Carol Leonnig is the author of “A Very Stable Genius”, a portrait of the unprecedented presidency of Donald J. Trump, and a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner and investigative reporter who has worked at the Washington Post sinhce 2000. Her work revealing the misconduct and failures of the Secret Service that had compromised President Obama’s security won Leonnig the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 2015. She was part of a Post team that won the Pulitzer in 2017 for their 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 left D.C. residents in the dark as the levels of lead in their drinking water reached record-breaking, toxic levels.  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, she lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and two daughters. She is now working on her second book, a history of the Secret Service.

Carol is a winner of the 2020 Hinrich Foundation Award for Distinguished Reporting on Trade.