Kenneth Paul Vogel (born 1975) is an American journalist and author who currently reports for The New York Times. From 2007 to 2017, he was the founding chief
investigative reporter at Politico.[1][2][3] In June 2017, he joined the Washington Bureau of The New York Times as a reporter covering conflicts of interest, lobbying, and money in politics.[4]
Vogel is the author of Big Money: 2.5 Billion Dollars, One Suspicious Vehicle, and a Pimp–on the Trail of the Ultra-Rich Hijacking American Politics. Vogel's writing often focuses on money in politics.[5][6] As part of his work, he focuses on political fundraising, with particular emphasis on the
political activities of the Koch brothers.[7][8]
Vogel's book, Big Money: 2.5 Billion Dollars, One Suspicious Vehicle, and a Pimp—on the Trail of the Ultra-Rich Hijacking American Politics, was published in 2014 and received generally favorable reviews from the Wall Street Journal, Economist, Financial Times.[9][10][11][12][13]
In 2016, a
WikiLeaks email interception revealed that Vogel had sent a draft of an investigative news article he authored about Hillary Clinton's fundraising with the
Democratic National Committee (DNC) ahead of publication to a DNC official. Business Insider referred to Vogel's sharing of a pre-publication draft as "a break from typical journalistic ethics."[14]The Washington Post's media critic
Erik Wemple defended Vogel's ethics, writing that Vogel was "bringing the full weight of a Politico investigation to the DNC and the Clinton campaign, as if to say: We've got all this stuff on you. What say you?"[15] The article led
PolitiFact to revise its rating of a claim that "the overwhelming amount" of money raised at a Clinton fundraiser would go to down-ballot Democrats; in light of Vogel's reporting, the fact-checking organization changed its assessment from "Mostly True" to "Half True."[16] Vogel's articles have been named among the best investigative news stories on campaign finance.[17][18]
Personal life
Vogel is married to Danielle Rosengarten, an attorney and former climate change adviser to
Joe Lieberman. He is a son of Ruth S. and Morris J. Vogel of New York. His mother is a clinical psychologist in private practice in New York. His father is the president of the
Lower East Side Tenement Museum.[19]
Awards
2000:
IRE Award for "Our Private Legislatures — Public Service, Personal Gain"[18]
Vogel, Kenneth (June 3, 2014). Big Money: 2.5 Billion Dollars, One Suspicious Vehicle, and a Pimp–on the Trail of the Ultra-Rich Hijacking American Politics. PublicAffairs.
ISBN978-1610393393.