Devlin Barrett covers the Justice Department and the FBI, reporting on how decisions are made inside these powerful and often opaque agencies that increasingly shape American politics, business, and society. He joined The New York Times in 2024 after more than two decades covering federal law enforcement, beginning his journalism career as a copy boy at The New York Post and later working at The Devlin Barrett covers the Justice Department and the FBI, reporting on how decisions are made inside these powerful and often opaque agencies that increasingly shape American politics, business, and society. He joined The New York Times in 2024 after more than two decades covering federal law enforcement, beginning his journalism career as a copy boy at The New York Post and later working at The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. He is the author of The Department of Revenge: How Trump Took Control of American Justice, which examines how the Trump administration used law enforcement to target perceived political enemies, and October Surprise, Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington which explores internal FBI conflicts surrounding the 2016 presidential election. Over his career, he has been part of four Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting teams in Public Service, National Reporting, Investigative Reporting, and Breaking News Reporting, and in 2017 he was a cofinalist for both feature writing and international reporting. He grew up in Troy, New York, graduated from McGill University in Montreal, and now lives in Virginia.