Marilyn Thompson Returns to 'Wash. Post'

By: E&P Staff Marilyn Thompson is returning to The Washington Post to be the new Washington accountability editor on the National Desk.

Thompson had left the Post in 2004 to become editor of the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader. She went on to become national investigative editor in the Los Angeles Times? Washington bureau, and most recently worked as an investigative reporter at The New York Times.

She now will lead the newspaper?s accountability reporting efforts, including oversight of such Washington subjects and institutions as the White House, Congress, and ?the intersection of money and politics,? according to an internal memo. She will work on a team that includes Political Editor Tim Curran and Investigative Editor Jeff Smith.

Thompson, who worked for the Post from 1990 to 2004, was a reporter on Metro and an editor on National and Assistant Managing Editor for investigations. In 2003, she broke the story that segregationist Strom Thurmond had secretly fathered a child with his family?s black maid.