Christopher Drew is an investigative reporter and projects editor at the New York Times. He joined the Times in 1995 after working for nearly a decade in the Washington, D.C., bureau of the Chicago Tribune, where he wrote about national security issues and won two awards from the White House Correspondents' Association. Drew also has worked for the Wall Street Journal and the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, where he was born and raised and graduated from Tulane University.

Annette Lawrence Drew, the book's researcher, has a Ph.D. in politics from Princeton University. She and Christopher Drew are married and live with their daughter, Celia, in Montclair, New Jersey.