Andy Kroll

From the wholesale gutting of federal agencies to the ongoing government shutdown, Russell Vought has drawn the road map for Trump’s second term. Vought has consolidated power to an extent that insiders say they feel like “he is the commander in chief.”

Reporter Andy Kroll explains Vought’s rise from a congressional staffer to the man piloting everything from Trump's layoffs and agency closings to his shutdown strategy, controlling the fate of trillions of dollars and millions of federal workers.

As interim U.S. attorney in D.C., Martin has fired career prosecutors, dropped Capitol riot cases and launched sweeping probes into Trump’s political enemies.

Martin’s career is dotted with ethical and professional questions, records show. Some of the most serious ones about the interim U.S. attorney for D.C. have remained buried in court filings, overlooked by the press or never reported — until now.

The Trump administration cited “performance” failures to justify its mass firing of IRS workers. But this claim was “false,” a senior agency attorney warned officials, because the administration had not conducted any such performance assessment.

The Trump administration claims gutting federal agencies will save money, but cutting the IRS means the government collects less taxes. “If you’re interested in the deficit and curbing it, why would you cut back on the revenue side?” one expert asks.

As HUD secretary, Scott Turner would oversee billions in housing aid, but as a Texas state legislator he voted against protections for poor tenants and has called government assistance “one of the most destructive things for the family.”

In a private video training session, a top Pennsylvania Republican National Committee official reassured a new poll watcher that undocumented people could not possibly vote in the state.

The conservative think tank has filed thousands of public-information requests, clogging the pipeline at federal agencies in an apparent attempt to find employees a potential Trump administration would want to purge.

The videos are part of an ongoing effort to recruit and train thousands of future conservative appointees. Despite Donald Trump’s efforts to disavow Project 2025, most of the speakers in the videos have previously worked for the former president.

“Eradicate climate change references”; only talk to conservative media; don’t leave a paper trail for watchdogs to discover. In a series of never-before-published videos, Project 2025 details how a second Trump administration would operate.

Vance gave the speech to the secretive Teneo Network. The GOP vice presidential nominee has been a member of the Leonard Leo-backed group, which seeks to cultivate conservative influence in business and culture.

Across the country, the Republican Party’s rank-and-file have turned on the GOP establishment. In Michigan, this schism broke the party — and maybe democracy itself.

More than two months after authorizing subpoenas for two key figures in the Supreme Court’s ethics crisis, Senate Democrats have yet to issue them.

Scholars say the case could have far-reaching consequences, even if the justices don’t throw Trump off the ballot.

The subpoenas ask for details on gifts, travel and other perks the two men provided or helped arrange for Supreme Court justices and their relatives, but Senate Democrats will need help from their GOP colleagues if Crow and Leo defy the subpoenas.

Conservative activist Leonard Leo helped elect a judge in Wisconsin. Without him, the GOP feared their agenda would be “toast,” according to an email.

The conservative legal movement in the United States is more powerful than ever. One largely unknown man has played a significant role in pushing the American judiciary to the right: Leonard Leo.

In previously unreported videos from a closed-door Teneo Network conference, Florida’s Republican governor takes his anti-big tech rhetoric beyond what he has said publicly.

Leonard Leo, a key architect of the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority, is now the chairman of Teneo Network, a group that aims to influence all aspects of American politics and culture.