Washington Post Journalist Charged With Possessing Child Porn

WASHINGTON, DC — Thomas Pham LeGro, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist at the Washington Post, was arrested this week and charged with possession of child pornography, according to federal prosecutors.

LeGro, 48, of Washington, D.C., made his first court appearance Friday, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia said in a news release.

According to prosecutors, authorities searched LeGro's home on Thursday and seized several electronic devices. A review of LeGro’s work laptop revealed a folder that contained 11 videos depicting child sexual abuse material.

During the search warrant, agents also discovered what appeared to be fractured pieces of a hard drive in the hallway outside the room where LeGro’s work laptop was found, prosecutors said.

This case is being investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force. The charge against LeGro carries a maximum penalty of 20 years.

LeGro has worked at the Post for 18 years in two stints since 2000, the newspaper said. He is currently the publication's deputy director of video. In 2018, LeGro was part of a team of reporters who were awarded a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Senate candidacy of Roy Moore and a subsequent effort to discredit the Post's reporting.

The Washington Post said in a statement that it “understands the severity of these allegations, and the employee has been placed on leave,” but declined to comment further.

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