Portrait of Charlie Savage

Charlie Savage

I primarily write about national security and legal policy. While I help cover the Justice Department, the themes I pursue often also take me into interagency legal deliberations across the executive branch — including the White House and military, intelligence and diplomatic organizations — as well as into federal court and Congress.

One of my specialties is post-9/11 issues — like war powers, surveillance, torture, indefinite detention, military commissions, drone strikes, government secrecy and leak inquiries. An overlapping focus is presidential power, which also brought me into a variety of novel legal issues surrounding former President Donald J. Trump. I am also interested in judicial nominations and legal philosophy.

In addition to daily events coverage, I write news analysis pieces, explainers that break down complex legal issues, and enterprise or investigative articles aimed at bringing hidden information to light. I regularly sue the government seeking disclosures under the Freedom of Information Act.

I grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where my parents were teachers. After graduating from Harvard College in 1998, I became a local government reporter at The Miami Herald. I spent the 2002-03 year on a journalism fellowship at Yale Law School, where I earned a master’s degree and refocused my career on 9/11-related legal issues.

Soon after, I joined the Washington bureau of The Boston Globe, where my work was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2007. Later that year, I published my first book, “Takeover,” about the Bush-Cheney administration’s efforts to expand presidential power. After moving to The Times, I co-taught a Georgetown University seminar on national security and the Constitution. Designing its syllabus helped inspire my second book, “Power Wars” (2015), an investigative account of national security legal policymaking under Obama.

I am married to Luiza Ch. Savage, the executive editor for growth at Politico.

Because an informed electorate is necessary for American democracy to function, I see the calling of journalism as identifying and telling the truth — especially about what the government is doing and dealing with — as best as I can discern it. When I explain complex topics, my goal is to distill their essence in straightforward language so that non-specialists can understand them, yet in a way that experts will not find oversimplified. Where I am ferreting out new information, especially on sensitive topics, I treat the protection of confidential sources as essential. I aim for precision and nuance, and when I make a mistake, I correct it. You can learn more about The Times’s ethics policy here.

You can DM me on social media or reach out on NYT Tips to get my Signal.

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