THEBLACKBOOK AUDIT
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The Investigators

NBC News

Our investigations stand on NBC News' reporting. This page collects every story of theirs we cite, every page on this site that uses it, and how we graded each claim built on it.

The reporting we cite

31 stories, each opening at its source.

Where their work appears on this site

How we graded the claims built on their work

32 FACT · 3 SOME SMOKE · 2 FALSE / MISLEADING. A grade is our reading of the public record on one claim, not a verdict on the person.

  1. 'No foul play' — and the buzzards.

    FACT
    No Foul Play →

  2. 'Not a real takeover attempt' — two groups' leaders were convicted of seditious conspiracy.

    FACT
    Protecting Insurrectionists →

  3. $750 — the federal income tax he paid the year he was elected, and the year after.

    FACT
    The $750 President →

  4. A Philadelphia judge denied the DA's request to halt the giveaway, which ran through Election Day — a denial of preliminary relief, not a ruling that it was legal.

    FACT
    A Million a Day →

  5. A state Attorney General sued the DOJ for the unredacted files — August 5, 2026.

    FACT
    An Epstein Cover-Up? →

  6. Antonin Scalia died as the free guest of a man whose company had just benefited from a Supreme Court decision.

    FACT
    The Rest of the Bench →

  7. Avi Dichter, Agriculture Minister: 'we're rolling out the Gaza Nakba.'

    FACT
    In Their Own Words →

  8. Charity money, for a portrait of himself.

    FACT
    Charity Case →

  9. Donald Trump's claim that 3–5 million people voted illegally in 2016 was false — and his own commission disbanded without producing evidence.

    FALSE / MISLEADING
    Extremely Rare →

  10. Four trips to bankruptcy court — all corporate, none personal.

    FACT
    Other People's Money →

  11. He also said dwelling on the apocalypse can be 'spiritually harmful,' and that his focus is the job in front of him.

    FACT
    “OK With the End Times” →

  12. He said he 'wouldn't be shocked if the Antichrist was walking among us' — and has followed end-times theology since childhood.

    FACT
    “OK With the End Times” →

  13. In 2024, No Labels ran a dark-money-funded third-party ‘unity ticket’ widely assessed as a Trump spoiler — then abandoned it.

    FACT
    The Bipartisan Mask →

  14. In 2025 the government eliminated the CDC's childhood lead program — then said it was back while it stayed dark.

    FACT
    Lead abatement returns up to $221 on the dollar. They defunded it. →

  15. In court, America PAC's own lawyer and director said the 'random' winners were not chosen by chance but vetted in advance as paid spokespeople under NDA.

    FACT
    A Million a Day →

  16. Kristi Noem — former DHS Secretary (removed Mar 5, 2026)

    FACT
    Self-Dealing & Crony Capitalism →

  17. Pollard was motivated primarily by ideology, not money.

    SOME SMOKE
    Jonathan Pollard: the largest documented US intelligence theft on behalf of a foreign ally →

  18. Procurement fraud: two UN officials were criminally convicted — but only because the crimes reached a US courtroom.

    FACT
    Blue Impunity →

  19. Robert Kraft confirmed barring Macklemore from Gillette — citing 'no platform for hate speech' — and his reasoning is on the record.

    FACT
    The Stadium Double Standard →

  20. The accountability gap: denied, reviewed, and never charged.

    FACT
    The Small Loan →

  21. The August 26, 2025 whistleblower disclosure

    FACT
    The National Design Studio →

  22. The Bondi payment: an illegal political gift (FACT) — the motive (SOME SMOKE).

    SOME SMOKE
    Charity Case →

  23. The denial: he said he had 'nothing to do' with it. That is false.

    FALSE / MISLEADING
    What Happened to Bobby Kennedy Jr.? →

  24. The Ehud Barak relationship

    FACT
    The Epstein Class →

  25. The Justice Department's election-crimes unit warned America PAC in writing that the giveaway 'may violate' the federal ban on paying people in connection with registration.

    FACT
    A Million a Day →

  26. The machine: disinformation that paid very well.

    FACT
    What Happened to Bobby Kennedy Jr.? →

  27. The merger that would have reached most of America — killed by a Trump FCC.

    FACT
    The Illusion of Local News →

  28. The myth it kills: 'run the country like my business.'

    FACT
    The $750 President →

  29. The name it flatters: a ruler a British court found had his own daughters abducted.

    FACT
    Foodwashing →

  30. The swing-state inducement: $1 million a day to sign a petition — a DA called it an illegal lottery; a judge let it run.

    FACT
    The Artificial State →

  31. The tech money: Reid Hoffman and the valley's embrace.

    FACT
    The Philanthropist of the Future →

  32. The White House-to-anchor-desk pipeline: Boris Epshteyn's mandatory commentary.

    FACT
    The Illusion of Local News →

  33. This wasn't the first time floor time vanished as the Epstein fight heated up.

    FACT
    The Epstein-Files Blockade →

  34. Two January 6 rioters Trump pardoned turned up in child-abuse cases — one sentenced to life.

    FACT
    Projection →

  35. Vance said that if his work leads to the end times, 'OK' — and if it builds a lasting world, 'great too.'

    FACT
    “OK With the End Times” →

  36. Whether Musk 'broke election law' in 2024.

    SOME SMOKE
    A Million a Day →

  37. Zorro Ranch: the one major property the federal government never searched.

    FACT
    An Epstein Cover-Up? →