Washington Post journalist Thomas Pham LeGro charged with possession of child pornography
Award-winning journalist Thomas Pham LeGro has been charged with possession of child pornography after a raid of his Washington DC home.
LeGro, 48, a video journalist with the Washington Post, appeared in court Friday after agents allegedly found 11 videos 'depicting child sexual abuse material' on a laptop in his home.
According to the US Attorney's Office in DC, agents seized a number of devices from LeGro's home on Thursday, including a laptop.
It is alleged fractured pieces of a hard drive from another device were also found in the home.
According to a report from LeGro's employer, he worked at the Post for 18 years in two stints since 2000 and served as video editor.
Prosecutors say sickening materials were found on LeGro's work computer.
The FBI said the raid came as a result of a previous investigation in 2005 that linked LeGro to an account on payment company E-Gold, which used by child pornography websites.
In 2006 a subpoena to a third-party tech firm also linked LeGro to the account, and two other E-Gold profiles also had the same address and phone number as the first account, the Washington Post reported.
LeGro, 48, a video journalist with the Washington outlet, appeared in court Friday after agents allegedly found 11 videos 'depicting child sexual abuse material' on a laptop in his home
If convicted, LeGro faces up to 20 years in prison.
An FBI affidavit, much of which was reportedly redacted, did not say what resulted from the decades-old investigation into LeGro's alleged E-Gold accounts.
The FBI said he was snared when the bureau opened a new investigation last month, when a court approved the tracking of a Verizon account owned by LeGro.
In a statement, the Washington Post said that it 'understands the severity of these allegations, and the employee has been placed on leave.'
LeGro was promoted to deputy video editor at the outlet in February 2024.
He was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for coverage of the unsuccessful Senate candidacy of Roy Moore in Alabama, whose candidacy was derailed by allegations he sexually assaulted two minors.
The US Attorney for DC, former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, singled out FBI Assistant Director in Charge Steven J. Jensen and Chief Pamela Smith of the Metropolitan Police Department in her press release on LeGro's arrest.
She said in the release that the investigation that initially targeted LeGro was part of the Department of Justice's Project Safe Childhood initiative in 2006.
'In February 2006, the Attorney General created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse,' the release said.
'Led by the U.S. Attorney's Offices, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as identify and rescue victims.'
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