| Year | Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency | Distinguished Reporting on National Defense |
| 2024 | Toluse Olorunnipa, The Washington Post | Travis Tritten, Konstantin Toropin, Drew Lawrence, Steve Beynon, Military.com |
| 2024* | Carla Babb, Voice of America (Honorable Mention) | |
| 2022 | Tyler Pager, The Washington Post | Dan Lamothe, The Washington Post |
| 2022* | Patricia Kime and Rebecca Kheel, Military.com (Honorable Mention) | |
| 2021 | Matt Viser, The Washington Post | Megan Eckstein, Defense News |
| 2021* | Kristin M. Hall, James LaPorta, Justin Pritchard, Jeannie Ohm, Jason Dearen, Justin Myers, Raghu Vadarevu, Natalie Castaneda, Peter Hamiln, Jerry Schwartz, and Serginho Roosblad, The Associated Press (Honorable Mention) | |
| 2020 | Jennifer Jacobs, Bloomberg News | W.J. Hennigan, TIME Magazine |
| 2019 | Michael C. Bender; The Wall Street Journal | T. Christian Miller, Megan Rose, Robert Faturechi, and Agnes Chang; ProPublica |
| 2019* | Joel Schectman and Christopher Bing, Reuters (Honorable Mention) | |
| 2018 | Molly Ball, Time Magazine | Jenna McLaughlin and Zach Dorfman, Yahoo! News |
| 2018* | Erika Ritchie, Orange County Register (Honorable Mention) | |
| 2017 | Philip Rucker and Ashley Parker, The Washington Post | J.J. Green, WTOP Radio |
| 2017* | Guy Taylor and Dan Boylan, The Washington Times (Honorable Mention) |
R. Jeffrey Smith, Patrick Malone, Chris Zubak-Skees, and Peter Cary; Center for Public Integrity (Honorable Mention) |
| 2016 | Gregory Korte, USA Today | David Martin & Mary Walsh, CBS News |
| 2015 | Greg Jaffe, The Washington Post | Andrew deGrandpre, Military Times |
| 2016 | Gregory Korte, USA Today | David Martin & Mary Walsh, CBS News |
| 2015 | Greg Jaffe, The Washington Post | Andrew deGrandpre, Military Times |
| 2015* | The team of: Mike Hixenbaugh, The Virginian-Pilot; Cynthia McFadden and Anna Schecter, NBC News; and Jason Paladino, UC Berkeley Investigative Reporting Program (Honorable Mention) | |
| 2014 | Peter Baker, The New York Times | W.J. Bennigan and Ralph Vartabedian, Los Angeles Times |
| 2014* | Gregory Korte, USA Today (Honorable Mention) | Dennis Wagner, USA Today (Honorable Mention) |
| 2013 | Glenn Thrush, POLITICO | David Philipps, The Gazette |
| 2012 | John Dickerson, Slate | Hal Bernton, The Seattle Times |
| 2012* | Josh Gerstein & Carrie Budoff, POLITICO (Honorable Mention) |
Andrew Tilghman, Army Times (Honorable Mention) |
| 2011 | Scott Wilson, The Washington Post | Corinne Reilly, The Virginian-Pilot |
| 2011* | Sean Naylor, Army Times (Honorable Mention) | |
| 2010 | Steven Thomma, The McClatchy Newspapers | Shane Harris, The Washingtonian |
| 2009 | Ben Feller, The Associated Press | Greg Jaffe, The Washington Post |
| 2008 | Kenneth T. Walsh, U.S. News & World Report | James Kitfield, National Journal |
| 2007 | Peter Baker, The Washington Post | Rick Atkinson, The Washington Post |
| 2006 | Charlie Savage, The Boston Globe | James Astill, The Economist |
| 2005 | Tom DeFrank, New York Daily News | Mark Mazzetti, The New York Times |
| 2004 | Jackie Calmes, The Wall Street Journal | Linda Robinson, U.S. News and World Report |
| 2003 | James Carney, Time Magazine | Mark Thompson and Michael Duffy, Time |
| 2002 | Bob Woodward and Dan Balz, The Washington Post | Greg Jaffe, The Wall Street Journal |
| 2001 | Susan Page, USA Today | Dave Moniz, USA Today |
| 2000 | John Harris, The Washington Post | Dana Priest, The Washington Post |
| 1999 | Carl Cannon, National Journal | Russell Carollo, Dayton Daily News |
| 1998 | Michael Isikoff, Newsweek | Robert Holzer, Defense News |
| 1997 | Kenneth Walsh, U.S. News | David Wood, Newhouse News Service |
| 1996 | Eric Pooley, Time Magazine | Rick Newman, U.S. News |
| 1995 | John Farrell, The Boston Globe | James Kitfield, National Journal |
| 1994 | Michael Duffy, Time Magazine | Genevieve Anton, Gazette Telegraph |
| 1993 | Ann Devroy, The Washington Post | Barton Gellman, The Washington Post |
| 1992 | Kenneth Walsh, U.S. News | David Morrison, National Journal |
| 1991 | Burt Solomon, National Journal | Douglas Jehl, Los Angeles Times |
| 1990 | Susan Page, Newsday | James Kitfield, Government Executive |
| 1989 | Gerald Seib, The Wall Street Journal | Debra Lynn Polsky, Defense News |
| 1988 | David Hoffman, The Washington Post | Richard Halloran, The New York Times |
| 1987 | Lou Cannon, The Washington Post | Charles Corddry, The Baltimore Sun |
