Carrie Johnson
Carrie Johnson is a justice correspondent for the Washington Desk.
She covers a wide variety of stories about justice issues, law enforcement, and legal affairs for NPR's flagship programs Morning Edition and All Things Considered, as well as the newscasts and NPR.org.
Johnson has chronicled major challenges to the landmark voting rights law, a botched law enforcement operation targeting gun traffickers along the Southwest border, and the Obama administration's deadly drone program for suspected terrorists overseas.
Prior to coming to NPR in 2010, Johnson worked at the Washington Post for 10 years, where she closely observed the FBI, the Justice Department, and criminal trials of the former leaders of Enron, HealthSouth, and Tyco. Earlier in her career, she wrote about courts for the weekly publication Legal Times.
Her work has been honored with awards from the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, the Society for Professional Journalists, SABEW, and the National Juvenile Defender Center. She has been a finalist for the Loeb Award for financial journalism and for the Pulitzer Prize in breaking news for team coverage of the massacre at Fort Hood, Texas.
Johnson is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Benedictine University in Illinois.
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Federal judges have stood as checks on Trump's power — but law clerks say behind closed doors, some created toxic, fear-driven workplaces where speaking out could end a career. -
The White House said it's reached deals with nine law firms to provide about $1 billion in pro bono services. But the details of those agreements remain murky. -
A typically routine election to lead the District of Columbia Bar Association has drawn outsized attention as lawyers and law firms come under attack from the Trump administration.
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With nearly 40 years of legal practice, lawyer Abbe Lowell has represented many powerful people. Now he's starting a new law firm to represent those who have drawn the ire of President Trump. -
An NPR investigation finds problems with the federal court system and a deep culture of fear about reporting judges for abusive behavior and sexual harassment.
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An NPR investigation finds gaps in the systems to report misbehavior by federal judges and a widespread culture of fear about reporting abuse.
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Ed Martin advanced bogus claims about election fraud in swing states in 2020, and he spoke at a boisterous rally in Washington the day before the siege on the Capitol. -
Three senior prosecutors resigned from the DOJ after refusing to drop a corruption case against NYC Mayor Eric Adams. It's raising alarms about whether politics influences decisions in Trump's DOJ.
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A veteran Justice Department lawyer has left the agency and is starting a new group to help advise and defend government lawyers under attack from the new administration.
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In termination letters sent to more than a dozen officials, acting Attorney General James McHenry wrote that he did not believe they "could be trusted to faithfully implement the President's agenda."
