A former video editor for The Washington Post pleaded guilty Friday to a federal charge of possessing child pornography, according to court records.
Thomas P. LeGro admitted that he had 11 videos depicting child sexual abuse as well as still images that appeared to be taken from two other videos on a work computer. The FBI seized the computer from his home during a court-authorized search last year.
LeGro, 49, also acknowledged that he “destroyed a hard drive containing additional evidence of his possession of child pornography” when agents knocked on his door to conduct the search, according to documents filed in connection with his guilty plea in U.S. District Court in D.C. He has been detained since his arrest on June 26.
The former video editor had worked at The Post for 18 years in two stints since 2000. A public defender for LeGro declined to comment. A spokesperson for The Post said LeGro no longer works for the news organization and declined further comment.
The charge carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years. In the plea agreement, federal public defenders and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office agreed that sentencing guidelines called for a prison term of eight to 10 years and that LeGro could ask the judge to impose a shorter sentence.
U.S. District Judge John D. Bates set sentencing for Sept. 3.
According to the plea documents, LeGro on at least 10 occasions in 2024 accessed a members-only website on the “dark net” where users shared child sexual abuse materials. The website was shut down by law enforcement in September 2024, the documents say.
The FBI said in charging papers that LeGro had been linked two decades earlier, in 2005 and 2006, to accounts identified as part of an investigation into E-Gold, a payment company used by child pornography websites.
LeGro was part of a Post team that won a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting in 2018 for coverage of the Senate candidacy of Roy Moore of Alabama.
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