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Ghost Donors, Real Power: Inside the $2 Billion Machine Rewriting State Laws From the Shadows
Elections

Ghost Donors, Real Power: Inside the $2 Billion Machine Rewriting State Laws From the Shadows

Anonymous donor networks have poured an estimated $2 billion into state legislative races over the past decade, deploying sophisticated financial structures that make tracing the original source of funds nearly impossible. A DOE News data investigation maps the layered infrastructure behind these campaigns and shows how the most consequential policy fights in America are now being decided by people whose names never appear on a ballot — or a disclosure form.
Clearance for Sale: How Foreign Governments Are Recruiting American Intelligence Officers From the Inside
Investigative

Clearance for Sale: How Foreign Governments Are Recruiting American Intelligence Officers From the Inside

A growing number of active and recently separated U.S. intelligence officials are entering consulting arrangements with foreign governments — sometimes while their security clearances remain valid. Federal oversight mechanisms have failed to keep pace with the scale of these arrangements, leaving critical national security infrastructure exposed to systematic foreign exploitation.
Educated Interests: The Pharmaceutical Money Flowing Through Medical Schools and Into the Regulatory State
Investigative

Educated Interests: The Pharmaceutical Money Flowing Through Medical Schools and Into the Regulatory State

Pharmaceutical companies have invested billions of dollars into the medical schools and research institutions that train the scientists, clinicians, and policy officials who will one day evaluate their products for federal approval. A DOE News examination of funding records, curriculum documents, and conflict-of-interest disclosures reveals how deeply industry money has shaped medical education — and what that means for the independence of American health regulation.
Retirement Funds at Risk: How Teachers' and Firefighters' Pensions Are Bankrolling Private Equity's Extraction Economy
Investigative

Retirement Funds at Risk: How Teachers' and Firefighters' Pensions Are Bankrolling Private Equity's Extraction Economy

Across the country, the retirement savings of public school teachers, municipal workers, and first responders are being channeled into private equity funds that systematically acquire, restructure, and strip assets from the very working-class employers and communities those retirees spent careers serving. DOE News traced the financial intermediaries profiting from this arrangement and found a system in which the people bearing the greatest risk receive the smallest share of the return.
Conflict of Interest on Capitol Hill: The Committee Members Who Oversee the Companies They Own
Investigative

Conflict of Interest on Capitol Hill: The Committee Members Who Oversee the Companies They Own

Lawmakers sitting on the very committees charged with scrutinizing America's most powerful industries hold significant personal stakes in those same sectors — and their voting records reflect it. A DOE News analysis of financial disclosures and committee roll calls reveals a pattern of deference, delay, and diluted oversight that tracks closely with personal portfolio performance. The watchdogs, it turns out, have something to protect.
West Wing to K Street: The Quiet Fortunes Waiting for Former White House Insiders
Investigative

West Wing to K Street: The Quiet Fortunes Waiting for Former White House Insiders

Former White House staffers are routinely converting their proximity to presidential power into seven-figure consulting deals, board appointments, and speaking circuits — often within months of leaving government service. DOE News examined dozens of post-administration career trajectories to map the financial rewards that follow a White House badge. What emerges is a system that quietly monetizes public trust.
Bench and Bar: The Hidden Corporate Loyalties Shaping Federal Court Decisions
Investigative

Bench and Bar: The Hidden Corporate Loyalties Shaping Federal Court Decisions

Federal judges carry their professional histories into the courtroom, and for many, those histories are deeply entwined with the corporations that later appear before them. An examination of financial disclosure records and case outcomes across several circuit and district courts reveals troubling patterns that raise fundamental questions about impartiality in America's most consequential legal chambers.
Insiders at the Controls: When Corporate America Moves Into Federal Agencies and Writes Its Own Rules
Investigative

Insiders at the Controls: When Corporate America Moves Into Federal Agencies and Writes Its Own Rules

A growing number of corporations are placing their own executives and paid consultants inside federal regulatory agencies as temporary advisors, granting them direct influence over the very rules designed to govern their industries. Through a legal mechanism that has received little public scrutiny, companies across sectors from pharmaceuticals to transportation have found a pathway to regulatory power that makes conventional lobbying look blunt by comparison. DOE News examines the agencies, the
Internal Affairs: The Federal Transfer System That Lets Regulators Police Their Former Allies
Investigative

Internal Affairs: The Federal Transfer System That Lets Regulators Police Their Former Allies

When a federal employee moves from one desk to another within the same agency, few alarm bells sound. Yet a growing body of evidence suggests that strategic lateral transfers are allowing government workers to sidestep conflict-of-interest rules and assume oversight roles over the very industries they once served — creating a system of accountability that exists largely on paper.
Hired by the Enemy's Ally: How American Power Brokers Are Selling Access Back to Washington
Investigative

Hired by the Enemy's Ally: How American Power Brokers Are Selling Access Back to Washington

Former senators, retired generals, and ex-intelligence chiefs are quietly accepting consulting contracts from foreign governments — often with minimal public disclosure. A DOE News investigation reveals how a largely unregulated shadow industry is giving overseas powers a direct line into the corridors of American decision-making.
Elections

Drawn to Win: The Data-Driven Machinery Locking In Legislative Maps for a Generation

In statehouses across the country, the once-opaque art of drawing legislative districts has been transformed into a precise science — one that can engineer electoral outcomes with statistical reliability for an entire decade. DOE News spoke with redistricting experts, voting rights attorneys, and former mapmakers to trace how computational tools and legal architecture are being used to insulate partisan maps from meaningful challenge. What emerges is a portrait of a democratic process being syst
After the Gavel Falls: The Quiet Fortunes Made When Legislators Become Lobbyists
Investigative

After the Gavel Falls: The Quiet Fortunes Made When Legislators Become Lobbyists

Dozens of former members of Congress have converted decades of legislative relationships into multimillion-dollar lobbying arrangements, often within months of leaving office. DOE News examined the financial disclosures, client rosters, and policy timelines that reveal how Capitol Hill experience is monetized at a scale that rivals Wall Street. The findings raise urgent questions about whose interests are truly being served while these lawmakers are still casting votes.
Elections

The Algorithm Draws the Line: Inside the AI Tools Reshaping Who Gets Represented in America

Political operatives in both parties are deploying machine learning software capable of generating thousands of electoral map configurations in minutes, optimizing districts for partisan advantage with a precision that human mapmakers could never achieve alone. The technology is outpacing the legal frameworks designed to govern it, and voting rights advocates warn that competitive elections — already a rarity in many states — may soon be a relic.
Cashing Out: When the Government's Watchdogs Go to Work for the Wolves
Investigative

Cashing Out: When the Government's Watchdogs Go to Work for the Wolves

Hundreds of senior officials at the FDA, EPA, and FCC leave their posts each year to join the very industries they once policed — often within months of shaping consequential policy decisions. DOE News examined career records, lobbying disclosures, and agency rulings to trace a pattern of regulatory capture that costs taxpayers in ways that rarely make headlines.
Elections

The Policy Architects: How Washington's Think Tanks Write the Rules Before Anyone Votes on Them

Long before legislation reaches the floor of Congress, much of it has already been drafted, refined, and strategically positioned by policy research organizations whose funding sources and ideological commitments remain largely invisible to the public. DOE News maps the networks, the personnel pipelines, and the quiet power that think tanks exercise over American governance.
Accounting in the Dark: The Federal Budget Tricks That Keep Congress — and Taxpayers — Guessing
Investigative

Accounting in the Dark: The Federal Budget Tricks That Keep Congress — and Taxpayers — Guessing

Billions of federal dollars move through obscure line items, classified appropriations, and accounting workarounds that effectively neutralize congressional oversight. A DOE News investigation identifies the agencies, the mechanisms, and the watchdogs who say the problem is far worse than the public realizes.
The Most Powerful Officials You've Never Heard Of: Secretary of State Races Are Reshaping Election Administration
Elections

The Most Powerful Officials You've Never Heard Of: Secretary of State Races Are Reshaping Election Administration

While presidential and Senate contests dominate the headlines, both major parties are investing heavily in down-ballot Secretary of State races that most voters overlook entirely. These officials hold extraordinary power over how elections are run, who gets to vote, and whether results are certified—making them a critical and underappreciated front in the broader battle over American democracy.
Untraceable Millions: The Shadow Donors Quietly Deciding Who Controls Congress
Investigative

Untraceable Millions: The Shadow Donors Quietly Deciding Who Controls Congress

A sprawling network of politically active nonprofits and super PACs is funneling hundreds of millions of dollars into the most competitive House and Senate races of 2024—with little to no public accountability. DOE News traces the money trails, the messaging strategies they fund, and what it all means for the future of representative democracy.