As long as I can remember, if there was a newsworthy federal case in Miami, Jay was there. A real institution. It's strange to think he won't be sitting in the back of the courtroom. His last article was yesterday (about a sentencing in one of my cases).
It feels a little weird for me to ask Jay for a comment instead of the other way around.
From Jay: “After 46 years of chasing stories as a reporter, it feels weird to just stop and retire. I wasn’t burned out or bored. But I turned 71 this month, and it seemed like the right time to slow down and start enjoying more of life and the world. I’m gonna miss the federal court beat — all the crazy stories about corruption, fraud and 'funny money,' as Judge Lenard once described the laundered proceeds in a Miami drug case. But I’m really gonna miss the prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges. They’re the ones who made my job so interesting and rewarding. Thanks for the countless tips and comments.”
Alex Mena from the Herald sent this email to the newsroom:
Folks:
After 27 years at the Miami Herald and more than 45 years in journalism, Jay Weaver is retiring.
Jay's career has been defined by relentless reporting, deep sourcing and an extraordinary ability to untangle complex investigations. He has been a force behind some of the Herald’s most consequential journalism.
He has written about a rogue's gallery of corrupt politicians, crooked cops, Ponzi schemers, drug traffickers and steroid-using MLB players. Among his notable works: ground-breaking stories on South Florida's Medicare rackets that highlighted the loss of billions of dollars in government benefits because of local scams by clinic owners, patient recruiters and physicians.
Jay was part of the Herald teams that won Pulitzer Prizes for Breaking News in 2001 for coverage of the Elián González saga and in 2022 for coverage of the Surfside condominium collapse. He was also a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting for the Dirty Gold investigation, which exposed an international gold-smuggling network that laundered drug money through illegal Amazon mining operations and into major U.S. companies.
Along the way, Jay earned national recognition for groundbreaking reporting on Medicare fraud, performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball, corruption in Opa-locka, the assassination of Haiti's president, and the Herald's "Shakedown City" investigation into corruption at Miami City Hall. He is also the co-author of two acclaimed books, The Grifter's Club and Dirty Gold.
More than the awards, Jay leaves behind a legacy of fearless reporting, meticulous journalism and a body of work that made South Florida, and the world, better understood.
Please join us in thanking Jay for his remarkable career and wishing him the very best in retirement.
We will celebrate Jay with a newsroom lunch on Tuesday, Sept. 1. More details will follow, but for now, please save the date and plan to join us in sending him off.
Congratulations to Jay on an incredible career. I hope he enjoys his well-deserved retirement.
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