Mark Berman

Washington, D.C.

National reporter covering law enforcement and criminal justice

Education: University of Florida

Mark Berman is a national reporter who covers law enforcement, criminal justice and other issues for The Washington Post. He was part of a team at The Post that won a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2024 for a series of stories about the AR-15. He was also part of two teams at The Post that were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize: one for covering the 2013 Navy Yard shooting and another for covering the back-to-back mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, in 2019. He has been at The Post since 2007. Before joining the National desk, he worked on the Local staff covering transit and
Latest from Mark Berman

Trump wants a new FBI director. What to know about their 10-year terms.

The unusual time limit for the FBI director dates back to the post-Watergate era. But almost no one has served the full 10 years.

December 3, 2024
FBI Director Christopher A. Wray testifies on Capitol Hill in 2020. (Tom Williams/Pool/AP)

Why many people on death row will never be executed

Today, why so many people on death row will likely never be executed and what this says about the American justice system.

December 2, 2024

Lawmakers express doubt over Trump’s plan to replace FBI’s Christopher Wray

Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle said the FBI director, whom Trump appointed to the seat in 2017, should be allowed to serve out his 10-year term.

December 1, 2024

Trump says he will replace FBI Director Wray with loyalist Kash Patel

Trump picked Christopher Wray to lead the FBI in 2017, then soured on him before leaving office. Trump would have to fire Wray — or Wray would have to resign — for Patel to take over the bureau.

November 30, 2024
Kash Patel speaks during an interview on the second day of the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2023.

Trump picked his lawyer for a top Justice Department job. Does it matter?

If confirmed as deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche should recuse from Justice Dept. matters related to cases where he represented Donald Trump, experts say.

November 28, 2024
Donald Trump, flanked by defense attorney Todd Blanche, speaks outside Manhattan criminal court in May.

FBI says bomb threats, swatting incidents targeted Trump picks

The FBI said the incidents were aimed at numerous people tapped for roles in the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump.

November 27, 2024
Former congressman Lee Zeldin (R-New York) speaks at a rally in Concord, New Hampshire, on Jan. 19. He is now President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for Environmental Protection Agency administrator. (Matt Rourke/AP)

Pam Bondi, Trump’s AG pick, said ‘prosecutors will be prosecuted’

Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, Pam Bondi, is a former elected state attorney general who stood by him through scandal and investigation.

November 23, 2024
Former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, left, and former acting U.S. attorney general Matthew G. Whitaker, center back, listen as Donald Trump speaks to the news media May 21 during his trial in Manhattan over hush money payments.

He was sentenced to death four decades ago. He’s still there, waiting.

More than 2,100 people sit on American death rows. Will most of them die there waiting to be executed?

November 19, 2024

Trump’s victory has Biden Justice Dept. racing to finalize police fixes

President-elect Donald Trump has promised to abandon the Biden administration’s use of federal power to help curb excessive force and discrimination by police.

November 16, 2024
The Justice Department under Attorney General Merrick Garland has opened civil investigations into 12 state and local law enforcement agencies, including in Minneapolis.

Trump fired one FBI director. Will he fire Christopher Wray, too?

President-elect Donald Trump’s return to power could mean FBI director Christopher Wray must choose between getting fired and submitting his resignation.

November 10, 2024
Then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director Christopher A. Wray stand for the National Anthem during Wray's installation ceremony at the FBI Building in 2017, in Washington.