After 5.5 years, a bunch of investigative projects, 2 of which were Pulitzer finalists, and successfully prying loose tens of thousands of docs via #FOIA from govt agencies, I'm taking a buyout and leaving @BuzzFeedNews. Tomorrow is my last day.

It was a hell of a run.
This has been the most rewarding reporting job I ever had. In addition to taking on big investigative projects, I was given the opportunity to build a groundbreaking FOIA operation that would make history, literally, and collaborate with every desk in our newsroom.
I'm so grateful to @SchoofsFeed for hiring me & working w/me, along w/amazing attys Chris Hickman, @nabihasyed @MatthewSchafer, to execute my vision & my other editors past & present @arielkaminer @HeidilBlake @semaforben @GeorgeWPapajohn @MartinSgottlieb for supporting my work
And thank you @peretti for the financial support to fund dozens upon dozens of FOIA lawsuits. I'm proud of what the newsroom accomplished and that our journalism on this front made an enormous impact
I feel very lucky to have been surrounded by amazing, kind, generous colleagues who supported and encouraged my work. I will miss them and I will be rooting for them always.
Thank you to all of the whistleblowers and sources, like the hero May Edwards (@3_Whistleblower), who trusted me and took huge risks so that I could inform the public. I'm only able to do what I do because of you.
But I'm not going anywhere...

On Tuesday, I'm starting a new gig and moving my FOIA operation to a new home. Details TK.

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More from @JasonLeopold

Jun 29
Anyone can duplicate another reporter's FOIA request & ask for the same docs a reporter requested. But in the FOIA community, as a matter of decency & respect, we usually reach out to the reporter who made the request to inquire about it.
This is definitely a subtweet btw
It's my fault for tweeting a few of these images out last month that I had been waiting 5 yrs for related to a project I have been working on. I didn't expect another reporter would then duplicate my request over the past month to get ahead of me. Sleazy.
Read 4 tweets
Jun 6
NEW: DHS #FOIA is moving to a new system which will allow us to process records "faster"

dhs.gov/change-underwa…
which would allow *them*
This is the roll out schedule for the new FOIA system across DHS
Read 5 tweets
Jun 1
NEW: I just obtained via #FOIA the secret 2020 DOJ report based on an investigation ordered up by Bill Barr to determine whether Obama officials improperly unmasked Michael Flynn & others prior to & after the 2016 election

In summary..

@kenbensinger & me
buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonl…
It took me more than a year to pry this report out of DOJ. The reason this report -- known as the Bash Report -- took so long for DOJ to process is because it also had to be reviewed by CIA, NSA, ODNI and FBI.
Many thanks to @jloevy and team!
Read 4 tweets
May 18
NEW: The very last investigative story from the @BuzzFeedNews investigations team is by @RosalindZAdams & @TomBWarren.

“It’s A Money Game”: How Mastercard And Visa Tolerate Scams That Hurt Consumers On A Massive Scale. A BuzzFeed News investigation. buzzfeednews.com/article/rosali…
The global credit card rivals maintain a strikingly permissive relationship with companies that have been accused of fraud. For one of Mastercard’s top executives, that relationship went even further.
Read 4 tweets
May 12
NEW/🧵: Yesterday, DOJ OIG released a 1 page summary about a watchdog staffer who was suspected of leaking a draft report of the Trump admin's family separation policy to the media & then resigned during a probe

I FOIA'd the full report & got it
documentcloud.org/documents/2199…

1/
The 52-page report shows DOJ IG had scrutinized one of its staffers contacts with reporters for The New York Times, NBC News and The Guardian

2/ Image
🚨DOJ OIG while conducting it's leak probe issued an administrative subpoena to a telecom company for subscriber info "to confirm one specific telephone number belonged to The Guardian"

3/ Image
Read 11 tweets
Apr 25
🧵NEW: A yearlong investigation by @KendallTTaggart @jtemplon @a_cormier_ & me into private equity giant KKR & its takeover of BrightSpring Health Services, a company that serves ppl w/intellectual & development disabilities turned up some damning findings
buzzfeednews.com/article/kendal…
KKR focused on expanding the biz even as a crisis mounted in its group home division, where conditions grew so dire that nurses/caretakers quit in droves, a state prohibited the company from accepting new residents & some of the most vulnerable people in its care suffered & died
We combed through hundreds of state inspection reports, internal company records, filed dozens of FOIAs & a lawsuit and conducted more than 170 interviews. Again and again, they found residents consigned to live in squalor, denied basic medical care, or all but abandoned.
Read 14 tweets

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