James Bennett Stewart (born c. 1952) is an American lawyer, journalist, and author. Early life and education Stewart was born in Quincy, Illinois. He graduated from DePauw University and Harvard Law School. Career He is a member of the Bar of New York, the Bloomberg Professor of Business and Economic Journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Editor-at-Large of SmartMoney magazine, and author of Tangled Webs: How False Statements are Undermining America: From Martha Stewart to Bernie Madoff (2011). He is a former associate at New York law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore, which he left in 1979 to become executive editor of The American Lawyer magazine. He later joined The Wall Street Journal, where earned the 1987 Gerald Loeb Award for Deadline and/or Beat Writing. He shared the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism and the Gerald Loeb Award for Large Newspapers for his articles about the 1987 dramatic upheaval in the stock market and insider trading. These writings led to the publishing of his best-selling work of non-fiction called Den of Thieves (1991), which recounted the criminal conduct of Wall Street arbitrager Ivan Boesky and junk bond king Michael Milken. Stewart became page one editor of The Wall Street Journal in 1988 and remained at the paper until 1992, when he left to help found SmartMoney. Stewart's book Blind Eye: The Terrifying Story Of A Doctor Who Got Away With Murder (1999), won the 2000 Edgar Award in the Best Fact Crime category. DisneyWar (2005), his book on Michael Eisner's reign at Disney, won the Gerald Loeb Award for Best Business Book. In 2007, he was ranked 21st on Out magazine's 50 Most Powerful Gay Men and Women in America. He is currently a contributor to The New Yorker and a columnist for The New York Times, which he joined in 2011. Stewart also serves on the board of advisory trustees of his alma mater, DePauw University, and is past president of that board. Notable stories Jeffrey Epstein On August 12, 2019, Stewart reported on a conversation he had with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein reportedly told Stewart that he was advising Elon Musk and Tesla. Stewart was also told by Epstein that he had dirt on powerful people including personal details about their sexual activities and drug use. On July 31, 2019, Stewart along with Matthew Goldstein and Jessica Silver-Greenberg reported about Epstein's interest