- Kash Patel FBI floundering, directionless and scared of losing their jobs. National security is weakened.
- Hegseth’s Sognal chat exposed our troops and weakened National Security.
- Kristy Noem rewards her friends and FEMA is underfunded.
Dear Reader,
So much of what’s happened this year has been unprecedented.
Major news is breaking constantly, with consequential decisions being made, unmade, struck down in court and renegotiated every day. How our government works, who it works for and how the powerful are held accountable are all in flux. In a changing political landscape that often feels chaotic and overwhelming by design, ProPublica is marshaling every resource to provide an independent, verifiable account of what’s happening. We are documenting, investigating, digging deep and talking to sources, and we report back to you everything we find (once it is fact-checked).
Just last month, we published six major investigations:
- We exposed how FBI Director Kash Patel granted waivers to Deputy Director Dan Bongino and two other senior FBI staff members, exempting them from passing polygraph exams normally required to gain access to America’s most sensitive classified information, according to a former senior FBI official and several other government officials.
- We revealed potential conflicts of interest involving Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Under her leadership, DHS invoked the “national emergency” at the border to skirt competitive bidding rules for a $220 million taxpayer-funded ad campaign. We found that a firm with deep ties to Noem secretly benefited from the deal. As you may recall, we reported in September how Noem fast-tracked millions in disaster aid to a Florida tourist attraction at the request of a donor. (In a written response, DHS said it had no involvement in the selection of subcontractors.)
- We detailed DHS’ midnight operation at an apartment building in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood, one of the most publicized immigration raids to take place in a U.S. city in modern history. The Trump administration has celebrated this raid as a huge success, claiming Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang members with guns, drugs and explosives had taken over the building. Our reporters vigorously investigated this story over the course of five weeks, finding little evidence that this was true. Reporter Melissa Sanchez described her experience as “some of the most intense reporting” she has done.
- We published a deep-dive look at how Donald Trump has leveraged his clemency power to reward allies, donors and cultural-war figures, often bypassing the usual review process and favoring allies and supporters. Meanwhile, countless other applicants who followed the formal pathway established by the Justice Department remain stuck in limbo, highlighting a two-tiered system of justice.
- We revealed how Fox News repeatedly used misleading footage to portray Portland, Oregon, as engulfed in violence in 2025, thereby influencing President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard. Our journalists examined months of the network’s coverage and reviewed more than 700 video clips posted to social media by protesters, counterprotesters and others in the three months preceding Trump’s decision.
- And just two weeks after we reported that the Trump administration was going to change eligibility requirements for Social Security disability payments — which could have led 830,000 people, disproportionately blue-collar workers in red states, to lose benefits — the administration abandoned those plans. In a meeting with a small team of advocates for people with disabilities, Russell Vought, the powerful White House budget director, said, “I know that this is being written about.” But, he added, the rule change “isn’t going to be happening.”
There’s so much more to come.
We’re knee-deep in investigations right now, and we need your help. As a people-powered, nonprofit newsroom, we have no owners or shareholders, no paywalls or sponsors. Our funding, our fearlessness and our editorial independence comes from you. Stand with us, as we carry our investigations into 2026.
Amid tumult and sweeping change, this much will remain constant: ProPublica will continue to produce investigative journalism in the public interest, to track spheres of influence and calculate uncalculated harms. With your support, we are committed to connecting the dots in what may feel like chaos and telling stories with depth, clarity and focus so readers will know not just what happened, but why it matters.
Thanks so much,
Proud ProPublican