Jason Leopold, senior reporter for Bloomberg News and government-described “FOIA Terrorist” is this year’s winner of the Brechner Freedom of Information Award for his tenacity and passion in acquiring public records. The award is administered by the Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Project at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications.

Leopold was selected among 27 entries representing the nation’s best public-records journalism. He has filed thousands of Freedom of Information Act requests through two decades of reporting. Not only does Leopold break news through FOIA, but he shares what he finds with the public and other reporters, including through a weekly email newsletter and the podcast Disclosure.

“The breadth of this work, and the impact on who Leopold is investigating, is staggering,” wrote one of the three judges, Francisco Vara-Orta, trainer and director of diversity and inclusion for Investigative Reporters and Editors. “He is the blueprint for strong open records reporting and not being scared to go to court with resources he has behind him. He also shares his expertise with other journalists regularly so he pays it forward in democratizing best practices beyond his outlet.”

Leopold has been noted as the most prolific individual FOIA litigant in the nation. Last year, he filed 17 FOIA lawsuits to compel agencies to provide public records. He has testified before Congress regarding FOIA and is a frequent speaker and trainer at journalism conferences.

He also has been a recipient of the 2023 Gerald Loeb award for investigative reporting, a 2022 George Polk award for health reporting and he has twice been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in international reporting. In 2016, Leopold was awarded the FOI award from IRE and was inducted into the National Freedom of Information Act Hall of Fame.

Leopold’s newsletters range from how the Air Force named its next fighter jet “F-47” to the cost of the huge USDA Trump and Lincoln banners to the challenge for the Department of Interior when the Trump administration renamed a famous mountain. He has obtained exclusive records, including a cache of 18,000 emails from Jeffrey Epstein’s personal Yahoo account that anchored an ambitious investigative series about the disgraced financier, including one that resulted in the firing of the UK ambassador to Washington, and another that uncovered an abandoned federal money-laundering probe.

Another judge, Miranda Spivack, author of Backroom Deals in Our Backyards, wrote that “Leopold’s tenacity in seeking out hard-to-get data and documents, coupled with his generosity in sharing his techniques and findings, place him high up in the pantheon of journalists toiling over access to government information.”

The third judge, Rick Hirsch, who coordinates the Collier Prize for State Government Accountability, wrote, “He embodies the spirit of the Freedom of Information Act with relentless and strategic execution, from request to follow up. The Freedom of Information Act is like a muscle – if you don’t exercise it, it atrophies and withers. Leopold works constantly to keep it strong, despite the machinations of government to weaken it.’’

Leopold said he was thrilled to receive the award.

“It’s a huge honor to have my FOIA work recognized by the Brechner Freedom of Information Project, which works tirelessly to promote a culture of transparency and open government and educates students about the power of public records,” he wrote in an email. “We are living in a time of intense secrecy and in a climate of misinformation and disinformation. Prying loose records from government agencies is one way to combat it while holding power to account. It’s painstaking, tedious work. But it’s more important now than ever. The public is counting on us.”

Leopold will accept the award and discuss his work at a luncheon in Gainesville, Florida, in April, hosted by the Florida Free Speech Forum. More information will be provided at www.floridafreespeechforum.org. He will also be honored at Sunshine Fest March 16 in Washington, D.C., coordinated by the Brechner FOI Project.

The Brechner Freedom of Information Award has been presented annually since 1986 by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Brechner FOI Project to reward excellence in reporting that draws on government documents and data, shedding light on official secrecy. The award includes a $3,000 cash prize, made possible by an endowment created by the Brechner family. The non-partisan, nonprofit Brechner FOI Project has provided research and education in the public’s right to government information since 1977, based in Gainesville at the University of Florida.

Posted: February 22, 2026
Category: Brechner News
Tagged as: Brechner Award, Brechner Awards, Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, Brechner FOI Project