Author Archive
Oversight
Secret IRS Files Reveal How Much the Ultrawealthy Gained by Shaping Trump’s 'Big, Beautiful Tax Cut'
Billionaire business owners deployed lobbyists to make sure Trump’s 2017 tax bill was tailored to their benefit. Confidential IRS records show the windfall that followed.
Oversight
DOJ Frees Federal Prosecutors to Take Steps That Could Interfere With Elections, Weakening Long-standing Policy
In an internal announcement, the Justice Department created an exception to a decades-long policy meant to prevent prosecutors from taking overt investigative steps that might affect the outcome of the vote.
Management
The Justice Department May Have Violated Attorney General Barr’s Own Policy Memo
In a memo from May, the attorney general reminded Justice Dept. prosecutors to avoid partisan politics. Then a U.S. attorney in Pennsylvania announced an election investigation that had partisan overtones.
Management
How a Key Federal Civil Rights Agency Was Sidelined as Historic Protests Erupted
Launched by President Lyndon Johnson in 1964, the Community Relations Service has been without a director and short-staffed during recent unrest. The Trump administration has repeatedly tried to eliminate the agency.
Management
U.S. Marine Corps Concludes Its Investigation Into a Fatal 2018 Midair Crash Was Inaccurate
A new review reexamined the December 2018 crash after a ProPublica investigation revealed that Marines had been deprived of adequate training and equipment, and that their repeated pleas for help from superiors before the crash went unaddressed.
Management
This Treasury Official Is Running the Bailout. It’s Been Great for His Family.
Deputy Treasury Secretary Justin Muzinich has an increasingly prominent role. He still has ties to his family’s investment firm, which is a major beneficiary of the Treasury’s bailout actions.
Management
After Discovering a Sailor With Coronavirus, the U.S. Navy Crowded Dozens Into One Space
On the USS Boxer, where the Navy discovered its first case of coronavirus on a ship, a sailor says his superiors called a meeting that crammed more than 80 senior enlisted sailors and officers together.
Defense
17 Sailors and Six Marines Died in Avoidable Accidents. Congress Asks: Are the Problems Fixed?
After ProPublica wrote about inadequate training and faulty equipment, lawmakers grilled Navy and Marine leaders about the accidents and whether America is ready for war.
Defense
A Preventable Disaster Killed Six Marines, and Congress Has Questions for Military Leaders
A ProPublica investigation showed senior military leaders were worried about how prepared American sailors and Marines were for combat.
Defense
Trump Says U.S. Is Ready for War. Not All His Troops Are So Sure.
A series of accidents calls the military’s preparedness into question.
Defense
Iran Has Hundreds of Naval Mines. U.S. Navy Minesweepers Find Old Dishwashers and Car Parts.
As tensions heat up in the Persian Gulf, the Navy’s minesweeping fleet may once again be called into action, but its sailors say the ships are too old and broken to do the job. “We are essentially the ships that the Navy forgot.”
Defense
Trump Keeps Talking About the Last Military Standoff With Iran — Here’s What Really Happened
In 2016, 10 sailors were captured by Iran. Trump is making it a political issue. Our investigation shows that it was a Navy failure, and the problems run deep.
Defense
How the Navy’s Top Commander Botched the Highest-Profile Investigation in Years
The Navy said it was abandoning all remaining criminal charges against sailors involved in fatal accidents in the Pacific. Here’s how the actions of the chief of naval operations helped doom the cases.
Defense
An Admiral Told a Senator Most Navy Reforms Were 'Complete.' Navy’s No. 2 Says Otherwise.
Adm. Bill Moran told ProPublica this week that none of the promised reforms had been completed, but that work had started on the pledges.
Defense
Navy Leaders Taken to Task by Lawmakers, Including One Who Was Grilling a Former Boss
Rep. Elaine Luria, an ex-Navy commander, showed her insider knowledge of naval operations in questions to the admirals appearing before a House Armed Services Committee panel.
Defense
Navy Promised Changes After Deadly Accidents, but Many Within Doubt It’s Delivering on Them
Interviews and an examination of the Navy’s publicly announced reforms raise uncertainty over whether senior leaders have fully followed through on them after the 7th Fleet disasters in 2017.
Defense
Senate Committee Grills Navy Official Over 2017 Collisions, Seeking Data to Prove Conditions Have Changed
During an Armed Services Committee hearing that referenced ProPublica’s investigation into the deadly mishaps, a senator pressed the top commander in the Pacific to give “real numbers,” “not promises and not good feelings.”
