ProPublica
Our investigations stand on ProPublica's 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
27 stories, each opening at its source.
- ProPublica — the SDNY families' lawsuit and the pending dismissal ruling
- ProPublica — Oregon spends more than ever on low-income housing; a state law keeps the details secret (2026)
- ProPublica — Donald Trump Jr.’s Vulcan Elements stake and the White House deal that followed (May 28, 2026)
- ProPublica / The New Yorker — the 1970s knowledge, from 3M's own litigation documents
- ProPublica — 'U.S. Postal Service Failed to Properly Handle Some Ballots During This Year's Primary Elections, Audit Finds'
- ProPublica 'Paper Trail' podcast — how 3M kept the harm of forever chemicals secret
- ProPublica — reporting on the whistleblower disclosure
- ProPublica — 'Donald Trump Jr.'s Bahamas Wedding Was Secretly Bankrolled by Russian Oligarch Close to Putin'
- ProPublica — reporting on the corporate-landlord model and the RealPage case (context)
- ProPublica — Justice Samuel Alito Took Luxury Fishing Vacation With GOP Billionaire Who Later Had Cases Before the Court (Jun 20, 2023)
- ProPublica: Hegseth’s National Archives praise; America 250 Civics Education Coalition
- The composite record: ProPublica (travel, real estate, tuition), Senate Finance (the RV loan), and the SCOTUS code with no enforcement
- ProPublica — The billionaire who bought Clarence Thomas's mother's house (Apr 13, 2023)
- ProPublica — Harlan Crow paid tuition for Clarence Thomas's grandnephew (May 4, 2023)
- ProPublica: FCC Commissioners Face Ethics Complaints for Taking Luxury Gifts From Paramount (Aug 3, 2026)
- ProPublica — Foreign Food Safety Inspections Hit Historic Low After Trump Cuts
- ProPublica (Aug 2026) — General Dynamics and Army statements
- ProPublica — 'Operation Encore': the FBI team that kept digging into the Saudi connections
- ProPublica / Texas Tribune — ICE guards 'systematically' sexually assault detainees in an El Paso detention center, lawyers say
- ProPublica on Skyline nursing home patients
- $220M DHS ad campaign — $143M to Safe America Media (Delaware LLC registered to the Virginia home of GOP operative Michael McElwain, whose own ad firm reported 5 employees during COVID) plus $77M to People Who Think; competitive bidding bypassed via ‘national emergency’ justification (ProPublica, Nov 14 2025)
- Separate $80K undisclosed commission from American Resolve Policy Fund (dark-money 501c4) routed through Ashwood Strategies LLC (Delaware) — omitted from Dec 2024 OGE filing (ProPublica, Jun 30 2025)
- ProPublica — Vought's 2023 remarks on putting bureaucrats 'in trauma' (primary reporting on the recorded speech)
- ProPublica — Kao's account of the Graham dinner ($10M contract, $100k pledge) and Clyburn's matching ask
- ProPublica — 'The Dark Money Man': how the Kochs' cash moved through Freedom Partners and the Center to Protect Patient Rights
- ProPublica — Clarence Thomas and the undisclosed luxury travel from Harlan Crow (Apr 6, 2023)
- ProPublica, Jeffrey Epstein’s property empire (2019)
Where their work appears on this site
- 3M and the Forever-Chemicals Cover-Up →
- Clarence Thomas's Benefactors →
- $533 million, zero shells: the General Dynamics artillery-factory fiasco →
- Sexual Abuse in ICE Detention →
- We Don't Need to Pretend →
- The Civics Charity That Paid Its Founder →
- The $540,000 apartment you can't audit →
- The Pardon Market →
- Wall Street Is Your Landlord Now →
- Not a Hoax: What the Russia Investigation Actually Found →
- Samuel Alito's Benefactor →
- Shielding Israel From Washington →
- The 9/11 Saudi files: the evidence kept from investigators →
- The Ballot Chokepoint →
- The Ellison Press →
- The Oligarch's Wedding Gift →
- They Published the Plan →
- Leslie Wexner →
- What the Cuts Let Through →
- CIA Crimes →
- Deregulation Reality →
- Israeli Influence on the United States →
- Media Ownership →
- Military Grift →
- The Private Equity Playbook →
- Return on Investment →
- Self-Dealing & Crony Capitalism →
- The Club →
- The Corporate State →
- The Real Voter Fraud? →
- The Untouchables →
- Too Big to Jail →
How we graded the claims built on their work
53 FACT · 3 PROBABLY TRUE · 4 SOME SMOKE. A grade is our reading of the public record on one claim, not a verdict on the person.
- The 9/11 Saudi files: the evidence kept from investigators →
'Deliberately assisted' is the plaintiffs' case — serious, sourced, and not yet decided.
SOME SMOKE - The $540,000 apartment you can't audit →
$540,000 per apartment — nearly double five years ago — and the hole keeps deepening.
FACT - Military Grift →
1789 Capital — Trump Jr.’s defense-tech fund
FACT - 3M and the Forever-Chemicals Cover-Up →
3M had known since the 1970s — and kept it quiet.
FACT - 3M and the Forever-Chemicals Cover-Up →
3M paid billions — but admitted nothing, and no one was charged.
FACT - The $540,000 apartment you can't audit →
A 1997 law written to hide the costs — down to the developers' profits and fees.
FACT - The Ballot Chokepoint →
A 2026 USPS Inspector General audit found real ballot-handling failures — while also finding most facilities complied and ~99% arrived on time.
FACT - 3M and the Forever-Chemicals Cover-Up →
A 3M scientist found the company's own chemical in ordinary people's blood.
FACT - The Ballot Chokepoint →
A federal whistleblower told a U.S. senator the process was 'secretive, rushed, chaotic, and fundamentally flawed.'
FACT - The Ballot Chokepoint →
A March 2026 Trump executive order told USPS to build a system that decides which mail ballots get sent.
FACT - The Oligarch's Wedding Gift →
A Russian oligarch close to Putin paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for the president's son's wedding celebration — and the couple confirms it.
FACT - Wall Street Is Your Landlord Now →
After 2008, private equity turned single-family homes into a corporate asset class.
FACT - Samuel Alito's Benefactor →
Alito flew to a luxury Alaska lodge on billionaire Paul Singer's private jet in 2008 — and never disclosed it.
FACT - The Civics Charity That Paid Its Founder →
All of this now carries a government stamp: a Trump envoy title, a cabinet endorsement, and a Department of Education coalition seat.
FACT - Clarence Thomas's Benefactors →
An undisclosed gift economy around a justice, on a Court with no accountability — the return-on-investment structure, even without a proven quid pro quo.
PROBABLY TRUE - The Ballot Chokepoint →
Courts temporarily blocked the rules; the fight is headed to the Supreme Court before November.
FACT - Clarence Thomas's Benefactors →
Crow bought Thomas's mother's house — and let her live there rent-free.
FACT - Clarence Thomas's Benefactors →
Crow paid private boarding-school tuition for the grandnephew Thomas was raising.
FACT - The Ellison Press →
FCC commissioners took luxury Kennedy Center gala tickets from Paramount while the agency reviewed its mergers, drawing ethics complaints.
FACT - What the Cuts Let Through →
FDA inspections of foreign food facilities fell to a historic low — the front line for imported food.
FACT - The Civics Charity That Paid Its Founder →
FLAG functions more as a personal-income and self-promotion vehicle than as the civics charity it presents itself as.
PROBABLY TRUE - The Civics Charity That Paid Its Founder →
FLAG reported no independent review of its compensation — and answered ‘no’ when asked whether its officers were related.
FACT - The Civics Charity That Paid Its Founder →
FLAG runs direct-mail sweepstakes promising a $1,000,000 prize that its own filings do not show it ever paid.
FACT - The Civics Charity That Paid Its Founder →
FLAG’s charity store sells the founder’s personal books.
FACT - The Civics Charity That Paid Its Founder →
FLAG’s filings show little recent evidence of the civics education it advertises.
FACT - $533 million, zero shells: the General Dynamics artillery-factory fiasco →
General Dynamics denies it; the Army says it will recoup via 'discounts.'
FACT - The 9/11 Saudi files: the evidence kept from investigators →
In 2017 the FBI concluded Bayoumi was a Saudi spy — and kept it secret until 2022.
FACT - The Civics Charity That Paid Its Founder →
In 2024, Nick Adams and his mother were paid a combined $587,279 by FLAG — 53% of the charity’s revenue.
FACT - Sexual Abuse in ICE Detention →
In El Paso, advocates allege a 'pattern and practice' of assault — filed with DHS's watchdog, not yet adjudicated.
SOME SMOKE - $533 million, zero shells: the General Dynamics artillery-factory fiasco →
It was a rushed, no-bid award with guardrails removed and a barely-vetted subcontractor.
FACT - Wall Street Is Your Landlord Now →
It went up the chain to the biggest landlords — and RealPage settled without admitting liability.
FACT - The Pardon Market →
Joseph Schwartz — Owner, Skyline Healthcare nursing home chain
FACT - Self-Dealing & Crony Capitalism →
Kristi Noem — former DHS Secretary (removed Mar 5, 2026)
FACT - $533 million, zero shells: the General Dynamics artillery-factory fiasco →
No money was recovered — and the unit responsible then took $2.5 billion in new awards.
FACT - They Published the Plan →
Russell Vought — the Project 2025 architect who wanted bureaucrats 'in trauma,' now runs OMB.
FACT - Samuel Alito's Benefactor →
Singer's hedge fund then came before the Court repeatedly — and in 2014 the Court ruled his way, with Alito participating.
FACT - We Don't Need to Pretend →
The 'same $100,000': Kao says Graham and Clyburn each tied help to the identical ask.
PROBABLY TRUE - $533 million, zero shells: the General Dynamics artillery-factory fiasco →
The Army paid General Dynamics $533 million for a factory that produced no usable shells.
FACT - We Don't Need to Pretend →
The corroboration that isn't just his word: an earmark that appeared three days after a Clyburn aide's tip.
FACT - Wall Street Is Your Landlord Now →
The DOJ alleged RealPage's software let competing landlords fix rents.
FACT - Shielding Israel From Washington →
The family's footprint: an Israel-board seat and two dark-money legal shops.
FACT - The Oligarch's Wedding Gift →
The family's side, carried straight: they call it a friend's generous gift, with no political motive.
FACT - We Don't Need to Pretend →
The FBI investigated whether Graham (R) and Clyburn (D) — and Rep. Joe Wilson (R) — were part of a Navatek pay-for-play scheme.
FACT - The Civics Charity That Paid Its Founder →
The founder’s pay started at zero and escalated into the six figures; no other employee ever cleared $5,000.
FACT - The Oligarch's Wedding Gift →
The man who paid is a Kremlin-aligned figure funded by a sanctioned Russian state company — not a private citizen at arm's length from Moscow.
FACT - The Oligarch's Wedding Gift →
The money moved through an offshore corporate entity — and Trump Jr. could easily have paid for the wedding himself.
FACT - The 9/11 Saudi files: the evidence kept from investigators →
The official verdict was coincidence — and no higher Saudi hand.
FACT - Not a Hoax: What the Russia Investigation Actually Found →
The pattern didn't end: a Putin-decorated oligarch bankrolled Don Jr.'s 2025 wedding.
SOME SMOKE - $533 million, zero shells: the General Dynamics artillery-factory fiasco →
The plant was a documented disaster; the Army halted two of three lines after eight blown deadlines.
FACT - The Ballot Chokepoint →
The Postal Service's own top officials warned the rules could disenfranchise large numbers of voters — and the rules moved forward anyway.
FACT - We Don't Need to Pretend →
The probe didn't end in charges or clearance — it ended when the Trump administration dismantled the unit running it.
FACT - Sexual Abuse in ICE Detention →
The structure is the story: a closed facility, contractor staff, and a witness the government can deport.
FACT - The $540,000 apartment you can't audit →
The tell: the redactions go far beyond anything remotely sensitive.
FACT - The 9/11 Saudi files: the evidence kept from investigators →
The withheld evidence: a Capitol 'tour' video, a fuller party tape, and dozens of calls.
FACT - 3M and the Forever-Chemicals Cover-Up →
These chemicals are in almost everyone now, and are linked to serious harm.
FACT - Clarence Thomas's Benefactors →
Two decades of undisclosed luxury travel from billionaire Harlan Crow.
FACT - Leslie Wexner →
Wexner and Epstein's 9 East 71st Street Manhattan townhouse
FACT - The Oligarch's Wedding Gift →
What did the oligarch get — or expect — for the money? That is the real question, and it is not yet answered.
SOME SMOKE - 3M and the Forever-Chemicals Cover-Up →
When she reported it, the company worked to make it go away.
FACT - The $540,000 apartment you can't audit →
Where the light is on, the waste is visible — which is exactly why Oregon keeps it off.
FACT