Ashley Feinberg

Ashley Feinberg is an American journalist, covering politics, media, and technology. She is known for her internet sleuthing, through which she has uncovered information about the online activity of public figures.

Education Feinberg was born in Dallas.

Career Feinberg began her journalism career in 2011 as an intern at the San Antonio Current.

In August 2015, Feinberg broke news of 19 Kids and Counting participant and conservative Christian activist Josh Duggar's use of Ashley Madison, an online dating service marketed to married people seeking extramarital affairs. Duggar's paid account was exposed in a July 2015 hacking of the site. which he confirmed later that year. Comey had previously mentioned a secret account in an interview and Feinberg connected the pseudonym "Reinhold Niebuhr", who was the subject of Comey's college thesis.

In October 2017, Feinberg joined HuffPost. She later joined Slate, in May 2019.

Her interview with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was reported internationally, with Dorsey and commentators saying that it made Dorsey "look bad".

Feinberg was chosen for the 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 in Media list, which noted she is "known for uncovering secrets about public figures through digital sleuthing, having discovered Donald Trump Jr.’s hundreds of posts on an online hunting forum, Sebastian Gorka’s Amazon wishlist and James Comey’s once-private Twitter account" as well as Duggar's Ashley Madison account.

In March 2019, Feinberg reported in HuffPost that American news website Axios had paid a firm to improve its reputation by lobbying for changes to the Wikipedia articles on Axios and Jonathan Swan.

In August 2019, Feinberg and her former employer, HuffPost, were sued for defamation by Professor Derrick Evans for a 2018 article alleging he and Douglas Kennedy had supplied cocaine to fellow students at Georgetown Preparatory School during Brett Kavanaugh's time there, while also insinuating a connection to the drug overdose death of Kennedy's brother.

In October 2019, Feinberg uncovered an anonymous Twitter account that Republican senator Mitt Romney had used to, among other political comments, post criticism of Donald Trump.

In December 2019, Feinberg investigated editors on the English Wikipedia who made edits that appeared to have been written either by Pete Buttigieg or by an individual with intimate knowledge of his early life, family, education, friends, and career. The Buttigieg campaign responded by claiming that these editors were not Buttigieg.