Margot Williams

Margot Williams is the Research Editor for Investigations at The Intercept. Her career at the Washington Post, New York Times, NPR, and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists is one of the most respected in the investigative reporting world. She has pursued jihadis online and detainees who died in U.S. immigration detention, investigated Iraq war contractors, and followed the money (and private jets) of mayors, governors, senators, presidential candidates, and ex-presidents. And she has spread her passion for investigative journalism — and her incredible ferreting skills — at numerous international workshops over the years.

During 14 years at the Washington Post, she was a member of two Washington Post Pulitzer Prize-winning teams, for a 1998 investigation of D.C. police shootings of civilians and then again in 2001 for national coverage of terrorism. In the aftermath of 9/11 at the Washington Post and later at the New York Times, she investigated the network of jets and shell companies involved in the transport of terrorism suspects among secret prisons around the globe. She compiled the first list of the Guantánamo detainees — years before their names were made public — and created the comprehensive Guantánamo database on the Times website. In 2011, she analyzed the Guantánamo documents leaked by Chelsea Manning for NPR and the New York Times.