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Kimbriell Kelly

Photo of Kimbriell Kelly with light blue background

Kimbriell Kelly is the Washington Bureau Chief of the Los Angeles Times. She joined The
Times in Washington in 2019 as deputy editor for enterprise and investigations. Kelly edited the
immigration coverage that led to the bureau’s first Pulitzer Prize in 17 years.

Kelly’s competitive streak and her passion for scoops and memorable stories are reflected in
numerous stories that she has championed, including coverage of an investigation into whether
Stephen K. Bannon had lied to lawmakers; that showed why the failure to release $20 million in
Pentagon aid to Ukraine was at the center of the impeachment inquiry; and that made public the
FBI’s service of a search warrant on prominent Republican Sen. Richard M. Burr seeking
information about controversial stock trades, prompting Burr to announce a day later
that he would step down as chair of the Intelligence Committee. Prior to joining The Times,
Kelly was an investigative reporter at the Washington Post, where she started in 2012, after
working in and around Chicago for almost 15 years at the Daily Herald and the Chicago
Reporter, where her investigation into Countrywide Financials subprime mortgage lending led to
the nation’s largest fair-lending settlement. While at the Post, she worked on “Fatal Force,” a
team effort investigating officer-involved shootings that won a Pulitzer Prize for national
reporting in 2016. Three years later, she was a Pulitzer finalist for a yearlong examination of
murder in America’s 55 largest cities.

She is a sought-after expert on public-records requests, research, and data analysis, and
previously worked for The Chicago Reporter and The Daily Herald. During the past two years,
Kelly was the Ferris Professor of Journalism while a visiting lecturer at Princeton University and
taught at Berkeley and American Universities as an adjunct professor of journalism.

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