Paper Trail

When the Trump administration shut down an elite FBI anti-corruption unit, investigations in progress got shelved. ProPublica reporters learned details of one of these: The CEO of a naval technology company alleged that he had bribed politicians, including Sen. Susan Collins. If he was telling the truth, his story provided a road map to how corruption really works in Washington, D.C. But the CEO was in prison for fraud, and Collins claimed she’d been cleared by the FBI. Could anything he said be true? Read the original reporting here: https://www.propublica.org/article/fbi-susan-collins-navatek-campaign-donations-investigation Contact the reporters here: Molly Redden, William Turton, Avi Asher-Schapiro Support our journalism by donating at propublica.org/donate.

Reporter Andy Kroll got his hands on secret tapes of a low-profile bureaucrat named Russell Vought. Turns out, as director of the Office of Management and Budget, he’s been quietly reshaping the federal government and commanding many of the second Trump administration’s biggest moves. Read the reporting here: https://www.propublica.org/article/russ-vought-trump-shadow-president-omb Support our journalism by donating at propublica.org/donate.

While investigating the personal wealth of the president’s oldest son, investigative reporters Justin Elliott and Brett Murphy learned something almost too strange to be true: that a Russian oligarch closely allied with Vladimir Putin might have attended Donald Trump Jr.’s recent wedding in the Bahamas. Using a combination of social media and shoe-leather reporting, a team of ProPublica reporters soon realized that the guest list was just the tip of the iceberg. Read the reporting here: https://www.propublica.org/article/donald-trump-jr-wedding-bankrolled-russian-oligarch-umar-kremlev-putin Support our journalism by donating at propublica.org/donate.

Major League Baseball has built a pipeline in the Dominican Republic to scoop up young players with the potential of superstars like Red Sox hero David “Big Papi” Ortiz. But reporter Gus Garcia-Roberts uncovered how MLB has allowed a shadow industry to flourish — one that exploits young players and their families. In this episode, Gus brings us the story of Belfi Rivera, a supernaturally talented young Dominican player who experienced firsthand how the system is broken. Support our journalism by donating at propublica.org/donate.

We now know harmful “forever chemicals” are likely in the bodies of most people on Earth. Decades ago, 3M knew that these chemicals had seeped into the public’s blood, but they kept that a secret. One 3M scientist helped reporter Sharon Lerner understand how they kept it quiet for so long. Reporter: Sharon Lerner Read More: https://www.propublica.org/article/3m-forever-chemicals-pfas-pfos-inside-story Support our journalism by donating at propublica.org/donate.

In the middle of a September night last year, hundreds of agents stormed a Chicago apartment building, some rappelling down from a Black Hawk helicopter. They arrested 37 immigrants and claimed that two were confirmed members of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua — but then never identified any of them. Reporters Melissa Sanchez and Sebastian Rotella set out to track down the people arrested, and, along with a team of ProPublica reporters, they uncovered a very different story behind the raid. Read the original reporting here: https://www.propublica.org/article/chicago-venezuela-immigration-ice-raid-landlord-tren-de-aragua https://www.propublica.org/article/chicago-venezuela-immigration-ice-fbi-raids-no-criminal-charges Support our journalism by donating at propublica.org/donate.

Host Jessica Lussenhop received an unusual email: A prosecutor had major concerns about a case in Minnesota. A man had pleaded guilty to felony child sexual abuse, but it seemed like the church he belonged to, the Old Apostolic Lutheran Church, might have played a part in keeping the abuse quiet. Lussenhop teamed up with reporter Andy Mannix, and they discovered this case was just a symptom of a much bigger problem in the OALC. Read the original stories here: https://www.propublica.org/series/forgive-and-forget The National Sexual Assault Hotline can be reached at 800-656-HOPE (4673). If you have information about the OALC, contact Andy Mannix and Jeremy Kohler. Support our journalism by donating at propublica.org/donate.

This week, we’re presenting a conversation with ProPublica reporters that originally aired on Reveal’s podcast “More to the Story.” When the administration and DOGE cut off funding to USAID, administration officials claimed that aid was still flowing and no one had died as a result. Reporters Brett Murphy and Anna Maria Barry-Jester learned that wasn’t true and traveled to South Sudan and Kenya to find out what really happened. If you have information on foreign aid, contact Murphy here and Barry-Jester here. Read the original reporting here: https://www.propublica.org/article/kenya-trump-usaid-world-food-program-starvation-children-deaths https://www.propublica.org/article/usaid-cholera-deaths-trump-humanitarian-aid-cuts-south-sudan Support our journalism by donating at propublica.org/donate.

A source told reporter Renee Dudley something she found hard to believe: that Microsoft was running tech support for the Department of Defense through China, the country’s biggest cybersecurity adversary. The arrangement was called “digital escorting.” She thought it sounded like a conspiracy theory — until she started looking into it. This is the story of what she found and how her investigation changed government policy. Read More: www.propublica.org/article/microsoft-digital-escorts-pentagon-defense-department-china-hackers Support our journalism by donating at propublica.org/donate.

In 2024, Oklahoma legislators passed an unusual law: It would create a pathway to freedom for people who could prove that domestic violence was a substantial contributing factor to their crime — even if that crime was first-degree murder. Members of a “survivor sisterhood” who’d found a connection in their shared histories of abuse hoped that, perhaps, they would all soon be going home. But, as reporter Pamela Colloff discovered, nothing would play out as expected. Reporter: Pamela Colloff Read More: https://www.propublica.org/article/oklahoma-survivors-act-domestic-violence Support our journalism by donating at propublica.org/donate.

Reporter David Armstrong was diagnosed with cancer and soon learned that one of his drugs would cost almost $1,000 per pill. He set out to discover why, and uncovered financial records and legal filings that shocked him. The drugmaker’s strategy to raise the price over and over again helps explain why our healthcare system is the most expensive in the world. Read the original reporting: https://www.propublica.org/article/revlimid-price-cancer-celgene-drugs-fda-multiple-myeloma Support our journalism by donating at propublica.org/donate.

ProPublica got a tip from a reader named Teressa. Her husband was having a severe mental health crisis, and her health insurance company was denying coverage for his hospital and inpatient treatment. She was fighting back against the denials — and recording every phone call with the company as she did. She brought reporter Duaa Eldeib along for the journey, which ended after Teressa was able to deploy what one source called the industry’s “best-kept secret.” Reporter: Duaa Eldeib How to file an external appeal: https://www.propublica.org/article/health-insurance-denial-external-review Support our journalism by donating at propublica.org/donate.

Local reporters at The Connecticut Mirror heard story after story of drivers having their cars towed and then sold out from underneath them, sometimes in just 15 days. They teamed up with ProPublica to investigate why, how often this was happening and who was profiting from it. This episode traces the history of the 100-year-old law that made all of it legal and follows the reporters as they try to track down drivers’ cars and confront the bureaucrats allowing a flawed system to take advantage of vulnerable people. Reporters: Ginny Monk and Dave Altimari Read More: https://www.propublica.org/series/on-the-hook Support our journalism by donating at propublica.org/donate.

For years, the Food and Drug Administration told the public that generics are just as safe and effective as brand-name medications. But ProPublica reporters uncovered reports from the FDA’s own inspectors detailing everything from pigeons pooping onto boxes of sterilized equipment to evidence of a factory cheating on quality testing. Even though the FDA knew about these reports, it let some of those troubled factories overseas keep shipping their drugs to the U.S. — some of which might have ended up in your medicine cabinet. This episode details why and how a secretive group inside the FDA made the decision to keep this information from the public and how you can find out where your own medications are made. Reporters: Debbie Cenziper and Megan Rose Read More: https://www.propublica.org/article/fda-drug-loophole-sun-pharma Look up your own drugs: https://projects.propublica.org/rx-inspector/ Support our journalism by donating at propublica.org/donate.

Investigative journalism can change the world. Host and reporter Jessica Lussenhop tells the story of how she learned that for herself. Follow this feed for a new investigation on every episode. It might change the way you see the world, too. Support our journalism by donating at propublica.org/donate.