Jason Leopold
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Jason Leopold’s Biography
Read Full Bio →Jason Leopold is a senior investigative reporter on the Bloomberg News News investigations team. Previously, he was an investigative reporter at BuzzFeed News.
Leopold is a recipient of 2022 George Polk award for health reporting. He has twice been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in international reporting. He was honored as a finalist in 2021 as one of the lead reporters on the massive reporting project known as the FinCEN Files, an investigation by BuzzFeed News, the International Consorti…
Jason Leopold’s Journalist Portfolio
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Exclusive: The Abu Zubaydah Diaries | Al Jazeera America
Sold Into "a Piece of Hell:" A Death of Innocence at Gitmo
Revised Guantanamo force-feed policy exposed
Widespread Breakdown of Safeguards at Gitmo
Interview
See all 6 answers →What was your first job as a journalist?
Have you ever used a typewriter?
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
Awards
See all 5 awards →Investigative Reporters and Editors Award
2015 - Freedom of Information
“CIA Torture, a Senate Investigation, and the Google Search That Launched a Spying Scandal,” VICE News Jason Leopold and Ky Henderson Judges’ comments: The CIA and other national security agencies have long resisted openness and transparency about their operations. But through a series of FOIA requests and federal lawsuits, VICE News pushed the CIA and the Department of Justice to declassify hundreds of pages of documents and turn them over. The resulting series of investigative reports revealed new details about the CIA’s use of torture, as well as spying the agency conducted on U.S. Senate investigators. Another story uncovered new details about the CIA’s interactions with the makers of the movie Zero Dark Thirty, about the killing of Osama bin Laden. The VICE News team was not afraid to sue when it felt it was being stonewalled, keeping agencies accountable at a time of unprecedented FOIA obstruction by the Obama administration.
Los Angeles Press Club Award
2015 - Entertainment Feature
Jason Leopold and Ky Henderson, VICE News, “Tequila, Painted Pearls, and Prada — How the CIA Helped Produce 'Zero Dark Thirty'” Judge’s comment: “Leopold and Henderson’s extensive report on the CIA’s links to the Zero Dark Thirty filmmakers raises questions about the authenticity of the film about the killing of Osama Bin Laden. A cautionary tale about government-film industry cooperation in movie productions.”
National Freedom of Information Hall of Fame
2016 - Investigative Journalism
The National Freedom of Information Hall of Fame honors individuals for their unique roles in helping to establish, defend and utilize the legal basis for the right to know.
Dow Jones Newswires Award
2001 - Reporting
Awarded the Dow Jones Newswires "Journalist of the Year" award for my reporting on the California energy crisis.
Thomas Jefferson Award
2008 - Investigative Journalism
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) awarded Leopold the prestigious Thomas Jefferson award for his series of groundbreaking news reports that helped expose the rise of fundamentalist Christianity within the US military and the widespread proselytizing of US soldiers.