2026 Don Bolles Medal awarded to Julie K. Brown

IRE has awarded the Don Bolles Medal for 2026 to Julie K. Brown for her dogged, indefatigable and fearless investigative reporting on Jeffrey Epstein and the powerful forces that tried to stop it.

Brown’s 2018 series “Perversion of Justice,” published in the Miami Herald, exposed the unusual and special treatment Epstein received after a local criminal investigation found evidence of his sex-trafficking ring. Brown pursued the story even as she was warned that other journalists had tried and failed to get it published due to the immense influence and pressure of the people involved. Her work led to the case being reopened, the arrest of Epstein, and the revelations of the powerful network of people involved in the abuse of young women and underage girls.

Brown said it was the unfairness of it all – how the victims were treated in the judicial process – that motivated her. “I just get mad at the injustice,” she said.

The Don Bolles Medal recognizes investigative journalists who have exhibited extraordinary courage in standing up against intimidation or efforts to suppress the truth about matters of public importance.

IRE selected Brown for the 2026 Don Bolles Medal for her perseverance and moral endurance against the powerful people who sought to silence her.

The five-person Don Bolles Medal committee included AmyJo Brown, James Grimaldi, Meghan Hoyer, Daniela Molina and Matt DeRienzo, who served as the committee’s chair.

Molina said she was particularly struck by the level of personal commitment it took to keep digging.

“Working largely alone and facing billionaire-funded legal obstruction, coordinated attacks on her credibility, and an industry that had moved on, Brown reopened the Jeffrey Epstein case the system had effectively buried and changed the course of history,” Molina said.

DeRienzo said that the country’s wealthiest and most powerful people have worked hard to erode the public’s trust in journalists.

But, “people from almost every part of the political spectrum understand the incredible courage it has taken to confront one of the most outrageous and extensive criminal conspiracies in modern U.S. history against the most powerful names in government, business and the legal system and to do it alone, massively out-resourced and under threat of financial and physical harm.”

Brown said it was critical that she had the support of her editors both before and after the work was published, and especially as the legal threats intensified. “That was one of the most rewarding parts — that they backed me.”

Brown’s advice for others just getting started in investigative journalism?

“This is not the kind of work – investigative journalism – that is for the faint of heart. You have to be willing to build up, through experience, the armor,” she said.

But, “I hope it inspires people — you can make change.”

The Don Bolles Medal was created in 2017 in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the Arizona Project, an effort led by IRE to finish the work of Don Bolles. The Arizona Republic investigative reporter was killed in 1976 by a car bomb in retaliation for his reporting.

Bolles’ death came a few days before the first national IRE conference in Indianapolis, where the veteran reporter had been scheduled to speak on a panel. At the time, Bolles had been investigating allegations of land fraud involving prominent politicians and individuals with ties to organized crime.

After his murder, nearly 40 journalists from across the country descended on Arizona to complete his investigation. News organizations across the country published their findings.

Their message: Efforts to suppress the truth will be met by even greater efforts from the rest of the journalism community to tell it.