Johnny Edwards

Johnny Edwards

Johnny Edwards joined FOX 5’s I-Team as an investigative reporter in 2023, making the jump to broadcast news after 25 years in print journalism. He previously worked at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where he served on the investigative team and won numerous awards for rooting out corruption and abuse.

Over the course of his career, Johnny reported on how a county commissioner engineered a kickback scheme to cover up her financial problems and how two rural sheriffs turned jail inmates into personal laborers for their reelection campaigns and private businesses. He dodged bullets in Iraq, stood next to Chuck D at James Brown's funeral, and later became the first Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter to win an Emmy Award.

Johnny is an Atlanta native who grew up in Cobb County and graduated from the University of Georgia’s journalism school with a degree in telecommunications. After abandoning plans to become a media lawyer, in 1998 he answered an ad for a job with a North Fulton County weekly newspaper, and immediately became hooked on a career that pays people to relentlessly pursue the truth, no matter who doesn’t like it. Johnny moved on to daily newspapers in Marietta, Canton, Lynchburg, Va., and Augusta. While working for The Augusta Chronicle, he spent time as an embedded reporter with U.S. Marines and Army Reservists during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

After more than a decade away, he returned to Atlanta to work for his hometown newspaper. In 2014, he exposed how DeKalb County elected officials used their discretionary budgets for personal benefit, triggering an FBI investigation that resulted in criminal charges against a county commissioner, her husband, her chief of staff and an evangelist. Edwards won Common Cause Georgia’s Democracy Award for that work, as well as an Emmy for his collaborations with WSB-TV.

In 2016, he served on the team behind the newspaper’s "Doctors & Sex Abuse" project, a Pulitzer finalist, and recorded a related 6-episode podcast series called "Predator M.D." Johnny led the newspaper’s 2019 coverage of the Georgia House speaker’s use of legislative leave to delay criminal cases for clients of his private law practice, which won an Atlanta Press Club award for investigative reporting. In 2022, he was part of the team behind the AJC's "Dangerous Dwellings" series on persistently dangerous apartment complexes, winner of national awards from both Investigative Reporters & Editors and the National Headliners Awards.

Johnny has one adult daughter and lives in DeKalb County with his wife and their border collie. Johnny is a certified scuba diver, a jogger, a history buff, a Jekyll Island lover, a Pink Floyd fanatic and, along with his daughter, a major Hawks fan. If you have tips or story ideas, you can follow Johnny on X at @JohnEdwardsFox5 or email him at John.Edwards@fox.com.

The latest from Johnny Edwards

Lawsuit demands Skandalakis step down as special prosecutor of Lt. Gov. Jones

Lawsuit demands Skandalakis step down as special prosecutor of Lt. Gov. Jones

The appointment of a special prosecutor in the election interference case of Lt. Gov. Burt Jones is in dispute. A group of attorneys sued state Prosecuting Attorneys' Council Executive Director Pete Skandalakis, demanding he hurry up and pick someone to prosecute one of the state's most powerful politicians. He chose himself for the job, and now they want a judge to boot him off the case. They say Skandalakis has a conflict of interest.

Report from Sen. Ossoff blasts DFCS over child deaths, sex trafficking

Report from Sen. Ossoff blasts DFCS over child deaths, sex trafficking

A scathing report by a U.S. Senate subcommittee, chaired by Sen. Jon Ossoff, blasts Georgia DFCS for failing to protect children, with kids dying because of systemic failures and hundreds of children sex trafficked while in state care. DFCS fired back Tuesday, accusing Ossoff of "political gamesmanship."

Lamar County landfill leaders cast doubt on FBI investigation. FOX 5 I-Team confirms: It’s true

Lamar County landfill leaders cast doubt on FBI investigation. FOX 5 I-Team confirms: It’s true

Leaders of Lamar County's solid waste authority took out a full-page ad in a local newspaper raising doubts about whether an FBI investigation involves them at all. But the FOX 5 I-Team found all signs point to yes, with the FBI confirming the probe involves the authority's controversial waste-to-fuel project. The same ad announced leachate evaporators are finally running, meaning machines inside the long-delayed recycling center aren't all sitting idle anymore.

State fires two child welfare workers over Gwinnett rolling pin beating case

State fires two child welfare workers over Gwinnett rolling pin beating case

The FOX 5 I-Team has learned Georgia DFCS fired a social worker and her supervisor following the death of 8-year-old Sayra Barros, who police say was beaten to death by her stepmother, Natiela Barros, with a wooden rolling pin. Records show, DFCS received a complaint in November that Sayra's father, Cledir Barros, called her "a demon."

Head of prosecutors’ council accused of delaying case against Lt. Gov. Jones

Head of prosecutors’ council accused of delaying case against Lt. Gov. Jones

A Fayetteville attorney is suing a state official who he says is holding up the prosecution of Lt. Gov. Burt Jones. The attorney wants Jones held accountable for his role as a so-called fake elector for Donald Trump in 2020, before the statute of limitations runs out. But Prosecuting Attorneys' Council Executive Director Pete Skandalakis hasn't picked a special prosecutor.

Backlash growing against school zone speed cameras in Georgia

Backlash growing against school zone speed cameras in Georgia

Ongoing complaints about ticket-happy school zone speed cameras have the attention of lawmakers and attorneys. Camera companies face class action lawsuits, while one lawmaker has proposed tossing out the 2018 law that allowed the cameras.