jason arthur leopold (born october 7, 1969) is an american senior investigative reporter for "buzzfeed news". he was previously an investigative reporter for "al jazeera america" and "vice news". he worked at "truthout" as a senior editor and reporter, a position he left after three years on february 19, 2008, to co-found the web-based political magazine "the public record", leopold's profile page on "the public record" now says he is editor-at-large. leopold returned to "truthout" as deputy managing editor in october 2009 and was made lead investigative reporter in 2012 before leaving truthout in may 2013. he makes extensive use of the freedom of information act to research stories.