Ken Klippenstein

Ken Klippenstein is an American journalist working in Washington, DC at The Intercept.[1] Prior to joining The Intercept, Klippenstein was the DC Correspondent at The Nation[2][3][4] and previously a senior investigative reporter for the online news program The Young Turks.[5] His work has also appeared in The Daily Beast, Salon, and other publications.[6] His reporting focuses on U.S. federal and national security matters as well as corporate controversies.[7]

Ken Klippenstein
OccupationJournalist
EducationWheaton College (BA)
SubjectsU.S. politics
Signal+1 (202) 510-1268
Website
kenklippenstein.com

Career

Klippenstein graduated from Wheaton College in 2010 with a BA in English literature[8][9] and his early journalism career began in Madison, Wisconsin.[10] His work with The Young Turks started as early as 2018.[11] In 2020, Klippenstein joined The Nation as their DC correspondent.[12]

Klippenstein is a self-described "FOIA nerd"; much of his journalism draws on information he has uncovered from records requested at state and national levels of the US government.[13] He invites individuals to leak information to him via the encrypted messaging service Signal.[14]

His articles also frequently include information from leaked documents.[15] For instance, he obtained leaked documents from the PR firm Qorvis, which implicated the company pitching the private company Caliburn on a propaganda video in order to improve the reputation of Caliburn's Homestead, a Florida shelter for "unaccompanied alien children".[16][17] In an April 2020 article, Klippenstein reported on a leaked document showing that Pentagon had warned the White House in 2017 about the risk of shortages and ill-preparation for a pandemic brought on by a novel coronavirus such as SARS-CoV-2.[18][19] Klippenstein, along with Talia Lavin and Noelle Llamas, successfully sued the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.[20] In December, 2020, he filed two new FOIA lawsuits: one against the U.S. Department of Justice[21] and the other against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Department of State, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Defense Intelligence Agency, Office of Intelligence and Analysis, U.S. Department of Energy, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.[22]

During the George Floyd protests, Klippenstein's reporting uncovered documents regarding federal policing of the protests. Specifically, Klippenstein obtained an FBI document that stated the Washington Field Office "has no intelligence indicating Antifa involvement/presence" during DC-area protests in contradiction to Attorney General William Barr and other officials' assertions that Antifa were specifically responsible for instigating violence.[23] He also reported that contacts working at DHS were disgruntled about orders to generate internal intelligence reports on journalists covering protests in Portland, OR as well as participating activists.[24][25]

Controversies

Klippenstein has occasionally been the subject of reporting himself, notably following a Twitter flame war between him and Tesla CEO Elon Musk; for instance, he attracted Musk's attention by sharing a Vogue photo from the 2014 Vanity Fair Oscars afterparty showing Musk with Ghislaine Maxwell, a long-time associate of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein who has also been indicted for related sex crimes.[26] Musk, who as of June 3, 2020, had 35.5 million Twitter followers,[27] publicly posted that Klippenstein was a "douche-about-town."[28]

In July 2019, Klippenstein was covered in the new media after a Twitter incident in which he was retweeted by Iowa Representative Steve King just before changing his Twitter display name to "Steve King is a white supremacist."[29][30]

References
  1. "Ken Klippenstein". www.theintercept.com. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  2. "Author: Ken Klippenstein". www.thenation.com. Retrieved 2020-07-31.
  3. "The Nation's Ken Klippenstein: Military report predicted pandemic". www.msn.com. Retrieved 2020-07-31.
  4. "Author: The Nation Press Room". www.thenation.com. Retrieved 2020-07-31.
  5. "Talent - TYT.com". tyt.com. Retrieved 2020-07-31.
  6. "Articles by Ken Klippenstein | The Nation Journalist | Muck Rack". muckrack.com. Retrieved 2020-07-31.
  7. "Ken Klippenstein". The Intercept. Retrieved 2020-07-31.
  8. "Alumni of Wheaton College". Alumnius.net. Retrieved July 31, 2020.
  9. Thielman, Sam (2 October 2020). "'Eventually something works, and then you just keep doing that': An interview with Ken Klippenstein". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
  10. "Author: Scott Gordon". www.tonemadison.com. Retrieved 2020-07-31.
  11. "ICE Paid Famous Motivational Speaker for 'Leadership Training'". TYT Network. 2018-06-26. Retrieved 2020-08-02.
  12. "'The Nation' Names Elie Mystal Justice Correspondent and Ken Klippenstein DC Correspondent". The Nation. 2020-01-15.
  13. "Requester's Voice: The Young Turks' Ken Klippenstein". MuckRock. Retrieved 2020-07-31.
  14. "Are you a fed who works for DHS, DOJ, or DoD?". www.twitter.com. Retrieved October 31, 2020. TEXT 202-510-1268 VIA SIGNAL
  15. Cushing, Tim (Jan 10, 2019). "FBI Officially Has A Leak Investigation Unit". Techdirt. Retrieved 2020-07-31.
  16. Iannelli, Jerry (2019-09-09). "Government Nearly Made Propaganda Films for Homestead Migrant Camp". Miami New Times. Retrieved 2020-07-31.
  17. "Guess We'll Never Get To See 'Baby Jails: The Movie' Now". Wonkette. 2019-09-09. Retrieved 2019-09-19.
  18. Slotkin, Jason. "Report: Pentagon Knew Of Possible Coronavirus Threat For Years". www.wksu.org. Retrieved 2020-07-31.
  19. Moreno, J. Edward (2020-04-07). "The Nation's Ken Klippenstein: Military report predicted pandemic". TheHill. Retrieved 2020-07-31.
  20. "The FOIA Project Updates". www.foiaproject.org. Retrieved 2020-08-08.
  21. "The FOIA Project Updates". www.foiaproject.org. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  22. "The FOIA Project Updates". www.foiaproject.org. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  23. "The Justice Department's rhetoric focuses on antifa. Its indictments don't". The Washington Post. 2020-06-04. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  24. Klar, Rebecca (2020-08-03). "The Nation reporter says DHS agents 'upset' at administration over 'politicization of their office'". TheHill. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
  25. Petti, Matthew (2020-08-11). "The Dissent Channel: Meet the Investigative Reporter Uncovering the Dark Side of Homeland Security". The National Interest. Retrieved 2020-08-12.
  26. "Elon Musk Got In A Twitter Flame War Over A Pic Of Him With Jeffrey Epstein's Associate". www.narcity.com. 2020-07-04. Retrieved 2020-07-31.
  27. Desk, HT Auto (2020-06-03). "Elon Musk goes off Twitter and Twitter can't keep calm". hindustan times. Retrieved 2020-08-09.
  28. @elonmusk (July 3, 2020). ""Oh yeah, Klip Einstein, pseudojournalist & douche-about-town"" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  29. "Rep. Steve King steps into Twitter trap". NBC News. Retrieved 2020-07-31.
  30. Matthew Chapman (2019-07-05). "'White supremacist' Republican lawmaker blocks reporter who pranked him into praising fictional military colonel". The Raw Story. Retrieved 2020-12-18.
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