October 20, 2026 at 5:00 AM EDT
How Trump's FBI Purge Saved Lindsey Graham and James Clyburn From a Bribery Investigation

How Trump's FBI Purge Saved Lindsey Graham and James Clyburn From a Bribery Investigation Beatrice Caciotti for ProPublica. Source images: Getty Images, Hawaii News Now, South Carolina Department of Transportation. On March 3, 2020, Sen. Lindsey Graham walked into a private dining room at Charlie Palmer Steak in Washington, D.C. Graham's time was expensive. He was meeting with two executives and a lobbyist from a Hawaiian naval defense contractor called Navatek. And he had required them to commit to $40,000 in campaign contributions for a 45-minute meeting.

October 19, 2026 at 4:15 PM EDT
Citing ProPublica, Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Help U.S. Citizens Sue ICE for Wrongful Detentions

Citing ProPublica, Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Help U.S. Citizens Sue ICE for Wrongful Detentions Photo illustration by ProPublica. Source images: Congress and videos obtained by ProPublica. What Happened: A New Mexico Democrat in the House introduced a bill last week that would make it easier for U.S. citizens to sue immigration agents and the federal government over wrongful detentions and arrests. Rep. Teresa Leger Ferna'ndez credited ProPublica's reporting as the catalyst for the bill, the Justice for Citizens Wrongfully Detained by ICE Act. Earlier this month, we revealed that more than 500 U.S. citizens have been detained in warrantless arrests during the second Trump administration.

October 19, 2026 at 6:00 AM EDT
He Tried to Set Limits on His State's School Vouchers. Billionaires Helped Bankroll a Campaign to Unseat Him.

He Tried to Set Limits on His State's School Vouchers. Billionaires Helped Bankroll a Campaign to Unseat Him. PACs targeted former West Virginia Delegate Vernon Criss following his proposal to rein in state spending on school vouchers. Will Price/West Virginia Legislature On a cold February morning at West Virginia's Capitol, children in winter jackets, holding signs and their homework, clogged the hallways outside the House Finance Committee room. Delegate Vernon Criss, the committee's chairperson, popped outside his office, then promptly walked back in.

October 19, 2026 at 5:30 AM EDT
Ken Paxton's Anti-Abortion Influence Already Extended Beyond Texas. He Could Take It Further in the Senate.

Ken Paxton's Anti-Abortion Influence Already Extended Beyond Texas. He Could Take It Further in the Senate. Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker/ProPublica. Source images: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images, skaman306/Getty Images, Mike Klein/Getty Images. Early in his tenure as Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton issued a statement commemorating what he believed was a national tragedy. "It's impossible to fill the void of more than 50 million missing human beings," he said in 2016. He was marking the 43rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that protected abortion rights -- and had long stood in the way of efforts to ban terminations in early pregnancy, when most abortions occur.

October 19, 2026 at 5:00 AM EDT
Trump Appointees Asked a Federal Cybersecurity Agency to Secretly Acquire a Voting Machine -- and Hack It

Trump Appointees Asked a Federal Cybersecurity Agency to Secretly Acquire a Voting Machine -- and Hack It Photo illustration by Shoshana Gordon/ProPublica. Source images: Christopher Mark Juhn/Anadolu via Getty Images, Erlon Silva - TRI Digital via Getty Images, Mironov Konstantin via Getty Images. A few months into President Donald Trump's second term, political appointees at the Department of Homeland Security made an unusual request of its agency focused on cybersecurity: Secretly acquire a voting machine and hack it.

October 16, 2026 at 5:00 AM EDT
"Devoid of Any Factual Basis": Again and Again, Judges Have Dismissed Trump's Voter Data Lawsuits

"Devoid of Any Factual Basis": Again and Again, Judges Have Dismissed Trump's Voter Data Lawsuits Since September 2025, the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division has sued 30 states and the District of Columbia to demand their unredacted voter rolls. The rolls contain confidential information on millions of Americans and have historically been managed by states. Now these lists are a major focus of President Donald Trump's push to take federal control over elections and prosecute alleged noncitizen voters.

October 15, 2026 at 6:00 AM EDT
Trump Says the Border Is Secure. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Keeps Declaring an Emergency.

Trump Says the Border Is Secure. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Keeps Declaring an Emergency. Emily Scherer for ProPublica and The Texas Tribune. Source images: The Texas Tribune and documents obtained by ProPublica. Last month, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott repeated a claim he's made for the past five years. He stated that the number of people crossing the Texas-Mexico border illegally "posed an ongoing and imminent threat" across the state. In doing so, he renewed a border security disaster proclamation that has greatly expanded his powers without going through the state Legislature.

October 15, 2026 at 5:00 AM EDT
Frustrated by Losses in the Courts, Missouri Republicans Want to Change How Top Judges Are Selected

Frustrated by Losses in the Courts, Missouri Republicans Want to Change How Top Judges Are Selected Margaret Flatley for ProPublica Some 86 years ago, Missouri voters enshrined a system for selecting top judges that would remove political influence from the courts. And almost immediately, it came under attack. Under what has come to be known as the Missouri Plan, lawyers help choose a slate of three candidates from which the governor must make an appointment for the state Supreme Court, appeals courts and, in some populous areas, the circuit courts.

October 14, 2026 at 7:42 AM EDT
These Women Were Trying to Escape Domestic Abuse. ICE Detained Them Instead.

These Women Were Trying to Escape Domestic Abuse. ICE Detained Them Instead. They were victims, not abusers. That's what they told police officers, attorneys, visitors and anyone else who would listen. It didn't matter. The women were all taken to a sprawling immigration detention center in the woods of west Michigan and handed thin jumpsuits -- red, to mark them as a high security risk. Inside the North Lake Processing Center, they talked about the men whose calls to police landed them there. The boyfriends or husbands who threatened to get them deported and cut them off from their children. The men, or sometimes women, who hit them, pulled their hair or choked them, bruising their throats.

October 14, 2026 at 6:00 AM EDT
New Mexico and El Paso Spent Millions on Climate Plans. Three New Data Centers Could Undo Them.

New Mexico and El Paso Spent Millions on Climate Plans. Three New Data Centers Could Undo Them. Meta is building a massive data center on the northeast edge of El Paso, Texas, on the New Mexico border. Paul Ratje for ProPublica and The Texas Tribune Last December, New Mexico officials celebrated publication of a plan to address climate change, designed to dramatically reduce the state's greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. A few months later, just across the state line in Texas, El Paso city officials adopted their own such plan with a similar ambition.

October 13, 2026 at 6:00 AM EDT
Scammers Are Stealing Millions From Food Stamp Recipients. Congress Could Fix It -- but Won't.

Scammers Are Stealing Millions From Food Stamp Recipients. Congress Could Fix It -- but Won't. Jovelle Tamayo/ProPublica. Source images: Zaydee Sanchez/ProPublica, Tina Russell for ProPublica, MPfoto71/Alamy. It wasn't the kind of call a grocery store gets every day. A customer with a thick Eastern European accent was on the phone saying he wanted to buy several thousand cans of Red Bull. Could the store have them in stock in a few days? Also, did they have equipment to move all those stacks of energy drinks into the parking lot, where two minivans would be waiting?

October 13, 2026 at 5:00 AM EDT
He Waited Nine Years in Prison for His Lawyer to File a Single Brief. In This State, There's No Rule Against It.

He Waited Nine Years in Prison for His Lawyer to File a Single Brief. In This State, There's No Rule Against It. Mark Harris for ProPublica. Source images: Alejandro A. Alvarez/The Philadelphia Inquirer, courtesy of Patrick Hickson, court records. In 2020, seven years after he was appointed to represent a client who claimed he was wrongly convicted, attorney Scott Galloway told the judge that he was still looking into the case and needed more time.