Washington Post journalist Thomas LeGro arrested for child porn possession

Washington Post journalist Thomas LeGro, who was part of the team which exposed U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore for sexual misconduct allegations involving underage girls, has been arrested and charged with possession of child pornography, according to prosecutors.

Thomas Pham LeGro, 48, was taken into custody on Thursday after FBI agents executed a search warrant at his residence in Washington, D.C. Authorities seized multiple electronic devices, including a laptop containing 11 videos depicting child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

During the search, agents also discovered what appeared to be pieces of a broken hard drive in a hallway outside the room where LeGro’s work laptop was located, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

LeGro made his initial court appearance on Friday. This case is being investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force. It was not immediately known what led authorities to LeGro’s residence.

LeGro is the Deputy Director of Video at the Washington Post and has worked at the newspaper for more than 18 years. A biography published by the outlet states he was also part of the team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for reporting on Senate candidate Roy Moore and efforts to discredit the Post’s journalism. He has also received other accolades, including an Emmy nomination.

LeGro began working at the Post in 2000 as a news aide in the Sports section and later served as a copy editor. From 2006 to 2013, he was a reporter-producer for PBS NewsHour, where he covered arts and culture. He then returned to the Post as an editor on the breaking news desk and became a senior producer in 2015, overseeing the International, Style, and Technology teams.

This is the second arrest this year of a Pulitzer Prize-winning contributor at The Washington Post on charges involving child sexual abuse material.

In January, Darrin Bell, a cartoonist whose work appeared in the Post and other newspapers, was arrested in California for possession of both real and AI-generated child pornography. Authorities said the investigation uncovered more than 130 videos.