Carrie Johnson
Carrie Johnson is a Supreme Court and Justice Correspondent for NPR.
She covers a variety of stories about justice issues, law enforcement, and legal affairs for NPR's flagship programs and podcasts.
In recent years, Johnson has exposed misconduct by federal judges and uncovered systemic problems with internal accountability systems in the judiciary that fail to protect its most vulnerable employees. She's also reported widely on tensions between the executive branch and the federal bench, including a rise in threats against district court judges.
Johnson has followed the work of the Justice Department through the past four presidents, from a renewed focus on national security and civil rights into the norm-breaking tumult of the second Trump administration. She's adept at finding the vivid anecdotes at the heart of major news stories, from federal workers caught up in political sting operations, to the memes around the sandwich thrower in Washington, D.C.
Her work has been honored with awards from the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, the Society for Professional Journalists, and SABEW. She served as a fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University from 2019-2020. In 2021, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers honored Johnson with a rarely-bestowed Champion of Justice award for her journalism work.
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.
Prior to coming to NPR in 2010, Johnson worked at the Washington Post for 10 years. Earlier in her career, she wrote about courts for the weekly publication Legal Times.
Johnson is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Benedictine University in Illinois.
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A publishing dispute has highlighted the issue of recusals by Supreme Court justices. The justices largely police themselves. -
On the campaign trail, Trump regularly featured the stories of Jan. 6 defendants he labeled "hostages" and "patriots." -
A federal jury in Washington, D.C., has convicted musician Pras Michel of 10 criminal charges including conspiracy, failing to register as an agent of China, and witness tampering.
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Pras Michel faces several federal criminal charges stemming from money he accepted from a fugitive billionaire, allegedly seeking to win access to the White House.
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Prosecutors allege Pras Michel illegally helped steer money from a Malaysian billionaire who helped finance The Wolf of Wall Street, a 2013 film, in which Leonardo DiCaprio starred. -
Prosecutors said musician Pras Michel collected exorbitant sums of money from a billioniare desperate to win access to two separate U.S. presidents. -
Hip-hop musician Pras Michel of Fugees faces criminal trial in Washington, D.C., for allegedly conspiring to violate election law and influence American policymakers on behalf of China. -
The Justice Department on Friday outlined a broad new push to support crime victims, including coordinating with state and local authorities in cases where federal charges won't be brought. -
A federal judge will decide whether to block Texas' new restrictive abortion law after hearing from Justice Department attorneys and lawyers for the state. He offered no timetable for a decision. -
A jury found John Hinckley Jr. not guilty by reason of insanity in 1982. On Monday, his lawyer said the "momentous event" of Hinckley's full release in June is appropriate and required by the law.
