Rita Braver (born April 12, 1948) is an American television news correspondent, currently working with CBS News, and who is best known for her investigative journalism of White House scandals such as the Iran-Contra affair.

Rita Lynn Braver was born to a Jewish family[1] on April 12, 1948,[2] and raised in Silver Spring, Maryland.

[5] She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in political science, and spent a few years at WWL-TV in New Orleans as a copy girl before moving to Washington, D.C., with her husband and joining CBS in 1972 as a producer.

[6] From 1983–1993, Braver served as CBS News's chief law correspondent.

[7] On April 10, 1972, she married Washington, D.C., lawyer Robert B. Barnett[6][8] (born 1946) whom she met in college.