Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold has won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his work revealing specific details regarding Donald Trump’s philanthropy that even included uncovering the “Access Hollywood” footage in which Trump made crude comments about women to Billy Bush.
Fahrenthold set out to discover what had become of the $6 million Trump said he’d raised for veterans shortly after the Iowa caucuses. He eventually found that Trump only gave out a fraction of what was raised.
He contacted more than 400 charities some with ties to the GOP nominee in an effort to find proof of the millions Trump said he donated to them. Fahrenthold went on to dig into much of Trump’s past, even discovering what resulted in finding the infamous hot mic incident in which Trump bragged about grabbing women by the genitals.
The Post’s newsroom reacted to Fahrenthold’s victory on Monday with jubilation.
The moment when @Fahrenthold wins his much deserved @PulitzerPrize pic.twitter.com/Q1yX19qj3T
— Elahe Izadi | الهه (@ElaheIzadi) April 10, 2017
Fahrenthold invited his Twitter followers to help track down Trump’s past and even used the social media platform to share his reporter notes. He has emerged as a frequent quest across cable news and was a bigger winner of the 2016 campaign before he won the Pulitzer Prize.
According to the Pulitzer site, he won “for persistent reporting that created a model for transparent journalism in political campaign coverage while casting doubt on Donald Trump’s assertions of generosity toward charities.”
The New York Times staff won the award for International Reporting, Peggy Noonan of The Wall Street Journal won the Commentary category and The New York Daily News and ProPublica took home the Public Service award. The complete list of winners can be found here.