2025 Dao Prize for Excellence in Investigative Journalism

Margot Cleveland won the 2025 Dao Grand Prize, $100,000, with the rest of The Federalist staff for their series on the Russia collusion hoax.

Margot Cleveland is an investigative journalist and legal analyst and serves as The Federalist’s senior legal correspondent. Margot’s work has been published at The Wall Street Journal, The American Spectator, the New Criterion, National Review Online, Townhall.com, the Daily Signal, USA Today, and the Detroit Free Press. She is also a regular guest on nationally syndicated radio programs and on Fox News, Fox Business, and Newsmax. Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize—the law school’s highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Cleveland is a former full-time university faculty member and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. Cleveland is also of counsel for the New Civil Liberties Alliance. Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland where you can read more about her greatest accomplishments—her dear husband and dear son.

Here are some of their reports on the collusion hoax:

Jake Tapper Is Lying About CNN’s Key Role In The Russia Collusion Hoax, Mollie Hemingway, October 29, 2024

EXCLUSIVE: Henchmen Behind Brennan’s Fake Russia Collusion Assessment Are Still At The CIA, Margot Cleveland, July 10, 2025

Report: Russia Hoax Was Built On ‘One Scant, Unclear, And Unverifiable Fragment Of A Sentence’, Breccan F. Thies, July 23, 2025

EXCLUSIVE: ‘This Should NOT Be Included’ — Read Intel Officials’ Objections To ‘Extremely Sketchy’ Steele Dossier, Margot Cleveland and Mollie Hemingway, July 24, 2025

EXCLUSIVE: DOJ Official Who Approved $2 Million Payout To Disgraced Russia Hoaxers Identified As Left-Wing Activist Brian Netter, Mollie Hemingway, August 1, 2025

BREAKING: DOJ Requests DNI Documents Following Gabbard Criminal Referral On Russiagate Conspiracy, Sean Davis, August 5, 2025