern California for a series of articles that uncoveredunhealthy levels of lead in the drinking water inWashington, D.C., and problems with reportingwater quality across the U.S.[15][16]
She is also a formerPaul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow.[17]
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