About Joe Johns

Joe Johns is a licensed attorney admitted in Virginia. Previously, he was CNN's Senior Washington Correspondent. He provided content on a wide range of issues for the network including politics, law and government. Joe served as CNN's Justice Correspondent covering the Supreme Court and the US Department of Justice. He covered the Donald Trump presidency from campaign annoncement in 2015 to his departure from the White House in 2020, and continues to cover the former president. He was responsible for covering a wide range of political and breaking news stories for the network.

Joe Johns is an EMMY award winning network news correspondent and anchor. Based in Washington throughout most of his career, he has covered six Presidents of the United States, starting with the second inauguration of Ronald Reagan. As the Capitol Hill Correspondent for TODAY on NBC, signing on in 1993, he regularly reported from the Hill, The White House and the Pentagon, contributing to all the NBC platforms including NBC Nightly News, MSNBC, CNBC and MSNBC.com. Starting as a CNN Congressional Correspondent in 2004, Johns also became a reliable guest host for a number of the network's live and recorded programs originating in New York, Washington, and Atlanta including "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer", "American Morning", "CNN Newsroom", "Late Edition” and "On The Story".

After covering the 2012 presidential primaries, Johns was named CNN's Justice Correspondent, assigned to report on the Supreme Court of the United States, the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI and the activities of law enforcement. Johns served as CNN's Senior Washington Correspondent for seven years, providing content for the network on a wide range of topics, including politics, law and government, as well as breaking news. His coverage of Donald Trump started with the presidential campaign announcement in New York in 2015 and continued well beyond Trump's departure from the White House in 2020.

Additionally, Johns narrated and reported two one hour documentaries for "CNN Presents”.

"Death By Mail: The Anthrax Letters", detailed the 2001 biological weapon attacks on the United States Postal Service and the U.S. Capitol

"Who Counts?" explored allegations of voter suppression and fraud in the 2012 presidential election.

TELEVISION NEWS ANCHOR

On the anchor desk and in the studio, Johns has been deeply involved in some of the most important stories of recent times including: Co-moderating (with Wolf Blitzer and Suzanne Malveaux) the 2008 South Carolina Democratic Presidential Debate between then Senators Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards; anchoring breaking news coverage from New York of the November 2008 attacks on Mumbai, India; and the December 2009 attempt to blow up a plane headed for Detroit, Michigan. He was on the anchor desk in Washington in 2011 when Casey Anthony a celebrated defendant in one of America’s most closely watched murder trials was acquitted.

INTERNATIONAL REPORTING

His on scene reporting has taken him across the world. In 2021, he covered the devastating earthquate in Haiti as well as the kidnapting of 17 missionnaries outside Port Au Prince. In 2010 Joe Johns and his colleagues working for the program "Anderson Cooper 360" on CNN did the work that resulted in two Emmy awards for their coverage of the aftermath of the devastating earthquake and aftershocks that shook Haiti. In 2014, Joe covered the disapearance of a Malaysian passenger plane of Kuala Lumpur. In Egypt he reported on President Clinton's visit to the Summit of Peacemakers in Sharm el Sheikh. In Israel he reported on the efforts of American televangelist Jim Baker to purchase the historic location of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. In South Africa he reported on the visits of an American Presidential delegation to meet with President Mandela. In Central Europe, he traveled with Hillary Clinton to eleven countries that had transformed since the days of Soviet dominance.

DOMESTIC REPORTING

On America's streets Joe Johns has distinguished himself as one of the country's top broadcast journalists. In 2002 he covered the saga of the so-called "Beltway Snipers" from the first series of shootings in Montgomery County, Maryland to the court ordered execution of one of the suspects. NBC News won an Edward R. Murrow award for coverage of the case. His investigative reporting on federal regulators in the BP Oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 helped CNN win a celebrated Peabody award. He has twice won "Salute to Excellence" Awards from the National Association of Black Journalists, for his reporting on environmental justice, and for a feature called "Strange Fruit" about James Cameron, "the last known survivor of a lynching", who watched an angry mob in 1930 hang two of his friends. Cameron narrowly escaped the same fate himself.
In Alaska, he reported from near the summit of an active, unstable volcano, Mt. Augustine, before it erupted in 2006.

MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE

Joe has also been recognized by his peers as a leader and policymaker on media matters. He was twice elected by his colleagues to serve on the Senate-House Committee of Correspondents. In his second term he was elected Chairman of the Board and President of the Radio-Television Correspondents' Association.

EDUCATION

Joe holds a Juris Doctor (Law) Degree from the American University Washington College of Law. He was the Commencement Class Speaker for the WCL Law School in 2002. He holds a Bachelors Degree in American National Political Science from Marshall University. Few people made more of their Marshall experience than Joe Johns, who not only was an honors student and champion athlete, but also an accomplished theater performer.

Marshall won the recruiting battle for the Ohio state discus champion from Columbus, but gained much more than a track and field star. Joe was a four-time first team All-Southern Conference honoree, winning league championships twice in the shot put and taking first and second place finishes in the discus.

He also starred in several stage productions while at Marshall and was honored as one of the top performers at the prestigious American College Theater Festival in South Carolina in 1978. After graduating from Marshall with a political science degree, Joe chose a career in television news over acting and has had a distinguished career as a national reporter for NBC, where he served as the network's chief Capitol Hill correspondent, and then at CNN, where he became that network's senior Washington correspondent. Joe was inducted into the National Society of Arts and Letters, Marshall Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003, and the Columbus West High School Hall of Fame. He is a member of the National Leadership Honorary Society Omicron Delta Kappa.

At West High, he was president of Student Council and a member of the varsity football team. As a senior he won the discus throw at the State Track and Field Meet. The honor of which he is most proud from his high school days was being elected governor of Boys State in 1974.

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