NBC News has announced Lewis Kamb is joining the digital division as a national FOIA reporter on the enterprise team, starting September 12.
NBC News digital managing editor Tom Namako calls Kamb “a public-records hound, who has used freedom of information laws to generate scoops and hold the powerful accountable.”
Kamb comes most recently from Axios, where he broke news on Amazon—and used public records to report that city officials had deleted texts sent during the racial justice protests in the summer of 2020.
A longtime watchdog reporter for the Seattle Times, Kamb helped expose child sex abuse allegations against Seattle’s mayor, ultimately leading to his resignation. His investigation into a long-neglected double homicide case resulted in criminal charges against a suspect about 25 years after the killing. With colleagues at the Times, Kamb also investigated the crashes of two Boeing 737 MAX jets; their stories earned the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2020 and George Polk and Gerald Loeb awards.
Kamb will remain in Seattle and for NBC News, “will pursue news-driven scoops and long-term investigative projects based on public records. He’ll work across the newsroom, running training sessions and coaching reporters on how to file FOIA requests. And he’ll work closely with our legal department to shake records loose, from crafting appeals to suing when necessary,” adds Namako.