August 2023

Catherine Herridge is an Emmy Award-winning senior investigative correspondent for CBS News covering national security and intelligence. She joined CBS News in November 2019 and has conducted interviews with newsmakers including the IRS whistleblower and case agent in the Hunter Biden probe who testified the president’s son received preferential treatment, former President Donald Trump, former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr, former acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf and former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe. Herridge has contributed to all CBS News platforms including major investigations into the impact of toxic exposure on U.S. veterans and corruption among the highly trained Navy SEALs. Herridge’s reporting on retired Col. Paris Davis, one of the first Black officers in the elite Green Berets, kept his story in front of decision makers. In March 2023, the Vietnam hero was awarded the Medal of Honor at the White House after his nomination paperwork was lost twice at the height of the civil rights movement.

In 2019, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society awarded Herridge with its annual Tex McCrary Award for excellence in journalism. In 2021, Herridge and the CBS News Investigative Unit won the Society of Environmental Journalists Kevin Carmody Award for Outstanding Investigative Reporting on serious health hazards from toxic waste at the Karshi-Khanabad (“K2”) military base in Uzbekistan, where thousands of American military members served. Former President Trump later signed an executive order recognizing K2 veterans and mandating a comprehensive study by the U.S. Department of Defense on health consequences related to toxic exposures at K2.

The Investigative Unit’s Emmy-nominated series “Decades of Exposure,” which looked into toxic water at Camp Lejeune, is credited by activists and lawmakers with the passing of the Camp Lejeune Justice Act in August 2022 as part of the PACT Act, impacting nearly a million veterans, their families and civilians. It is considered one of the largest expansions of VA healthcare and benefits to those exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange and other toxic substances. The new law allows Marines and their families to sue the U.S. government in court and seek damages over contaminated water at Camp Lejeune.

Herridge has previously reported on some of the most impactful national and international security stories of our time, including the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the military trials for the alleged suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report and the House impeachment proceedings. Herridge has also reported from Afghanistan, Iraq, Qatar, Israel, Northern Ireland, Russia and the former Yugoslavia.

Prior to joining CBS News, Herridge was the chief intelligence correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC), covering the intelligence community, the Justice Department, and the Department of Homeland Security – the first cable TV correspondent assigned to the DHS beat. Herridge previously worked as a TV and radio correspondent for ABC News in London. She is a graduate of Harvard College and the Columbia School of Journalism, where she sits on the alumni board and established a national security reporting scholarship.

Her book, The Next Wave: On the Hunt for al Qaeda’s American Recruits, exposed the post-9/11 threat of homegrown terrorism, how social media is the lifeblood of the digital jihadist, and the profound influence of the first American on the CIA’s kill or capture list, Anwar al-Awlaki.

Herridge comes from a military family and lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband, a West Point graduate, and their two boys.