Investigative Journalism in the Public Interest
How Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Vaccine Agenda Risks a Resurgence of Deadly Childhood Plagues
The post How Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Vaccine Agenda Risks a Resurgence of Deadly Childhood Plagues appeared first on ProPublica.
Dr. Adam Ratner hovered over a gravely ill infant in a New York City intensive care unit on a grim day in 2022. The 3-month-old girl spiked a fever two days earlier and had become lethargic. Soon she was having seizures and struggling to breathe. She didn’t register Ratner’s towering frame or the bright hospital lights. Her eyes stared up and to the right, eerily frozen. He ran his hand over the soft spot on her head, which should have been flat. Instead, it bulged, a sign that too much fluid was building up inside her skull. The baby’s life was in danger, and Ratner needed to figure out why. He worried the culprit was bacterial meningitis, an infection of the membranes that protect the brain. What came back on her lab tests was something out of the history books. The infant’s meningitis was caused by invasive Haemophilus influenzae type b, or Hib, a type of bacteria that used to kill nearly 1,000 children a year in the U.S. A shot introduced in the late 1980s was so effective that Ratner, a veteran pediatric infectious disease doctor, was among the generations of physicians who had never seen a case. But the baby’s parents, Ratner learned, had chosen not to vaccinate her. Disheartened, he told his colleagues, “This should be a never event.” It wasn’t. The following year, Ratner treated another infant with Hib, then another, each of them unvaccinated. Two went home, but one had to be discharged to a rehabilitation facility. That 5-month-old boy had huge black pupils that didn’t respond to light, and he needed a ventilator to breathe. Ratner and his colleagues noted an “absence of brain stem reflexes,” indicating severe damage. The U.S. government took a half century to build a vaccination system that shielded children from such a fate. Its success depended on two fundamental pillars: parents trusting in vaccines and children having access to them. Both are now in peril, thanks in no small part to the man steering America’s health policy. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who founded an antivaccine group and once likened the immunization of children to a holocaust, is transforming a government that long championed the lifesaving benefits of shots into one that spreads doubts about their safety here and abroad. Kennedy is also considering changes that could prompt the few companies that make vaccines for American kids to abandon the U.S. market, leaving parents who want the shots unable to get them. The threat to vaccine access reaches across the globe after Kennedy yanked the government’s $1.6 billion pledge to the aid group that provides shots for the world’s poorest children. For decades, the U.S. had funded such work not just as a humanitarian mission but as a way to keep Americans safe from unchecked contagions. Kennedy’s efforts to reshape vaccine policies have been well chronicled, but ProPublica wanted to take a broader look at how the changes might affect Americans’ health in the years to come. We found that long-forgotten plagues have roared back, killing and maiming children in parts of the world where access to vaccines or trust in them faltered. What seemed like subtle changes to a country’s vaccine policies had disastrous consequences years later. Even in places that offer highly advanced health care, doctors have felt impotent trying to undo the damage when these horrors return. Modern medicine can’t reverse paralysis from polio. Surgeons can intervene when a baby is born blind, deaf and with heart defects after being exposed to rubella in the womb, but the child is still likely to face a life shaped by disability. ProPublica reviewed hundreds of studies on vaccines and outbreaks of the diseases they prevent and interviewed more than three dozen people who have worked on U.S. immunization programs here and abroad, dating back to the days of smallpox. Some had never spoken publicly about their experiences. They shared a pit-of-the-stomach dread that American children will end up fighting for their lives against infections that have long been preventable. “I think there always was a worst-case scenario,” said Dr. Melinda Wharton, who retired last September after more than three decades leading immunization programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “I don’t think I imagined it could or would be this bad.” This week, Kennedy’s agency indicated it planned to appeal a federal court ruling that halted, at least temporarily, some of his changes. Among those was the decision to drop six diseases from the routine childhood immunization schedule. HHS declined to make Kennedy available for an interview. In an emailed response to detailed questions, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said that the agency has not limited access to or insurance coverage for vaccines. During the prior administration, federal health agencies “told the public that questioning vaccine policy was off limits,” Nixon said. “That posture contributed to a collapse in trust in U.S. health care.” “Secretary Kennedy believes that trust is rebuilt through an open review of safety data, the willingness to ask the hard questions, and ensuring the American people have all emerging information as soon as we know it,” he said. Vaccination rates have fallen in large swaths of the country. Resentful of how government institutions responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, many Americans lost trust in public health leaders. Antivaccine activists spread misinformation and recast the once-fringe practice of refusing shots as an exercise in “medical freedom.” <img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="501" width="752" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-carolina.jpg?w=752" alt="Two physicians wearing gowns, masks and other protective gear stand beside an infant seated in a car with the door open." class="wp-image-70782" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-carolina.jpg 3000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-carolina.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-carolina.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-carolina.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-carolina.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-carolina.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-carolina.jpg?resize=863,575 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-carolina.jpg?resize=422,281 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-carolina.jpg?resize=552,368 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-carolina.jpg?resize=558,372 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-carolina.jpg?resize=527,351 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-carolina.jpg?resize=752,501 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-carolina.jpg?resize=1149,766 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-carolina.jpg?resize=2000,1333 2000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-carolina.jpg?resize=400,267 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-carolina.jpg?resize=800,533 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-carolina.jpg?resize=1200,800 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-carolina.jpg?resize=1600,1067 1600w" sizes="(max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" /> A medical team assesses an infant for measles in Spartanburg, South Carolina, this year. The Washington Post via Getty Images Now the U.S. is experiencing a surge in measles not seen in three decades. There have been more than 3,600 cases across 46 states and three deaths since January last year. The virus spread so fast in South Carolina this year that some medical teams had to examine infected patients in their cars to protect vulnerable people in their waiting rooms, like they did during the worst days of COVID-19. Measles, among the most contagious diseases, is typically the first to infect undervaccinated communities and serves as a warning that other scourges will follow. That’s what happened in New York City where antivaccine forces distributed illustrated handouts that seeded fear in Orthodox Jewish communities. Ratner saw a direct line between a loss of trust and the sick children in his ICU — first with measles in 2018 and 2019, then with Hib a few years later. Now the villainization of vaccines isn’t coming from pamphlets passed out on a Brooklyn street corner. It’s coming from the highest health offices in the U.S. government. “I’m worried,” Ratner said, “that we’re going back to a time where people die in childhood.” The U.S. has been a leader on vaccination since the nation’s founding. During the Revolutionary War, George Washington ordered troops to be inoculated against smallpox, which had ravaged the Continental Army and was scaring away recruits. Washington knew the perils of the disease: His face was pocked with scars from his own teenage infection. The inoculation, the country’s first immunization mandate, took a primitive form. A sore from a smallpox patient was lanced, then the pus was inserted under a healthy person’s skin. Though some people died, the resulting infection was, for the vast majority, milder than the type caught in a bunkhouse or on a battlefield. Washington gave the order in February 1777, “keeping the matter as secret as possible” so that the British wouldn’t attack his bedridden troops during their monthlong recovery. Had he not carried out the inoculation, many historians have concluded, the British may have won. Nearly two centuries later, in the throes of the Cold War, CDC scientists teamed up with their counterparts from America’s archenemy, the Soviet Union, to wipe smallpox from the planet. They worked through the World Health Organization to track the virus in cities, rainforests and war zones, vaccinating those at risk. Four U.S. presidents, Democrats and Republicans, backed the work until the disease that had haunted humans since the days of the pharaohs was gone. Vaccines, for decades, weren’t politically divisive. They were so uncontroversial that McDonald’s restaurants in the 1990s put the childhood immunization schedule on their tray liners. When the nation’s immunization program was in trouble in the 1980s, Republicans and Democrats stepped in to save it. Vaccine makers were abandoning the U.S. market after a flood of lawsuits alleged that the shot used at the time to protect children from diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough caused profoundly disabling seizures. Scientists later discovered genetic causes of some of the most devastating forms of epilepsy, but parents who sued back then won big verdicts and settlements. At one point pediatricians could only buy that shot from a single company, and there were shortages. The U.S. also was down to just one manufacturer for the measles-mumps-rubella shot and one for the polio vaccine. “If there is a fire tomorrow in the plant where the polio vaccine is manufactured, what would happen?” Rep. Henry Waxman asked the CDC director during a 1984 House subcommittee hearing. “We would have a shortage,” the director answered. An exasperated Waxman shot back: “Are we going to then start putting money into iron lungs for polio victims?” A liberal Democrat from California, Waxman for years worked with Sen. Paula Hawkins, a conservative Florida Republican, on legislation that stopped the exodus of vaccine makers by limiting their liability. Launched in 1988, the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program pays people who suffer rare but serious side effects, using money from a special tax on certain shots. The program maintains a table of injuries that are eligible for quicker payouts, and a dedicated vaccine court rules on cases involving health problems not listed on the table. Those who don’t like what they are offered can still sue vaccine makers in traditional civil courts, but a Supreme Court ruling significantly limited the types of cases that can win there. Just as the compensation program was getting off the ground, measles laid bare a different weakness in the immunization system. The disease tore through American cities, hitting Black and Hispanic preschoolers especially hard. Between 1989 and 1991, there were more than 55,000 cases and 123 deaths. In June 1991, President George H.W. Bush, a Republican, stepped into the White House Rose Garden with a message for “every parent everywhere in America”: “Please, make sure your child is immunized.” He announced that a special team of health officials was investigating why so many kids were missing their shots. “While some say each generation repeats the mistakes of the last, no generation in America should suffer the plagues of the past,” Bush said. The problem was access. Parents couldn’t afford the vaccines given at pediatricians’ offices. Bush’s successor, President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, ushered in a program that to this day offers free shots through local doctors to more than half of American kids. Vaccination rates climbed, and measles cases dropped precipitously. By 2000, the U.S. had stopped local spread of the virus so well that global health authorities declared it eliminated here. Having made progress at home, the U.S. government championed the use of vaccines abroad. Dr. Susan Reef, who had trained in the CDC disease-detective program made famous by Kate Winslet’s character in the movie “Contagion,” crisscrossed the globe showing health officials how they could save babies from birth defects and early death by introducing the rubella vaccine. <img decoding="async" js-autosizes height="495" width="752" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?w=752" alt="A close-up photo of a child’s eye being held open. A white film covers the entire iris so that the pupil cannot be seen." class="wp-image-70783" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg 3000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=300,198 300w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=768,506 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=1024,674 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=1536,1011 1536w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=2048,1348 2048w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=863,568 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=422,278 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=552,363 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=558,367 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=527,347 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=752,495 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=1149,756 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=2000,1317 2000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=400,263 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=800,527 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=1200,790 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=1600,1053 1600w" sizes="(max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" /> The cloudy eye of this 3-year-old is from glaucoma caused by congenital rubella syndrome, a constellation of problems resulting from exposure to rubella while in utero. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Dr. Andre J. Lebrun Also known as German measles, rubella is usually mild in kids and adults. When people get infected very early in pregnancy, though, they face up to a 90% chance of giving birth to a baby with congenital rubella syndrome. About a third of those infants die before their first birthday. Most survivors have deafness, blindness, heart defects or intellectual disabilities. Before the vaccine, a U.S. epidemic in the mid-1960s led to 20,000 babies born with the syndrome. Reef and her CDC colleagues helped foreign health authorities set up surveillance systems that identified newborns with congenital rubella syndrome. During a 2011 rubella epidemic in Vietnam, Reef spotted a cluster of tiny bassinets in a Ho Chi Minh City intensive care unit. The babies’ eyes had cataracts, a sign of vision loss. She knew that most would have trouble hearing, if they could hear at all. A collaborator from the WHO told Reef that at least one of the infants had been abandoned by his family. Doctors had isolated the contagious newborns to prevent the spread of rubella, a sign the country’s surveillance system was working. But the scene of this preventable suffering, Reef said, “broke my heart.” Vietnam launched a national rubella immunization program a few years later. When Reef’s work began, less than half the world’s countries had introduced a rubella shot. When she retired in 2022 after a 30-year career at the CDC, all but 19 had. For half a century, one idea lay at the core of all U.S. immunization programs: Let down your guard and the diseases will return. Dr. Chuck Vitek saw this happen as he walked the worn linoleum floors of Russian infectious disease hospitals in the mid-1990s. Throughout that decade, a massive epidemic of diphtheria raged across the countries of the former Soviet Union. The CDC repeatedly deployed Vitek to help health authorities contain this ancient contagion, once widely known as the “strangling angel of children.” <img decoding="async" js-autosizes height="491" width="752" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-diphtheria.jpg?w=752" alt="A tongue depressor holds open a person’s mouth so you can see two swollen brownish patches at the entry to the throat." class="wp-image-70786" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-diphtheria.jpg 3000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-diphtheria.jpg?resize=300,196 300w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-diphtheria.jpg?resize=768,502 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-diphtheria.jpg?resize=1024,669 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-diphtheria.jpg?resize=1536,1003 1536w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-diphtheria.jpg?resize=2048,1337 2048w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-diphtheria.jpg?resize=863,564 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-diphtheria.jpg?resize=422,276 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-diphtheria.jpg?resize=552,360 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-diphtheria.jpg?resize=558,364 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-diphtheria.jpg?resize=527,344 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-diphtheria.jpg?resize=752,491 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-diphtheria.jpg?resize=1149,750 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-diphtheria.jpg?resize=2000,1306 2000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-diphtheria.jpg?resize=400,261 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-diphtheria.jpg?resize=800,522 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-diphtheria.jpg?resize=1200,784 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-diphtheria.jpg?resize=1600,1045 1600w" sizes="(max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" /> Tissue destroyed by the diphtheria toxin can build up in the back of a child’s throat, sealing off the swollen airway and suffocating them. Photo By BSIP/UIG via Getty Images Diphtheria’s name is drawn from the Greek word for leather because tissue destroyed by the diphtheria toxin builds up in the back of the throat like a piece of hide, sealing off a swollen airway. Many parents had to watch their children suffocate. For those who escape asphyxiation, the toxin can damage the heart and nerves. Patients who seem better can drop dead weeks later. At one hospital, Vitek peered into the mouth of a sick Russian teenager and saw the thick greyish-white membrane covering a third of his throat. Doctors had administered antitoxin promptly, so his windpipe wasn’t blocked. But, pale and weak, the boy faced a terrible wait. Had diphtheria ruined his heart? Vitek had to leave before it was clear whether the child would survive. But one detail from his medical history stood out above all others: The teen had not been vaccinated. “It was sad because it was something that would have easily been prevented with vaccination,” Vitek recalled. Vitek was another graduate of the CDC’s disease-detective program. A big part of his assignment was to investigate why diphtheria had come back. One obvious problem was access; the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 disrupted vaccine supplies. But that wasn’t the whole answer. The unvaccinated Russian boy offered a clue to the rest. The Soviets had been big believers in immunization. Diphtheria shots for kids had been free — and mandatory — since the 1950s. When diphtheria seemed like a problem of the past, though, the Soviet Union eased up. Concerns about fevers and other possible side effects from the shot used back then overshadowed fears of the disease. In the 1980s, Soviet health authorities created alternative immunization schedules with lower-dose diphtheria shots and fewer total injections, and they directed pediatricians to put off vaccination if a child had one of a long list of health issues. “If a kid had a runny nose, a stomachache, almost anything,” Vitek said, doctors would skip the shot that day. “They wouldn’t make an effort to catch them up.” Antivaccine activists tapped into the deep mistrust of government institutions in the years leading up to the collapse of the Soviet Union. One 1988 column in a Moscow newspaper suggested that Soviet officials knew the shot could be harmful — even deadly — but kept this secret. (In focus groups held years later, parents vividly recalled how news stories made them afraid of immunizations, Vitek and a colleague found.) By 1990, only 60% of infants in Soviet Russia had received all three full-strength diphtheria shots before their first birthday. The disease found a foothold. Before the epidemic was over, more than 157,000 people were infected and 5,000 died, mostly in Russia. Health officials in Russia ended the policies that left their people vulnerable and held mandatory mass vaccination campaigns. “It was an extra dose across the entire population,” Vitek recalled. It took years to end the epidemic. Japan had a similar struggle with rubella. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="674" width="752" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella-profile.jpg?w=752" alt="Large, red, raised patches cover a child’s cheek in such quantity that many of the patches connect to one another and only small strips of normal skin show through between. The red patches continue in a less dense pattern down the child’s neck and onto his chest. " class="wp-image-70789" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella-profile.jpg 2238w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella-profile.jpg?resize=300,269 300w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella-profile.jpg?resize=768,688 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella-profile.jpg?resize=1024,917 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella-profile.jpg?resize=1536,1376 1536w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella-profile.jpg?resize=2048,1835 2048w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella-profile.jpg?resize=863,773 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella-profile.jpg?resize=422,378 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella-profile.jpg?resize=552,495 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella-profile.jpg?resize=558,500 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella-profile.jpg?resize=527,472 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella-profile.jpg?resize=752,674 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella-profile.jpg?resize=1149,1029 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella-profile.jpg?resize=1786,1600 1786w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella-profile.jpg?resize=400,358 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella-profile.jpg?resize=800,717 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella-profile.jpg?resize=1200,1075 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella-profile.jpg?resize=1600,1433 1600w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rubella-profile.jpg?resize=2000,1792 2000w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" /> A rash from rubella, also known as German measles Centers for Disease Control and Prevention When health authorities introduced a rubella shot in the 1970s, they took an approach that weighed who was most at risk, targeting future mothers by giving the shot only to junior high girls. The boys of this era were passed over and remained susceptible as they grew up. Rubella researchers refer to them as “the lost generation.” In 1989, Japan changed course and began vaccinating young boys and girls with a shot that combined protection for rubella, measles and mumps. But doctors quickly discovered that the mumps component — different from the U.S. version — sometimes caused a type of meningitis. Mistrust spread as health officials downplayed the risk at first, then yanked the combined vaccines in favor of standalone shots. Japan in 1994 dropped its strict immunization mandates. Health authorities continued to recommend shots, but vaccination became a matter of personal choice, and a lack of trust shadowed the immunization program for years. One study showed Japan’s confidence in vaccines was among the lowest in the world. Time and again, rubella circulated in the men who were never offered the shots as boys, then spread to pregnant women who hadn’t been fully vaccinated. Babies were born with the type of devastating birth defects that Reef saw in the ICU in Vietnam. Japan’s epidemic from 2012 to 2014 was so bad that researchers discovered a temporary drop in the country’s fertility rates that coincided with a spike in Google searches for the Japanese word for rubella. Serious misgivings about vaccination in one part of the world can have far-reaching consequences. Twenty countries that thought their days of paralytic polio were behind them saw the dreaded disease return in the 2000s. The virus was traced to Nigeria, where religious and political leaders in some areas had boycotted polio immunization campaigns amid false rumors that the shots had been tainted to make Muslim girls infertile. Organizers of the boycott feared the vaccine more than the disease. The governor of one northern Nigerian state told the Associated Press in 2004: “It is a lesser of two evils to sacrifice two, three, four, five, even 10 children [to polio] than allow hundreds or thousands or possibly millions of girl-children likely to be rendered infertile.” Polio roared back in Nigeria, leaving more than 2,500 children disabled. It spread around the world for years, paralyzing kids as far away as Indonesia. When Kennedy became America’s top health official last year, no other leader at the CDC had more experience preventing death and disability with vaccines than Dr. Melinda Wharton. It was Wharton who had sent Vitek to Russia to figure out why diphtheria returned. And it was Wharton who started Reef on her quest to vanquish congenital rubella syndrome. Like them, she had trained as a disease detective. In her 39 years at the CDC, Wharton had seen activists try to persuade Americans that the shots they were giving their babies were scarier than the diseases those shots prevented. In 2021, Kennedy had written in a book that measles — a virus the CDC says kills nearly 1 to 3 of every 1,000 children who contract it — wasn’t the menace that the government proclaimed. “Measles outbreaks have been fabricated to create fear that in turn forces government officials to ‘do something,’” he wrote. “They then inflict unnecessary and risky vaccines on millions of children for the sole purpose of fattening industry profits.” During his confirmation hearings, Kennedy told senators he isn’t antivaccine. “I am pro-safety,” he said. “I worked for years to raise awareness about the mercury and toxic chemicals in fish, and nobody called me anti-fish.” In his early days as the nation’s top health leader, HHS dismissed thousands of Wharton’s colleagues, ended vaccine promotions during an especially deadly flu season and buried a CDC measles forecast that stressed the need for immunization. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="495" width="752" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-torso.jpg?w=752" alt="A child’s stomach is uniformly covered in small, tightly packed reddish brown patches. " class="wp-image-70792" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-torso.jpg 3000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-torso.jpg?resize=300,198 300w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-torso.jpg?resize=768,506 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-torso.jpg?resize=1024,674 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-torso.jpg?resize=1536,1011 1536w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-torso.jpg?resize=2048,1348 2048w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-torso.jpg?resize=863,568 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-torso.jpg?resize=422,278 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-torso.jpg?resize=552,363 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-torso.jpg?resize=558,367 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-torso.jpg?resize=527,347 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-torso.jpg?resize=752,495 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-torso.jpg?resize=1149,756 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-torso.jpg?resize=2000,1317 2000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-torso.jpg?resize=400,263 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-torso.jpg?resize=800,527 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-torso.jpg?resize=1200,790 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-torso.jpg?resize=1600,1053 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" /> A measles rash covers a child’s torso. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Dr. Philip Nader Wharton set five empty cardboard boxes on her filing cabinet in case she needed to pack up quickly. In recent years she managed the committee of outside experts that recommends which shots Americans should get and when. Few people had ever heard of her obscure corner of the federal health bureaucracy. But Kennedy knew it well. He understood that Congress had given these advisers the power to determine which shots were free for more than half of American kids and which ones insurers must pay for. Many states used the committee’s recommendations to set vaccine mandates for kids attending school. Kennedy for years complained the panel had been captured by Big Pharma. On June 9, his chief of staff at the CDC removed Wharton from her role managing the committee. Just as that news was sinking in, Wharton’s phone lit up with messages from the committee’s members. Kennedy had announced in a Wall Street Journal column that he was replacing all of them. “A clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science,” he wrote. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="501" width="752" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rfk.jpg?w=752" alt="" class="wp-image-70795" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rfk.jpg 3000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rfk.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rfk.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rfk.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rfk.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rfk.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rfk.jpg?resize=863,575 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rfk.jpg?resize=422,281 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rfk.jpg?resize=552,368 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rfk.jpg?resize=558,372 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rfk.jpg?resize=527,351 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rfk.jpg?resize=752,501 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rfk.jpg?resize=1149,766 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rfk.jpg?resize=2000,1333 2000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rfk.jpg?resize=400,267 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rfk.jpg?resize=800,533 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rfk.jpg?resize=1200,800 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-rfk.jpg?resize=1600,1067 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" /> Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kayla Bartkowski/Bloomberg via Getty Images Kennedy stacked the new committee with many vaccine skeptics who quickly delved into his longstanding grievances about America’s immunization system. Webcasts of the meetings became a megaphone for mistrust. Some devolved into shouting matches as doctors from medical societies pushed back against misinformation. One of Kennedy’s new appointees, Retsef Levi, a professor of operations management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, suggested that vaccinating a baby was like flying on an airplane that hadn’t been rigorously tested. “I suggest to parents to be very, very suspicious when people tell them that something is safe, especially a vaccine,” he said. In an emailed response to questions from ProPublica, Levi said that vaccines have benefits and risks “often personalized to the individual’s health status, risk factors, and preferences.” Being transparent about those benefits and risks, including being honest about what is known and not known, increases public confidence in vaccination programs, he said. The chair of the committee, Dr. Kirk Milhoan, told the “Why Should I Trust You?” podcast he wasn’t afraid to reconsider whether the polio shot is needed any longer. In an email to ProPublica, Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist, said that the committee is required to review vaccines every seven years “to optimize effectiveness and to reevaluate possible long term risks.” Like Kennedy, Milhoan doesn’t think vaccines have been appropriately tested for safety. In the podcast, he said American parents deserve to know the risks so they can decide whether they’re more concerned about the disease or the potential for side effects from the shot. “What we are doing is returning individual autonomy to the first order, not public health,” he added. Since she retired last year, Wharton has tuned in to the meetings she used to run, but at times they were too painful to watch. The new committee at one point sought advice from a former president of the antivaccination group Kennedy founded, while a CDC compilation of evidence that ran counter to her presentation was quietly removed from the panel’s website. For insight on the childhood schedule, the panel listened to a 90-minute talk by a Kennedy ally, a vaccine-injury attorney who once petitioned the government to withdraw approval of the polio shot for infants and toddlers. In January, the acting CDC director trimmed the childhood immunization schedule so that it recommended routine protection for 11 diseases rather than 17. Six shots that had been universal would now fall into a category that essentially means “talk to your doctor and decide for yourself,” with guidance for certain shots based on risk. “The idea that it’s increasingly acceptable to put children at risk for these kinds of things is really just terrible,” Wharton said. “To have it be the official position of the federal government, it’s very frightening.” Nixon, the HHS spokesperson, defended the slimmed-down schedule, saying it would “maintain robust protection against diseases that cause serious morbidity or mortality to children while aligning the U.S. with peer nations.” As for the committee, Nixon said Kennedy’s appointees are “committed to rigorous review and independent thinking.” “Restoring confidence requires advisory bodies that are willing to ask hard questions, not simply reaffirm prior consensus and rubber stamp recommendations,” he said. “Disagreement at public meetings is a healthy scientific debate and the way to overcome groupthink.” The American Academy of Pediatrics, which for decades had collaborated with the committee on the childhood vaccine schedule, boycotted the panel’s meetings and sued to block many of Kennedy’s moves. On Monday, a federal judge sided with the academy, finding that for an advisory committee dedicated to using vaccines to control preventable diseases, more than half of the new members “appear distinctly unqualified.” While he considers the case, the judge, for now, put on hold Kennedy’s appointments to the panel as well as the CDC’s changes to the childhood vaccine schedule. The ruling is a setback for Kennedy, but the Trump administration has foreshadowed other changes that could affect Americans’ access to shots. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="501" width="752" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-trump-rfk.jpg?w=752" alt="" class="wp-image-70796" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-trump-rfk.jpg 3000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-trump-rfk.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-trump-rfk.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-trump-rfk.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-trump-rfk.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-trump-rfk.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-trump-rfk.jpg?resize=863,575 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-trump-rfk.jpg?resize=422,281 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-trump-rfk.jpg?resize=552,368 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-trump-rfk.jpg?resize=558,372 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-trump-rfk.jpg?resize=527,351 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-trump-rfk.jpg?resize=752,501 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-trump-rfk.jpg?resize=1149,766 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-trump-rfk.jpg?resize=2000,1333 2000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-trump-rfk.jpg?resize=400,267 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-trump-rfk.jpg?resize=800,533 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-trump-rfk.jpg?resize=1200,800 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-trump-rfk.jpg?resize=1600,1067 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" /> President Donald Trump, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., addresses reporters during a press conference in the White House. Francis Chung/Politico/Bloomberg via Getty Images In September, President Donald Trump stepped up to the microphone in the White House’s Roosevelt Room with a major announcement about his administration’s efforts to counter the rise of autism. Flanked by Kennedy and other top health officials, the president urged pregnant women not to take acetaminophen, the pain reliever often sold as Tylenol. This news ricocheted around the globe. But less attention was given to other bombshells dropped about vaccines that day. The president complained that pediatricians were giving so many shots, they were treating America’s children like horses. “They pump so much stuff into those beautiful little babies, it’s a disgrace,” he said. Without explaining how, Trump said his administration was going to get aluminum removed from vaccines. “Who the hell wants that pumped into a body?” he said. Aluminum has been used in shots since the 1930s to boost immune response. It is an essential ingredient in vaccines for nine diseases, including diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, human papillomavirus (a cause of cervical cancer), one version of the Hib vaccine, and many of the combination shots babies receive. Kennedy has long questioned its safety. A CDC-sponsored study found an association between aluminum in shots and asthma in young kids. But the researchers, citing limitations in their analysis, wrote that “these findings do not constitute strong evidence for questioning the safety of aluminum in vaccines.” A larger study by Danish government researchers subsequently found aluminum in shots did not increase the risk of autism, asthma, autoimmune diseases or dozens of other conditions. Kennedy criticized the methodology and tried unsuccessfully to get the Danish study retracted. If the federal government were to ban aluminum in vaccines, companies would have to reformulate them and, possibly, launch costly clinical trials. Nearly all the shots American kids get are made by a handful of pharmaceutical giants. The market is fragile enough that if any were to balk and stop making these vaccines, families could face shortages or lose access altogether. The fate of the measles-mumps-rubella shot, which does not contain aluminum, is also up in the air. At the White House autism press conference, Trump, without offering evidence, said he had heard bad things about that shot, which has been used here since 1971. Researchers around the world repeatedly have found it does not cause autism. Nevertheless, the president implored parents to insist on separate shots for measles, mumps and rubella — “separate, separate, separate,” he repeated. But there are no FDA-approved standalone shots for measles, mumps or rubella. Facing a year with the most American measles cases in a generation, the president had suggested that there’s a problem with the only surefire prevention available and told parents to demand shots that don’t exist here. In an X post, the acting CDC director at that time called on manufacturers to develop them. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="1050" width="752" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-profile.jpg?w=752" alt="A shirtless child with a dense pattern of red bumps covering their face and chest. " class="wp-image-70799" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-profile.jpg 2000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-profile.jpg?resize=215,300 215w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-profile.jpg?resize=768,1072 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-profile.jpg?resize=734,1024 734w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-profile.jpg?resize=1100,1536 1100w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-profile.jpg?resize=1467,2048 1467w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-profile.jpg?resize=863,1205 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-profile.jpg?resize=422,589 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-profile.jpg?resize=552,771 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-profile.jpg?resize=558,779 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-profile.jpg?resize=527,736 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-profile.jpg?resize=752,1050 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-profile.jpg?resize=1149,1604 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-profile.jpg?resize=1146,1600 1146w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-profile.jpg?resize=400,558 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-profile.jpg?resize=800,1117 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-profile.jpg?resize=1200,1675 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-measles-profile.jpg?resize=1600,2234 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" /> A measles rash covers the face and shoulders of a young boy. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention A White House spokesperson did not answer questions about the president’s plans. “The Trump administration is committed to a nuanced, nimble, and multi-faceted approach to restore Gold Standard Science as the guiding principle of our health policymaking without compromising access to or coverage of any lifesaving treatment, including vaccines,” Kush Desai wrote in an email. “Until unveiled by the Administration, discussion about potential new policies or their second order effects is pointless speculation.” The federal court ruling that paused January’s revisions to the childhood vaccination schedule doesn’t stop Kennedy from making similar changes in the future, as long as he follows the proper procedures. While moving shots to the talk-to-your-doctor category may seem harmless, it could affect access down the line. The injury compensation program that Congress created to prevent manufacturers from fleeing the U.S. market in the 1980s only covers immunizations the CDC recommends for “routine administration” to children or pregnant women. That leaves shots in other categories open to legal challenges by vaccine injury lawyers, renewing the specter of big legal verdicts that previously prompted vaccine makers to bolt. Kennedy has long railed against the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, arguing it’s a gift to the pharmaceutical industry that removes any incentive to make safe products. Before he became HHS secretary, Kennedy referred plaintiffs to a law firm suing a vaccine maker in exchange for a cut of its fees if they won, federal financial disclosures show. Last year, he hired a vaccine injury lawyer to help him overhaul the compensation program and expand who can receive payments. In September, that attorney said he and Kennedy were considering ways to add symptoms of autism to the program’s injury table for quick payouts. So many studies — performed in different parts of the world and involving more than a million people — have found no link between vaccines and autism that this has become scientific consensus. (Scientists have found serious methodological flaws in papers that have claimed such a link.) The compensation program’s vaccine court spent years in the 2000s trying cases that alleged shots caused autism and found they didn’t. ProPublica asked HHS whether Kennedy planned to add symptoms of autism to the program’s injury table, but the agency did not answer. Given how prevalent autism is, a change like this could exhaust the compensation fund. If the program collapses and the legal protections go away, manufacturers may stop selling shots here like they did in the 1980s. Then, even Americans who still trust vaccines couldn’t get them. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="576" width="752" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-hib.jpg?w=752" alt="A toddler with their eyes redacted, covered in sweat with flushed cheeks, wet hair and a hand on his head." class="wp-image-70802" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-hib.jpg 3000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-hib.jpg?resize=300,230 300w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-hib.jpg?resize=768,588 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-hib.jpg?resize=1024,784 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-hib.jpg?resize=1536,1177 1536w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-hib.jpg?resize=2048,1569 2048w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-hib.jpg?resize=863,661 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-hib.jpg?resize=422,323 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-hib.jpg?resize=552,423 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-hib.jpg?resize=558,427 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-hib.jpg?resize=527,404 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-hib.jpg?resize=752,576 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-hib.jpg?resize=1149,880 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-hib.jpg?resize=2000,1532 2000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-hib.jpg?resize=400,306 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-hib.jpg?resize=800,613 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-hib.jpg?resize=1200,919 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260318-hhs-doomsday-hib.jpg?resize=1600,1226 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" /> A child suffering from Haemophilus influenzae type B, or Hib American Association of Pediatrics Diseases that have been wiped out in the U.S. are still found in other parts of the world. Polio is endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and this month the CDC warned American travelers that the virus has been circulating in 28 additional countries, including Israel and the United Kingdom. In 2022, a young unvaccinated man in New York was paralyzed by the virus. That same year, an outbreak of diphtheria began in Western Europe, its largest rise in cases in 70 years. Health authorities investigating the infection of an unvaccinated German boy in 2024 discovered that the toxic strain of the diphtheria bacteria had spread over two years from newly arrived migrants to homeless Germans, then to the child and his mother, who had no known contact with either group. The 10-year-old was admitted to a hospital in the historic city of Potsdam. Like Ratner encountering his first patient with Hib, the German doctors had never seen diphtheria before. “It was taught as history,” said Dr. Bernhard Kosak, head of pediatric emergency medicine and critical care there. Treated with antitoxin and antibiotics, the child was transferred to the big teaching hospital in Berlin where a ventilator helped him breathe. But the marvels of modern intensive-care medicine couldn’t undo the damage from this ancient toxin. The boy died in January last year. Diseases can follow the contours of global travel. In just the first few months of last year, the CDC found, people infected with measles arrived in the U.S. from Canada, Vietnam, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Australia, Guinea, the Netherlands, Somalia, Spain and Uganda. The Trump administration has walked away from long-standing international alliances that helped the U.S. beat back scourges in other countries. The president withdrew the U.S. from the WHO. And Kennedy backed out of the government’s promise to give $1.6 billion to Gavi, the global vaccine aid group the U.S. has funded for decades. He accused the organization of neglecting vaccine safety. “Secretary Kennedy has made clear that American public health dollars going abroad must be spent wisely,” Nixon, the HHS spokesperson, said. “That means reviewing funding commitments and ensuring programs meet safety and effectiveness standards. Protecting Americans at home remains our first obligation.” Reef, the former CDC doctor who had witnessed newborns suffering from congenital rubella syndrome in Vietnam, is devastated by the pullback. “It makes me very very sad,” she said, then paused for a long time. “Very very sad. I can’t explain to you what it feels like to see all your hard work going by the wayside.” In retirement, she remains part of the group of experts that helps governments decide when to introduce the rubella vaccine and also serves on four WHO committees that determine whether nations have eliminated rubella or measles. When countries launch rubella vaccination campaigns for the first time, they can’t just target babies or the virus shifts to older groups and can infect those who are pregnant. To avoid this, Gavi for many years supported immunizing all children from 9 months old up to age 15 when countries first introduce the shot, which offers protection not just for rubella but also for measles. But facing a massive hole in its budget, Gavi’s board in December decided in the future to save money by only guaranteeing that vaccine up to age 10 when a country first debuts it. Modeling predicts the change could result in 72,000 additional deaths from measles and congenital rubella syndrome, according to the Gavi board’s records. A Gavi spokesperson acknowledged that the shift creates a greater risk of congenital rubella but said that the organization had to figure out how to protect as many people as it could with far less money. Countries that want to offer the vaccine to older kids, she noted, can draw from a different pot of Gavi money, but that will leave those places with less funding for other shots. Fallout from the budget cuts goes well beyond rubella. “The bottom line is that, over the next five years, we expect to be able to prevent 600,000 future deaths less than if we were fully funded,” the spokesperson said. Addressing Kennedy’s criticism, the spokesperson added, “Gavi’s utmost concern is the health and safety of children. Our approach to vaccine safety is guided entirely by global scientific consensus.” <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="495" width="752" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260312-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?w=752" alt="Circles of white film cover the centers of a child’s eyes. " class="wp-image-70805" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260312-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg 3045w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260312-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=300,198 300w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260312-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=768,506 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260312-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=1024,674 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260312-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=1536,1011 1536w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260312-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=2048,1349 2048w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260312-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=863,568 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260312-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=422,278 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260312-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=552,363 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260312-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=558,367 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260312-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=527,347 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260312-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=752,495 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260312-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=1149,757 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260312-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=2000,1317 2000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260312-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=400,263 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260312-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=800,527 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260312-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=1200,790 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260312-hhs-doomsday-rubella.jpg?resize=1600,1054 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" /> Cataracts caused by congenital rubella syndrome Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The spread of measles in the U.S. warns of future rubella outbreaks. Since the rubella shot here is given in combination with the vaccine for measles and mumps, parents who turn down measles vaccines leave their kids vulnerable to rubella, too. It could take 20 years before birth defects from rubella become common again. Unvaccinated children have to grow old enough to become pregnant. The long lag time can give a false sense of security. But, Reef warned, “when it comes back, it will come back with a vengeance. We will see babies being born who are blind, deaf and have heart disease.” The world is ill prepared for a major resurgence in diphtheria. Antitoxin, made from the blood of horses, has to be given immediately. Yet supplies are scarce, and not many companies sell it. Dozens of kids in Pakistan died in 2024 because doctors there couldn’t get it in time. Vitek, the CDC doctor who fought diphtheria in Russia, helped obtain permission for the CDC to keep an emergency stash of antitoxin for Americans after the only manufacturer with FDA approval stopped making it. The U.S. medical system still relies on an emergency supply controlled by the CDC. ProPublica asked the CDC and HHS how many diphtheria patients the government’s current supply could treat, but neither agency would say. (“The CDC vigilantly monitors disease trends, maintains emergency stockpiles, and supports outbreak response at home and abroad,” Nixon said.) Vitek retired in July after 33 years with the CDC, but he still worries how diseases that seem vanquished can reappear if people can’t or won’t get shots. The unvaccinated parts of America could find themselves, like Germany, one unwitting traveler away from an outbreak of a horror from the history books. “Once it gets reintroduced, your kid could get sick or die, even with modern medicine,” Vitek warned. And diphtheria, he noted, “it’s a terrible way to die.” Do You Have a Tip for ProPublica? Help Us Do Journalism. Got a story we should hear? Are you down to be a background source on a story about your community, your schools or your workplace? Get in touch. Send Us Your Tip The post How Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Vaccine Agenda Risks a Resurgence of Deadly Childhood Plagues appeared first on ProPublica.
Transportation Lobbyists Have Donated Thousands to Sean Duffy’s Son-in-Law as He Runs for Congress
The post Transportation Lobbyists Have Donated Thousands to Sean Duffy’s Son-in-Law as He Runs for Congress appeared first on ProPublica.
The $16 billion Hudson Tunnel Project, under construction between Manhattan and New Jersey, will improve passenger rail service, an important issue for New York City commuters. It would seem to have nothing to do with what’s happening in northern Wisconsin. But after the White House froze federal grant funding for the project in the fall, citing concerns about diversity and equity measures, lobbyists with an interest in the tunnel donated $2,500 to a political novice running in the Republican primary in Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District. The young candidate, Michael Alfonso, has no sway over the matter. However, his father-in-law does: Sean Duffy is secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation. The contributions are among dozens to Alfonso’s campaign from lobbyists, business executives and political action committees tied to industries — from rails and highways to shipping and air travel — that Duffy’s department funds and regulates. His department also oversees the Federal Aviation Administration. Duffy held the 7th Congressional District seat for nearly a decade before resigning in 2019. He was succeeded by Tom Tiffany, who is now running for Wisconsin governor, leaving the seat open again. Alfonso, 26, who has worked in construction and podcasting, has been endorsed by President Donald Trump. A ProPublica analysis found that many of the Alfonso donors with transportation interests had never given to Duffy or Tiffany. While legal, such donations set up the appearance that helping Alfonso might assist the donors with issues influenced by Duffy. (Politico has reported on some of these contributions.) “The law, as it stands, provides very little constraint,” said Daniel Weiner, director of the Elections and Government Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, a law and policy institute based in New York. “There’s a very large gulf between what is legal and what is ethical. Obviously, this raises numerous ethical questions.” This is not the first time a Cabinet secretary’s relative has created thorny ethical issues. During the first Trump administration, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao made headlines for appearing to give preferential treatment to Kentucky officials for millions of dollars in infrastructure grants. Kentucky is the home state of her husband, Mitch McConnell, then Senate majority leader. At the time, Chao’s office denied showing any favoritism, saying that Kentucky’s share was not out of the ordinary. And in 2012, under President Barack Obama, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, an Iowa Democrat, fielded questions about the separation between U.S. Department of Agriculture business and the campaign of his wife, Christie, who was running for Congress. Christie Vilsack told ProPublica in an interview that the couple was careful about making sure her husband was not involved in the campaign, other than to support her at some debates and on election night. He “never did any fundraising at all,” she said. An influential member of Trump’s Cabinet, Duffy has been openly assisting his son-in-law’s campaign. The notice for a November “meet and greet” with Alfonso in Wausau, Wisconsin, mentioned that Duffy would be a special guest, as did an invitation for another December fundraiser. Among the sponsors for the December event was the political action committee for Delta Air Lines. The invitation included a caveat: “Sean Duffy is not soliciting funds in connection with this event.” Alfonso’s campaign did not respond to requests from ProPublica for an interview or for comment. A spokesperson for Duffy, Nathaniel Sizemore, provided a written statement saying: “The Secretary attends fundraising events in his personal capacity. Regulatory decisions are guided by career safety professionals, the law, and the facts.” Nothing in law bars Duffy from campaigning for his son-in-law, so long as he goes about it on his personal time, does not use government resources and does not promise to take some official action in exchange for a contribution. Alfonso is using the same fundraising consultant, Kirstin Hopkins, that Duffy employed, Federal Election Commission records show. In addition, Alfonso has received help with ads and mailers from a super PAC, the Northwoods Future PAC, that is funded with $1 million from Duffy’s former campaign committee. Alfonso’s familial advantage has irked some Wisconsin Republicans who don’t want the newcomer to glide into such an important position. Through his own campaign committee, Alfonso had raised a little over $305,000 as of the end of 2025, the latest filing available. By law, contributions for each election are limited to $3,500 from individuals and $5,000 from political action committees. Donors can contribute to more than one election at the same time, such as a primary race and a general. Alfonso’s donors include lobbyist Jeffrey Miller, a finance chair of Trump’s most recent inaugural committee. In December, Miller and his company’s chief operating officer donated separately to Alfonso, for a combined $8,500. No one listing their firm, Miller Strategies, as an employer had donated to either Duffy or Tiffany in the past, according to FEC records. Lobbyist disclosure reports show that Miller lobbied the Transportation Department in 2025 on behalf of at least nine companies, one New York county and one Native American tribe. The issues included airport signage regulation, aviation permitting for the developer of a supersonic airliner and advancements in GPS technology. Miller reported advocating for Archer Aviation regarding electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft technology, known as eVTOL — the basis for future flying cars. Earlier this month, Duffy announced a first-of-its-kind FAA pilot program to test eVTOL technology in eight demonstration projects across 26 states. Archer was among the companies selected to participate, according to the Transportation Department. In a video accompanying the announcement, Duffy spoke enthusiastically about the technology, envisioning “Ubers in the air” taking people from one airport to the next and beyond. He said, “eVTOLs are going to make the airspace far more interesting and far more fun, and we have to be prepared for that.” Miller did not return calls or emails seeking comment. Alfonso graduated in 2022 from the University of Wisconsin with a math degree. He moved to Florida for a time to help produce a popular podcast hosted by Dan Bongino, a Trump supporter who later served a brief stint as deputy director of the FBI. (Bongino is back podcasting again.) By Alfonso’s account, he and Trump first met in 2022 at Alfonso’s wedding to Duffy’s daughter, Evita. The reception took place at one of Trump’s New Jersey golf courses. Alfonso has said that in an Oval Office meeting after he decided to run for Congress, he pledged loyalty to the president. “I promised him that I would always be America first, I would always fight for his agenda and that nobody would ever outwork me,” Alfonso told Mark Halperin, another podcaster. On social media in November, Alfonso thanked Duffy for coming to his first campaign event in Wausau, the city where the candidate met his future wife while they were in middle school. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="464" width="527" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/DuffyAlfonso-Twitter-grey_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?w=527" alt="A screenshot of a post to X from @MikeAlfonsoWI with text that reads, “Huge thank you to Sean Duffy and everyone who came out to our first official campaign event in my hometown of Wausau! Grateful for the support — and fired up for what’s ahead! 🇺🇸” and four photographs of a political campaign event taking place in a conference room." class="wp-image-70774" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/DuffyAlfonso-Twitter-grey_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg 1180w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/DuffyAlfonso-Twitter-grey_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=300,264 300w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/DuffyAlfonso-Twitter-grey_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=768,677 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/DuffyAlfonso-Twitter-grey_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=1024,903 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/DuffyAlfonso-Twitter-grey_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=863,761 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/DuffyAlfonso-Twitter-grey_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=422,372 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/DuffyAlfonso-Twitter-grey_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=552,487 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/DuffyAlfonso-Twitter-grey_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=558,492 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/DuffyAlfonso-Twitter-grey_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=527,464 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/DuffyAlfonso-Twitter-grey_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=752,663 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/DuffyAlfonso-Twitter-grey_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=1149,1013 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/DuffyAlfonso-Twitter-grey_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=400,353 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/DuffyAlfonso-Twitter-grey_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=800,705 800w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 527px) 100vw, 527px" /> In a post on X, Alfonso thanked his father-in-law for joining him on the campaign trail in Wisconsin last November. X The following month, the transportation secretary appeared at a campaign fundraiser for Alfonso at a hotel in Green Bay, near the storied Lambeau Field. The donors in attendance included Sharad Tak of Bethesda, Maryland, the CEO of ST LNG, a company seeking a DOT-issued license to construct and operate a deep-water port offshore of Matagorda, Texas, to load liquefied natural gas onto carriers. Tak gave $500 to the campaign, and his wife, Mahinder, who did not attend the function, gave $7,000. Neither had donated to Duffy or Tiffany. Tak did not reply to ProPublica’s request for an interview but asked a longtime friend of his, Ann Murphy of Green Bay, who works as a consultant for him, to respond. Tak owns a paper mill in Oconto Falls, north of Green Bay. It is not in the 7th Congressional District. But Murphy said Tak was visiting the state and agreed, at her request, to attend the fundraiser for Alfonso. She said in an interview that the Texas liquefied natural gas project had no bearing on Tak’s campaign contribution. “Absolutely not.” It’s typical, she said, for Tak and his wife to support causes, both political and philanthropic, that Murphy and her husband find worthwhile — and vice versa. “We were very excited about Michael,” Murphy said of Alfonso, likening him to Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA who inspired many young people before being killed last year. “And he does have the endorsement of President Trump.” Others donating to Alfonso’s candidacy include political action committees for employees of the military jetmaker Lockheed Martin, which is subject to FAA safety regulations and has lucrative government contracts, and for T-Mobile, which is working on a DOT project to enhance the resilience of critical 5G infrastructure. PACs for unions and trade associations for heavy equipment operators, engineers, aeronautical services and the travel industry have also pitched in. The PAC for Brightline, a high-speed train service in Florida, also donated, giving $2,500 in December. Brightline trains have struck and killed more than 180 pedestrians or drivers at crossings since 2017, according to an investigation by the Miami Herald and WLRN. Duffy promised at a congressional committee hearing in July to work to “drive down the number of deaths.” In September, he announced that his department would distribute $42 million to improve safety along the line. In a statement to the Florida news organizations, Brightline officials blamed the deaths on suicides and the “reckless” behavior of people who put themselves in harm’s way. Brightline, T-Mobile and Lockheed Martin did not respond to ProPublica’s requests for comment. On its website, Lockheed notes that it complies with all applicable laws and regulations with regard to its political and public policy activities. Alfonso’s campaign has drawn donations from others in the heavily regulated railroad sector. They include Peter Bartek, founder of FTS Rail, which manufactures battery-powered railroad repair tools and sensors that detect rail breaks caused by extreme heat or cold. He gave $3,644 in November. Duffy appointed Bartek last July to serve on a DOT advisory committee. Bartek had never given to a candidate in the district before. In an interview, he said he read a news article about Alfonso’s campaign and decided to donate. “I like Secretary Duffy very much,” he said, “and I thought very simply, boy, if he’s anything like his father-in-law, it would be nice to support him as well.” He said in a text that he didn’t know Duffy personally and was not involved in Alfonso’s campaign or fundraising. In New York, construction on the Hudson Tunnel Project to improve commuter rail service came to a screeching halt in early February after the federal government cut off funds. A court intervened, ordering the money released, and work resumed. A bistate commission overseeing the project warned this month that it could face disruptions again in upcoming months if federal disbursements do not continue. In response to outreach from ProPublica, an executive at Venture Government Strategies, whose lobbyists for the tunnel project gave a combined $2,500 to Alfonso, said in an email the company had no comment. On his campaign website, Alfonso lists a dozen issues “that matter to us” — ranging from education and health care to immigration. He wants to “make farms and families strong,” “give Gen Z a voice” and work against access to abortion. Transportation issues are not among those priorities, but he still is getting support from General Motors, which regularly lobbies DOT on various issues, including fuel economy, vehicle safety and emissions standards, and other mandates. The giant car manufacturer also gave to Duffy when he was running for the congressional seat, and the transportation secretary has become a booster. (GM did not respond to ProPublica’s request for comment.) In mid-December, viewers of social media saw Duffy slide behind the wheel of a sleek, black, limited-edition Corvette, imbued with patriotic insignia to celebrate the nation’s upcoming 250th birthday. “Over 1,000 horsepower,” Duffy said in a promotional video, emphasizing the dynamic features of the $200,000 supercar. “We’re going to take this bad boy on a little test drive to the Army-Navy game.” Off he went. The video, uploaded to the social media platform X, highlighted a travel app the carmaker made in partnership with the Department of Transportation, while also showcasing Chevrolet’s automotive series dubbed Stars and Steel. The post received over 130,000 views: valuable advertisement for the storied carmaker, General Motors. A couple of weeks later, GM’s political action committee donated $1,000 to Alfonso. The post Transportation Lobbyists Have Donated Thousands to Sean Duffy’s Son-in-Law as He Runs for Congress appeared first on ProPublica.
Federal Cyber Experts Thought Microsoft’s Cloud Was “a Pile of Shit.” They Approved It Anyway.
The post Federal Cyber Experts Thought Microsoft’s Cloud Was “a Pile of Shit.” They Approved It Anyway. appeared first on ProPublica.
In late 2024, the federal government’s cybersecurity evaluators rendered a troubling verdict on one of Microsoft’s biggest cloud computing offerings. The tech giant’s “lack of proper detailed security documentation” left reviewers with a “lack of confidence in assessing the system’s overall security posture,” according to an internal government report reviewed by ProPublica. Or, as one member of the team put it: “The package is a pile of shit.” For years, reviewers said, Microsoft had tried and failed to fully explain how it protects sensitive information in the cloud as it hops from server to server across the digital terrain. Given that and other unknowns, government experts couldn’t vouch for the technology’s security. Such judgments would be damning for any company seeking to sell its wares to the U.S. government, but it should have been particularly devastating for Microsoft. The tech giant’s products had been at the heart of two major cybersecurity attacks against the U.S. in three years. In one, Russian hackers exploited a weakness to steal sensitive data from a number of federal agencies, including the National Nuclear Security Administration. In the other, Chinese hackers infiltrated the email accounts of a Cabinet member and other senior government officials. The federal government could be further exposed if it couldn’t verify the cybersecurity of Microsoft’s Government Community Cloud High, a suite of cloud-based services intended to safeguard some of the nation’s most sensitive information. Yet, in a highly unusual move that still reverberates across Washington, the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, or FedRAMP, authorized the product anyway, bestowing what amounts to the federal government’s cybersecurity seal of approval. FedRAMP’s ruling — which included a kind of “buyer beware” notice to any federal agency considering GCC High — helped Microsoft expand a government business empire worth billions of dollars. “BOOM SHAKA LAKA,” Richard Wakeman, one of the company’s chief security architects, boasted in an online forum, celebrating the milestone with a meme of Leonardo DiCaprio in “The Wolf of Wall Street.” Wakeman did not respond to requests for comment. It was not the type of outcome that federal policymakers envisioned a decade and a half ago when they embraced the cloud revolution and created FedRAMP to help safeguard the government’s cybersecurity. The program’s layers of review, which included an assessment by outside experts, were supposed to ensure that service providers like Microsoft could be entrusted with the government’s secrets. But ProPublica’s investigation — drawn from internal FedRAMP memos, logs, emails, meeting minutes, and interviews with seven former and current government employees and contractors — found breakdowns at every juncture of that process. It also found a remarkable deference to Microsoft, even as the company’s products and practices were central to two of the most damaging cyberattacks ever carried out against the government. This is not security. This is security theater. Tony Sager, former NSA computer scientist FedRAMP first raised questions about GCC High’s security in 2020 and asked Microsoft to provide detailed diagrams explaining its encryption practices. But when the company produced what FedRAMP considered to be only partial information in fits and starts, program officials did not reject Microsoft’s application. Instead, they repeatedly pulled punches and allowed the review to drag out for the better part of five years. And because federal agencies were allowed to deploy the product during the review, GCC High spread across the government as well as the defense industry. By late 2024, FedRAMP reviewers concluded that they had little choice but to authorize the technology — not because their questions had been answered or their review was complete, but largely on the grounds that Microsoft’s product was already being used across Washington. Today, key parts of the federal government, including the Justice and Energy departments, and the defense sector rely on this technology to protect highly sensitive information that, if leaked, “could be expected to have a severe or catastrophic adverse effect” on operations, assets and individuals, the government has said. “This is not a happy story in terms of the security of the U.S.,” said Tony Sager, who spent more than three decades as a computer scientist at the National Security Agency and now is an executive at the nonprofit Center for Internet Security. For years, the FedRAMP process has been equated with actual security, Sager said. ProPublica’s findings, he said, shatter that facade. “This is not security,” he said. “This is security theater.” <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="502" width="752" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2231037039_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?w=752" alt="The U.S. Capitol building at night with a red light in the corner." class="wp-image-69512" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2231037039_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg 3000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2231037039_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2231037039_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2231037039_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2231037039_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1536,1025 1536w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2231037039_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=2048,1366 2048w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2231037039_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=863,576 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2231037039_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=422,281 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2231037039_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=552,368 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2231037039_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=558,372 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2231037039_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=527,352 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2231037039_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=752,502 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2231037039_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1149,766 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2231037039_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=2000,1334 2000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2231037039_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=400,267 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2231037039_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=800,534 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2231037039_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1200,800 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2231037039_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1600,1067 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" /> Despite a “lack of confidence in assessing” the security of Microsoft’s GCC High, FedRAMP authorized the product anyway. Alex Wong/Getty Images ProPublica is exposing the government’s reservations about this popular product for the first time. We are also revealing Microsoft’s yearslong inability to provide the encryption documentation and evidence the federal reviewers sought. The revelations come as the Justice Department ramps up scrutiny of the government’s technology contractors. In December, the department announced the indictment of a former employee of Accenture who allegedly misled federal agencies about the security of the company’s cloud platform and its compliance with FedRAMP’s standards. She has pleaded not guilty. Accenture, which was not charged with wrongdoing, has said that it “proactively brought this matter to the government’s attention” and that it is “dedicated to operating with the highest ethical standards.” Microsoft has also faced questions about its disclosures to the government. As ProPublica reported last year, the company failed to inform the Defense Department about its use of China-based engineers to maintain the government’s cloud systems, despite Pentagon rules stipulating that “No Foreign persons may have” access to its most sensitive data. The department is investigating the practice, which officials say could have compromised national security. Microsoft has defended its program as “tightly monitored and supplemented by layers of security mitigations,” but after ProPublica’s story published last July, the company announced that it would stop using China-based engineers for Defense Department work. In response to written questions for this story and in an interview, Microsoft acknowledged the yearslong confrontation with FedRAMP but also said it provided “comprehensive documentation” throughout the review process and “remediated findings where possible.” “We stand by our products and the comprehensive steps we’ve taken to ensure all FedRAMP-authorized products meet the security and compliance requirements necessary,” a spokesperson said in a statement, adding that the company would “continue to work with FedRAMP to continuously review and evaluate our services for continued compliance.” But these days, ProPublica found, there aren’t many people left at FedRAMP to work with. The program was an early target of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, which slashed its staff and budget. Even FedRAMP acknowledges it is operating “with an absolute minimum of support staff” and “limited customer service.” The roughly two dozen employees who remain are “entirely focused on” delivering authorizations at a record pace, FedRAMP’s director has said. Today, its annual budget is just $10 million, its lowest in a decade, even as it has boasted record numbers of new authorizations for cloud products. The consequence of all this, people who have worked for FedRAMP told ProPublica, is that the program now is little more than a rubber stamp for industry. The implications of such a downsizing for federal cybersecurity are far-reaching, especially as the administration encourages agencies to adopt cloud-based artificial intelligence tools, which draw upon reams of sensitive information. The General Services Administration, which houses FedRAMP, defended the program, saying it has undergone “significant reforms to strengthen governance” since GCC High arrived in 2020. “FedRAMP’s role is to assess if cloud services have provided sufficient information and materials to be adequate for agency use, and the program today operates with strengthened oversight and accountability mechanisms to do exactly that,” a GSA spokesperson said in an emailed statement. The agency did not respond to written questions regarding GCC High. A “Cloud First” World About two decades ago, federal officials predicted that the cloud revolution, providing on-demand access to shared computing via the internet, would usher in an era of cheaper, more secure and more efficient information technology. Moving to the cloud meant shifting away from on-premises servers owned and operated by the government to those in massive data centers maintained by tech companies. Some agency leaders were reluctant to relinquish control, while others couldn’t wait to. In an effort to accelerate the transition, the Obama administration issued its “Cloud First” policy in 2011, requiring all agencies to implement cloud-based tools “whenever a secure, reliable, cost-effective” option existed. To facilitate adoption, the administration created FedRAMP, whose job was to ensure the security of those tools. FedRAMP’s “do once, use many times” system was intended to streamline and strengthen the government procurement process. Previously, each agency using a cloud service vetted it separately, sometimes applying different interpretations of federal security requirements. Under the new program, agencies would be able to skip redundant security reviews because FedRAMP authorization indicated that the product had already met standardized requirements. Authorized products would be listed on a government website known as the FedRAMP Marketplace. On paper, the program was an exercise in efficiency. But in practice, the small FedRAMP team could not keep up with the flood of demand from tech companies that wanted their products authorized. The slow approval process frustrated both the tech industry, eager for a share in the billions of federal dollars up for grabs, and government agencies that were under pressure to migrate to the cloud. These dynamics sometimes pitted the cloud industry and agency officials together against FedRAMP. The backlog also prompted many agencies to take an alternative path: performing their own reviews of the products they wanted to adopt, using FedRAMP’s standards. It was through this “agency path” that GCC High entered the federal bloodstream, with the Justice Department paving the way. Initially, some Justice officials were nervous about the cloud and who might have access to its information, which includes highly sensitive court and law enforcement records, a Justice Department official involved in the decision told ProPublica. The department’s cybersecurity program required it to ensure that only U.S. citizens “access or assist in the development, operation, management, or maintenance” of its IT systems, unless a waiver was granted. Justice’s IT specialists recommended pursuing GCC High, believing it could meet the elevated security needs, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal matters. Pursuant to FedRAMP’s rules, Microsoft had GCC High evaluated by a so-called third-party assessment organization, which is supposed to provide an independent review of whether the product has met federal standards. The Justice Department then performed its own evaluation of GCC High using those standards and ruled the offering acceptable. Melinda Rogers, former chief information officer for the Department of Justice U.S. Department of Justice archives By early 2020, Melinda Rogers, Justice’s deputy chief information officer, made the decision official and soon deployed GCC High across the department. It was a milestone for all involved. Rogers had ushered the Justice Department into the cloud, and Microsoft had gained a significant foothold in the cutthroat market for the federal government’s cloud computing business. Moreover, Rogers’ decision placed GCC High on the FedRAMP Marketplace, the government’s influential online clearinghouse of all the cloud providers that are under review or already authorized. Its mere mention as “in process” was a boon for Microsoft, amounting to free advertising on a website used by organizations seeking to purchase cloud services bearing what is widely seen as the government’s cybersecurity seal of approval. That April, GCC High landed at FedRAMP’s office for review, the final stop on its bureaucratic journey to full authorization. Microsoft’s Missing Information In theory, there shouldn’t have been much for FedRAMP’s team to do after the third-party assessor and Justice reviewed GCC High, because all parties were supposed to be following the same requirements. But it was around this time that the Government Accountability Office, which investigates federal programs, discovered breakdowns in the process, finding that agency reviews sometimes were lacking in quality. Despite missing details, FedRAMP went on to authorize many of these packages. Acknowledging these shortcomings, FedRAMP began to take a harder look at new packages, a former reviewer said. This was the environment in which Microsoft’s GCC High application entered the pipeline. The name GCC High was an umbrella covering many services and features within Office 365 that all needed to be reviewed. FedRAMP reviewers quickly noticed key material was missing. The team homed in on what it viewed as a fundamental document called a “data flow diagram,” former members told ProPublica. The illustration is supposed to show how data travels from Point A to Point B — and, more importantly, how it’s protected as it hops from server to server. FedRAMP requires data to be encrypted while in transit to ensure that sensitive materials are protected even if they’re intercepted by hackers. But when the FedRAMP team asked Microsoft to produce the diagrams showing how such encryption would happen for each service in GCC High, the company balked, saying the request was too challenging. So the reviewers suggested starting with just Exchange Online, the popular email platform. “This was our litmus test to say, ‘This isn’t the only thing that’s required, but if you’re not doing this, we are not even close yet,’” said one reviewer who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal matters. Once they reached the appropriate level of detail, they would move from Exchange to other services within GCC High. It was the kind of detail that other major cloud providers such as Amazon and Google routinely provided, members of the FedRAMP team told ProPublica. Yet Microsoft took months to respond. When it did, the former reviewer said, it submitted a white paper that discussed GCC High’s encryption strategy but left out the details of where on the journey data actually becomes encrypted and decrypted — so FedRAMP couldn’t assess that it was being done properly. A Microsoft spokesperson acknowledged that the company had “articulated a challenge related to illustrating the volume of information being requested in diagram form” but “found alternate ways to share that information.” Rogers, who was hired by Microsoft in 2025, declined to be interviewed. In response to emailed questions, the company provided a statement saying that she “stands by the rigorous evaluation that contributed to” her authorization of GCC High. A spokesperson said there was “absolutely no connection” between her hiring and the decisions in the GCC High process, and that she and the company complied with “all rules, regulations, and ethical standards.” The Justice Department declined to respond to written questions from ProPublica. A Fight Over “Spaghetti Pies” As 2020 came to a close, a national security crisis hit Washington that underscored the consequences of cyber weakness. Russian state-sponsored hackers had been quietly working their way through federal computer systems for much of the year and vacuuming up sensitive data and emails from U.S. agencies — including the Justice Department. At the time, most of the blame fell on a Texas-based company called SolarWinds, whose software provided hackers their initial opening and whose name became synonymous with the attack. But, as ProPublica has reported, the Russians leveraged that opening to exploit a long-standing weakness in a Microsoft product — one that the company had refused to fix for years, despite repeated warnings from one of its engineers. Microsoft has defended its decision not to address the flaw, saying that it received “multiple reviews” and that the company weighs a variety of factors when making security decisions. In the aftermath, the Biden administration took steps to bolster the nation’s cybersecurity. Among them, the Justice Department announced a cyber-fraud initiative in 2021 to crack down on companies and individuals that “put U.S. information or systems at risk by knowingly providing deficient cybersecurity products or services, knowingly misrepresenting their cybersecurity practices or protocols, or knowingly violating obligations to monitor and report cybersecurity incidents and breaches.” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said the department would use the False Claims Act to pursue government contractors “when they fail to follow required cybersecurity standards — because we know that puts all of us at risk.” <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="501" width="752" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1251922707_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?w=752" alt="A woman with chin-length brown hair in a blue blazer looks toward the camera. Abstract blue and red light patterns blur in the foreground and background." class="wp-image-69510" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1251922707_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg 3000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1251922707_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1251922707_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1251922707_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1251922707_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1251922707_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1251922707_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=863,575 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1251922707_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=422,281 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1251922707_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=552,368 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1251922707_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=558,372 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1251922707_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=527,351 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1251922707_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=752,501 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1251922707_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1149,766 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1251922707_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=2000,1333 2000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1251922707_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=400,267 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1251922707_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=800,533 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1251922707_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1200,800 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-1251922707_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1600,1067 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" /> Former Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. After Russian state-sponsored hackers stole sensitive data from U.S. agencies, Monaco said the Department of Justice would hold government contractors accountable for failing to uphold cybersecurity standards. Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images But if Microsoft felt any pressure from the SolarWinds attack or from the Justice Department’s announcement, it didn’t manifest in the FedRAMP talks, according to former members of the FedRAMP team. The discourse between FedRAMP and Microsoft fell into a pattern. The parties would meet. Months would go by. Microsoft would return with a response that FedRAMP deemed incomplete or irrelevant. To bolster the chances of getting the information it wanted, the FedRAMP team provided Microsoft with a template, describing the level of detail it expected. But the diagrams Microsoft returned never met those expectations. “We never got past Exchange,” one former reviewer said. “We never got that level of detail. We had no visibility inside.” In an interview with ProPublica, John Bergin, the Microsoft official who became the government’s main contact, acknowledged the prolonged back-and-forth but blamed FedRAMP, equating its requests for diagrams to a “rock fetching exercise.” “We were maybe incompetent in how we drew drawings because there was no standard to draw them to,” he said. “Did we not do it exactly how they wanted? Absolutely. There was always something missing because there was no standard.” A Microsoft spokesperson said without such a standard, “cloud providers were left to interpret the level of abstraction and representation on their own,” creating “inconsistency and confusion, not an unwillingness to be transparent.” But even Microsoft’s own engineers had struggled over the years to map the architecture of its products, according to two people involved in building cloud services used by federal customers. At issue, according to people familiar with Microsoft’s technology, was the decades-old code of its legacy software, which the company used in building its cloud services. One FedRAMP reviewer compared it to a “pile of spaghetti pies.” The data’s path from Point A to Point B, the person said, was like traveling from Washington to New York with detours by bus, ferry and airplane rather than just taking a quick ride on Amtrak. And each one of those detours represents an opportunity for a hijacking if the data isn’t properly encrypted. Other major cloud providers such as Amazon and Google built their systems from the ground up, said Sager, the former NSA computer scientist, who worked with all three companies during his time in government. Microsoft’s system is “not designed for this kind of isolation of ‘secure’ from ‘not secure,’” Sager said. A Microsoft spokesperson acknowledged the company faces a unique challenge but maintained that its cloud products meet federal security requirements. “Unlike providers that started later with a narrower product scope, Microsoft operates one of the broadest enterprise and government platforms in the world, supporting continuity for millions of customers while simultaneously modernizing at scale,” the spokesperson said in emailed responses. “That complexity is not ‘spaghetti,’ but it does mean the work of disentangling, isolating, and hardening systems is continuous.” The spokesperson said that since 2023, Microsoft has made “security‑first architectural redesign, legacy risk reduction, and stronger isolation guarantees a top, company‑wide priority.” Assessors Back-Channel Cyber Concerns The FedRAMP team was not the only party with reservations about GCC High. Microsoft’s third-party assessment organizations also expressed concerns. The firms are supposed to be independent but are hired and paid by the company being assessed. Acknowledging the potential for conflicts of interest, FedRAMP has encouraged the assessment firms to confidentially back-channel to its reviewers any negative feedback that they were unwilling to bring directly to their clients or reflect in official reports. In 2020, two third-party assessors hired by Microsoft, Coalfire and Kratos, did just that. They told FedRAMP that they were unable to get the full picture of GCC High, a former FedRAMP reviewer told ProPublica. “Coalfire and Kratos both readily admitted that it was difficult to impossible to get the information required out of Microsoft to properly do a sufficient assessment,” the reviewer told ProPublica. The back channel helped surface cybersecurity issues that otherwise might never have been known to the government, people who have worked with and for FedRAMP told ProPublica. At the same time, they acknowledged its existence undermined the very spirit and intent of having independent assessors. A spokesperson for Coalfire, the firm that initially handled the GCC High assessment, requested written questions from ProPublica, then declined to respond. A spokesperson for Kratos, which replaced Coalfire as the GCC High assessor, declined an interview request. In an emailed response to written questions, the spokesperson said the company stands by its official assessment and recommendation of GCC High and “absolutely refutes” that it “ever would sign off on a product we were unable to fully vet.” The company “has open and frank conversations” with all customers, including Microsoft, which “submitted all requisite diagrams to meet FedRAMP-defined requirements,” the spokesperson said. Kratos said it “spent extensive time working collaboratively with FedRAMP in their review” and does not consider such discussions to be “backchanneling.” FedRAMP, however, was dissatisfied with Kratos’ ongoing work and believed the firm “should be pushing back” on Microsoft more, the former reviewer said. It placed Kratos on a “corrective action plan,” which could eventually result in loss of accreditation. The company said it did not agree with FedRAMP’s action but provided “additional trainings for some internal assessors” in response to it. The Microsoft spokesperson told ProPublica the company has “always been responsive to requests” from Kratos and FedRAMP. “We are not aware of any backchanneling, nor do we believe that backchanneling would have been necessary given our transparency and cooperation with auditor requests,” the spokesperson said. In response to questions from ProPublica about the process, the GSA said in an email that FedRAMP’s system “does not create an inherent conflict of interest for professional auditors who meet ethical and contractual performance expectations.” GSA did not respond to questions about back-channeling but said the “correct process” is for a third-party assessor to “state these problems formally in a finding during the security assessment so that the cloud service provider has an opportunity to fix the issue.” FedRAMP Ends Talks <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="501" width="752" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2201176889_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?w=752" alt="A silhouette of a person wearing a shoulder bag is surrounded by shadow. Behind the person is a large building full of windows and a blue sky." class="wp-image-69511" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2201176889_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg 3000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2201176889_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2201176889_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2201176889_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2201176889_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2201176889_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2201176889_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=863,575 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2201176889_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=422,281 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2201176889_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=552,368 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2201176889_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=558,372 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2201176889_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=527,351 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2201176889_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=752,501 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2201176889_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1149,766 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2201176889_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=2000,1333 2000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2201176889_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=400,267 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2201176889_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=800,533 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2201176889_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1200,800 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-2201176889_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1600,1067 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" /> FedRAMP is housed under the General Services Administration within the federal government. Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images The back-and-forth between the FedRAMP reviewers and Microsoft’s team went on for years with little progress. Then, in the summer of 2023, the program’s interim director, Brian Conrad, got a call from the White House that would alter the course of the review. Chinese state-sponsored hackers had infiltrated GCC, the lower-cost version of Microsoft’s government cloud, and stolen data and emails from the commerce secretary, the U.S. ambassador to China and other high-ranking government officials. In the aftermath, Chris DeRusha, the White House’s chief information security officer, wanted a briefing from FedRAMP, which had authorized GCC. The decision predated Conrad’s tenure, but he told ProPublica that he left the conversation with several takeaways. First, FedRAMP must hold all cloud providers — including Microsoft — to the same standards. Second, he had the backing of the White House in standing firm. Finally, FedRAMP would feel the political heat if any cloud service with a FedRAMP authorization were hacked. DeRusha confirmed Conrad’s account of the phone call but declined to comment further. Within months, Conrad informed Microsoft that FedRAMP was ending the engagement on GCC High. We can’t even quantify the unknowns, which makes us very uncomfortable. FedRAMP reviewer of GCC High “After three years of collaboration with the Microsoft team, we still lack visibility into the security gaps because there are unknowns that Microsoft has failed to address,” Conrad wrote in an October 2023 email. This, he added, was not for FedRAMP’s lack of trying. Staffers had spent 480 hours of review time, had conducted 18 “technical deep dive” sessions and had numerous email exchanges with the company over the years. Yet they still lacked the data flow diagrams, crucial information “since visibility into the encryption status of all data flows and stores is so important,” he wrote. If Microsoft still wanted FedRAMP authorization, Conrad wrote, it would need to start over. A FedRAMP reviewer, explaining the decision to the Justice Department, said the team was “not asking for anything above and beyond what we’ve asked from every other” cloud service provider, according to meeting minutes reviewed by ProPublica. But the request was particularly justified in Microsoft’s case, the reviewer told the Justice officials, because “each time we’ve actually been able to get visibility into a black box, we’ve uncovered an issue.” “We can’t even quantify the unknowns, which makes us very uncomfortable,” the reviewer said, according to the minutes. Microsoft and the Justice Department Push Back Microsoft was furious. Failing to obtain authorization and starting the process over would signal to the market that something was wrong with GCC High. Customers were already confused and concerned about the drawn-out review, which had become a hot topic in an online forum used by government and technology insiders. There, Wakeman, the Microsoft cybersecurity architect, deflected blame, saying the government had been “dragging their feet on it for years now.” Meanwhile, to build support for Microsoft’s case, Bergin, the company’s point person for FedRAMP and a former Army official, reached out to government leaders, including one from the Justice Department. The Justice official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter, said Bergin complained that the delay was hampering Microsoft’s ability “to get this out into the market full sail.” Bergin then pushed the Justice Department to “throw around our weight” to help secure FedRAMP authorization, the official said. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="659" width="527" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/1000w_q95-john-bergin_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?w=527" alt="A man with short black hair and goatee and wearing glasses and a suit slightly smiles in front of a U.S. flag and another flag." class="wp-image-69506" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/1000w_q95-john-bergin_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg 1000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/1000w_q95-john-bergin_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=240,300 240w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/1000w_q95-john-bergin_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=768,960 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/1000w_q95-john-bergin_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=819,1024 819w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/1000w_q95-john-bergin_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=863,1079 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/1000w_q95-john-bergin_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=422,528 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/1000w_q95-john-bergin_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=552,690 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/1000w_q95-john-bergin_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=558,698 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/1000w_q95-john-bergin_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=527,659 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/1000w_q95-john-bergin_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=752,940 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/1000w_q95-john-bergin_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=400,500 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/1000w_q95-john-bergin_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=800,1000 800w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 527px) 100vw, 527px" /> John Bergin in 2019, while serving as deputy assistant secretary of the Army for financial information management. He was later hired by Microsoft and served as the company’s liaison with FedRAMP during the GCC High debate. Defense Visual Information Distribution Service That December, as the parties gathered to hash things out at GSA’s Washington headquarters, Justice did just that. Rogers, who by then had been promoted to the department’s chief information officer, sat beside Bergin — on the opposite side of the table from Conrad, the FedRAMP director. Rogers and her Justice colleagues had a stake in the outcome. Since authorizing and deploying GCC High, she had received accolades for her work modernizing the department’s IT and cybersecurity. But without FedRAMP’s stamp of approval, she would be the government official left holding the bag if GCC High were involved in a serious hack. At the same time, the Justice Department couldn’t easily back out of using GCC High because once a technology is widely deployed, pulling the plug can be costly and technically challenging. And from its perspective, the cloud was an improvement over the old government-run data centers. Shortly after the meeting kicked off, Bergin interrupted a FedRAMP reviewer who had been presenting PowerPoint slides. He said the Justice Department and third-party assessor had already reviewed GCC High, according to meeting minutes. FedRAMP “should essentially just accept” their findings, he said. Then, in a shock to the FedRAMP team, Rogers backed him up and went on to criticize FedRAMP’s work, according to two attendees. In its statement, Microsoft said Rogers maintains that FedRAMP’s approach “was misguided and improperly dismissed the extensive evaluations performed by DOJ personnel.” Bergin did not dispute the account, telling ProPublica that he had been trying to argue that it is the purview of third-party assessors such as Kratos — not FedRAMP — to evaluate the security of cloud products. And because FedRAMP must approve the third-party assessment firms, the program should have taken its issues up with Kratos. “When you are the regulatory agency who determines who the auditors are and you refuse to accept your auditors’ answers, that’s not a ‘me’ problem,” Bergin told ProPublica. The GSA did not respond to questions about the meeting. The Justice Department declined to comment. Pressure Mounts on FedRAMP If there was any doubt about the role of FedRAMP, the White House issued a memorandum in the summer of 2024 that outlined its views. FedRAMP, it said, “must be capable of conducting rigorous reviews” and requiring cloud providers to “rapidly mitigate weaknesses in their security architecture.” The office should “consistently assess and validate cloud providers’ complex architectures and encryption schemes.” But by that point, GCC High had spread to other federal agencies, with the Justice Department’s authorization serving as a signal that the technology met federal standards. It also spread to the defense sector, since the Pentagon required that cloud products used by its contractors meet FedRAMP standards. While it did not have FedRAMP authorization, Microsoft marketed GCC High as meeting the requirements, selling it to companies such as Boeing that research, develop and maintain military weapons systems. But with the FedRAMP authorization up in the air, some contractors began to worry that by using GCC High, they were out of compliance. That could threaten their contracts, which, in turn, could impact Defense Department operations. Pentagon officials called FedRAMP to inquire about the authorization stalemate. The Defense Department acknowledged but did not respond to written questions from ProPublica. Rogers also kept pressing FedRAMP to “get this thing over the line,” former employees of the GSA and FedRAMP said. It was the “opinion of the staff and the contractors that she simply was not willing to put heat to Microsoft on this” and that the Justice Department “was too sympathetic to Microsoft’s claims,” Eric Mill, then GSA’s executive director for cloud strategy, told ProPublica. Authorization Despite a “Damning” Assessment In the summer of 2024, FedRAMP hired a new permanent director, government technology insider Pete Waterman. Within about a month of taking the job, he restarted the office’s review of GCC High with a new team, which put aside the debate over data flow diagrams and instead attempted to examine evidence from Microsoft. But these reviewers soon arrived at the same conclusion, with the team’s leader complaining about “getting stiff-armed” by Microsoft. “He came back and said, ‘Yeah, this thing sucks,’” Mill recalled. While the team was able to work through only two of the many services included in GCC High, Exchange Online and Teams, that was enough for it to identify “issues that are fundamental” to risk management, including “timely remediation of vulnerabilities and vulnerability scanning,” according to a summary of the team’s findings reviewed by ProPublica. Those issues, as well as a lack of “proper detailed security documentation” from Microsoft, limit “visibility and understanding of the system” and “impair the ability to make informed risk decisions.” The team concluded, “There is a lack of confidence in assessing the system’s overall security posture.” A Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement that the company “never received this feedback in any of its communications with FedRAMP.” When ProPublica read the findings to Bergin, the Microsoft liaison, he said he was surprised. “That’s pretty damning,” Bergin said, adding that it sounded like language that “would’ve generally been associated with a finding of ‘not worthy.’ If an assessor wrote that, I would be nervous.” Despite the findings, to the FedRAMP team, turning Microsoft down didn’t seem like an option. “Not issuing an authorization would impact multiple agencies that are already using GCC-H,” the summary document said. The team determined that it was a “better value” to issue an authorization with conditions for continued government oversight. While authorizations with oversight conditions weren’t unusual, arriving at one under these circumstances was. GCC High reviewers saw problems everywhere, both in what they were able to evaluate and what they weren’t. To them, most of the package remained a vast wilderness of untold risk. Nevertheless, FedRAMP and Microsoft reached an agreement, and the day after Christmas 2024, GCC High received its FedRAMP authorization. FedRAMP appended a cover report to the package laying out its deficiencies and noting it carried unknown risks, according to people familiar with the report. It emphasized that agencies should carefully review the package and engage directly with Microsoft on any questions. “Unknown Unknowns” Persist Microsoft told ProPublica that it has met the conditions of the agreement and has “stayed within the performance metrics required by FedRAMP” to ensure that “risks are identified, tracked, remediated, and transparently communicated.” But under the Trump administration, there aren’t many people left at FedRAMP to check. While the Biden-era guidance said FedRAMP “must be an expert program that can analyze and validate the security claims” of cloud providers, the GSA told ProPublica that the program’s role is “not to determine if a cloud service is secure enough.” Rather, it is “to ensure agencies have sufficient information to make these risk decisions.” The problem is that agencies often lack the staff and resources to do thorough reviews, which means the whole system is leaning on the claims of the cloud companies and the assessments of the third-party firms they pay to evaluate them. Under the current vision, critics say, FedRAMP has lost the plot. “FedRAMP’s job is to watch the American people’s back when it comes to sharing their data with cloud companies,” said Mill, the former GSA official, who also co-authored the 2024 White House memo. “When there’s a security issue, the public doesn’t expect FedRAMP to say they’re just a paper-pusher.” When there’s a security issue, the public doesn’t expect FedRAMP to say they’re just a paper-pusher. Eric Mill, former GSA executive director for cloud strategy Meanwhile, at the Justice Department, officials are finding out what FedRAMP meant by the “unknown unknowns” in GCC High. Last year, for example, they discovered that Microsoft relied on China-based engineers to service their sensitive cloud systems despite the department’s prohibition against non-U.S. citizens assisting with IT maintenance. Officials learned about this arrangement — which was also used in GCC High — not from FedRAMP or from Microsoft but from a ProPublica investigation into the practice, according to the Justice employee who spoke with us. A Microsoft spokesperson acknowledged that the written security plan for GCC High that the company submitted to the Justice Department did not mention foreign engineers, though he said Microsoft did communicate that information to Justice officials before 2020. Nevertheless, Microsoft has since ended its use of China-based engineers in government systems. Former and current government officials worry about what other risks may be lurking in GCC High and beyond. The GSA told ProPublica that, in general, “if there is credible evidence that a cloud service provider has made materially false representations, that matter is then appropriately referred to investigative authorities.” Ironically, the ultimate arbiter of whether cloud providers or their third-party assessors are living up to their claims is the Justice Department itself. The recent indictment of the former Accenture employee suggests it is willing to use this power. In a court document, the Justice Department alleges that the ex-employee made “false and misleading representations” about the cloud platform’s security to help the company “obtain and maintain lucrative federal contracts.” She is also accused of trying to “influence and obstruct” Accenture’s third-party assessors by hiding the product’s deficiencies and telling others to conceal the “true state of the system” during demonstrations, the department said. She has pleaded not guilty. There is no public indication that such a case has been brought against Microsoft or anyone involved in the GCC High authorization. The Justice Department declined to comment. Monaco, the deputy attorney general who launched the department’s initiative to pursue cybersecurity fraud cases, did not respond to requests for comment. She left her government position in January 2025. Microsoft hired her to become its president of global affairs. A company spokesperson said Monaco’s hiring complied with “all rules, regulations, and ethical standards” and that she “does not work on any federal government contracts or have oversight over or involvement with any of our dealings with the federal government.” The post Federal Cyber Experts Thought Microsoft’s Cloud Was “a Pile of Shit.” They Approved It Anyway. appeared first on ProPublica.
Oil Regulators Found Hundreds of Wells Violating Oklahoma Rules. Then They Ignored Their Findings.
The post Oil Regulators Found Hundreds of Wells Violating Oklahoma Rules. Then They Ignored Their Findings. appeared first on ProPublica.
Five years ago, Oklahoma oil regulators took on a project with an impressive name: the Source of Truth. State officials wanted a comprehensive database capturing all vital information about the more than 11,000 wells in Oklahoma that shoot the toxic byproduct of oil production back underground. I’d heard about this project from several people during the 18 months I had spent reporting on the growing number of cases where oilfield wastewater blasted out of old wells, known as purges, after being injected underground at high pressures. State employees also referenced the project in internal communications that I received after filing nearly a dozen public records requests to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry. Just before the new year, the Source of Truth itself landed in my inbox in response to an unrelated records request. And it was explosive, revealing a pattern of rule violations by oil and gas companies that state regulators allowed to continue. The project was supposed to clean up or fix state data regarding how much wastewater was being injected and the pressures at which it was being pushed underground. The agency’s databases, many of which were based on decades-old paper records, were riddled with contradictory or missing information. In many cases, the agency failed to update its records. More than 1,300 errors were identified. But the Source of Truth found more than just messy data. It also allowed regulators to pinpoint nearly 600 wells that were operating illegally: injecting wastewater above their permitted pressures or volumes. Excessively high injection pressures and volumes can lead to purges and groundwater pollution. That wasn’t all. The report also showed that regulators had allowed more than 1,400 other older injection wells to operate for decades without any limits whatsoever on injection pressures or volumes — grandfathered in from an earlier era of permissive oversight. In the course of my reporting on oil and gas pollution in Oklahoma, I’ve uncovered systemic underregulation by the state — as well as a few crucial fork-in-the-road moments, instances when state regulators could have taken action to bring the industry into compliance with their own rules. The completion of the Source of Truth was one of them. With this report, the agency had in hand an extensive list of potentially problematic wells that were either injecting above legal limits — or lacked limits entirely. These wells accounted for nearly a fifth of the active injection wells in the state. They warranted scrutiny, my agency sources told me. But after the report was completed, in 2021, regulators did not act on its findings. They did not make oil and gas operators comply with the injection limits on their permits or establish limits on older wells to bring them up to modern standards, agency employees said. They never made the report accessible to the wider agency staff, according to my agency sources and internal documents. In the meantime, the number of oilfield purges grew steadily, from about a dozen in 2020 to more than 150 over the next five years, according to a Frontier and ProPublica analysis of pollution complaints submitted to the agency. As agency employees investigated these pollution events, they identified plenty of problematic wells that, unbeknownst to many of them, had already been flagged in the Source of Truth. “The Oklahoma Corporation Commission looked into using the Source of Truth database in the past and elected not to use this form of data collection,” said Jack Money, an agency spokesperson, without saying why. Money did not say why regulators did not force oil companies to comply with the limits they had agreed to, why the agency chose not to establish limits on the older wells or why it did not share the Source of Truth widely. He did not respond to follow-up questions. Injecting Without Limits The core problem identified by the Source of Truth dates back to 1981, when Oklahoma applied to take over regulation of oil and gas injection operations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Purges often occur at abandoned, unplugged oil wells as a result of high-pressure injection. Obtained by ProPublica and The Frontier Before the feds would agree to hand over control, the state had to prove that its regulations would protect groundwater as required by the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. The 1974 law created basic standards for regulating underground injection. This meant big changes in Oklahoma. For decades, the state had routinely approved parcels of land for drilling, along with groups of injection wells that help produce oil. This type of injection well takes wastewater after it has been separated from oil and shoots it back underground to push more petroleum to the surface — a technique known as waterflooding. The state proposed approving every injection well individually, setting a maximum pressure and volume for each one to “prevent contamination of freshwater,” according to Oklahoma’s application to the EPA. Setting such limits would help ensure that the injected wastewater would not fracture the rock surrounding the well and pollute groundwater. Oklahoma won the EPA’s approval, becoming one of the first states to gain direct control of underground oil and gas injection. Today, more than 30 states have authority over regulation of underground injection for oil and gas. Oklahoma did not retroactively apply its new standards. And the EPA never forced it to. Thousands of existing wells were allowed to continue injecting with no volume or pressure limits. Federal regulators’ hands appear to be tied by the language of the Safe Drinking Water Act, which allows injection without limits to continue for “the life of the well,” according to Joseph Robledo, a spokesperson for the EPA regional office that oversees Oklahoma. “EPA acknowledges that because oil and gas activity began in Oklahoma long before the establishment of federal [underground injection] regulations, many wells in Oklahoma do not meet modern standards,” Robledo wrote in an email. He said Oklahoma has taken steps to modernize its oil and gas inventory and submits regular reports to the EPA. But my reporting shows that state regulators have not directly addressed the issue of wells without injection limits. I consulted more than a half dozen experts in oil and gas injection, including lawyers, about these wells operating under outdated standards. None had any idea that so many of Oklahoma’s injection wells had been grandfathered in and were not abiding by volume and pressure limits. Several noted, though, that the federal law is unclear on what state regulators were allowed — or required — to do; the Safe Drinking Water Act prohibited states from interfering with oil and gas operations that existed prior to the law’s passage — unless the operations endangered drinking water. Because the state never investigated these wells, no one can say for certain whether they do, in fact, threaten drinking water. But my reporting shows that excessively high injection pressures and volumes have caused mass pollution in Oklahoma. The most recent state data indicates that 88% of the 1,400 wells found by the Source of Truth to have no pressure or volume limits are listed as active, injecting over a hundred million gallons of wastewater beneath the ground last year. Establishing pressure and volume limits for each of these wells would’ve been a huge task, requiring regulators to approve new permits for each one. Nevertheless, experts say that responsible regulation of underground injection requires, at a basic level, knowing how much — and with how much force — water is being pushed underground. “Pressure and volume limits are key to ensure that injection wells aren’t, first and foremost, endangering groundwater, but also to prevent bad outcomes like earthquakes and purges,” Adam Peltz, an attorney who directs the energy office for the Environmental Defense Fund, an advocacy nonprofit, told me. Problematic Wells Near Purges In the years since the Source of Truth was completed, purges multiplied across the state, with toxic wastewater gushing to the surface, polluting farmland and water sources. One especially bad series of purges occurred in a rural stretch of Carter County in south central Oklahoma. Huge volumes of wastewater poured from the ground for months at a time starting in 2021. In an August 2022 internal email chain discussing the response to the ongoing wastewater eruptions, one environmental supervisor pointed out that the Source of Truth could have been “a tremendous help” to his team as they evaluated the injection wells near the purges — but they did not have access to it. After I got the Source of Truth documents, I checked to see if wells that it flagged as problematic were later identified by the agency to be located near purges in recent years. There were at least 30 matches. If the agency had proactively investigated the problem wells to see if wastewater was spreading widely belowground, it may have been able to identify several oilfields where overpressurized injection would later cause purges. In theory, the EPA could still force Oklahoma to improve its regulation of oil and gas injection, if federal officials found that its wells were systematically threatening groundwater. There is some precedent for this, but it’s rare. In California, federal officials helped conduct an audit of the state’s oilfield wastewater injection policies in 2011 and found that it had failed to properly protect aquifers. State and federal officials subsequently created a plan to overhaul California’s underground injection regulations. No state has ever had its oversight of oil and gas injection revoked. Similar scrutiny is unlikely in Oklahoma under President Donald Trump, whose EPA is radically loosening regulations on industry. Robledo, the EPA spokesperson, noted in an email that there are some circumstances that would require Oklahoma to place limits on these old wells, including when they are contaminating drinking water or violating other state rules. But state regulators would not know if these wells are contaminating drinking water if they do not investigate them. I asked state regulators whether they would address the many wells still injecting under outdated regulations, a situation created four decades ago and highlighted by the Source of Truth. They did not answer. Help Us Report on the Impact of Oil Field Waste in Oklahoma Toxic wastewater from oil fields keeps pouring out of the ground in Oklahoma. For years, residents have filed complaints and struggled to find solutions. We need your help to understand the full scale of the problem. Share Your Experience The post Oil Regulators Found Hundreds of Wells Violating Oklahoma Rules. Then They Ignored Their Findings. appeared first on ProPublica.
The Trump Administration’s “Disturbing” New Legal Strategy to Prosecute Border Crossers Is Taxing Courts and Testing the Law
The post The Trump Administration’s “Disturbing” New Legal Strategy to Prosecute Border Crossers Is Taxing Courts and Testing the Law appeared first on ProPublica.
Jose Omar Flores-Penaloza was willing to admit that he had entered the United States illegally. He was ready to be deported, according to his attorneys. But federal prosecutors would not let him go last spring without making him answer for another crime — one he had never heard of. Weeks earlier, President Donald Trump, to address what he called a national emergency, ordered a stretch of borderland transferred to the military so that troops could help apprehend unauthorized migrants. Because prosecutors believed Flores-Penaloza had crossed through that zone, now called a national defense area, they charged him with trespassing on military property under statutes including one enacted in 1909 to keep spies away from arsenals. The added misdemeanors were unlikely to lengthen his sentence; they typically result in time served and deportation. But Flores-Penaloza maintained his innocence in the face of the allegation that could cast him as a national security threat. So he awaited trial in a New Mexico jail. One year into the second Trump administration, federal courts are facing a surge of immigration-related litigation, including a record number of habeas petitions from detainees who say they are being unlawfully held. In Minnesota last month, after a frustrated judge asked why defendants he had ordered released were still in custody, a government attorney blurted out: “What do you want me to do? The system sucks. This job sucks.” ProPublica and The Texas Tribune spent four months investigating a persistent source of pressure in border districts — one experts say is taxing the courts and challenging long-standing principles of criminal law. Since last April, at least 4,700 immigrants already charged with entering the country illegally have faced additional misdemeanor counts accusing them of trespassing on military property. Court records reviewed by the news organizations show that more than 90% of cases have been resolved, and that most did not end in convictions on the trespass charges: About 60% were dropped or dismissed. At least nine judges in West Texas and New Mexico have found the prosecutions legally deficient. Citing the basic requirement of mens rea — a guilty mind — many ruled that defendants could not be found guilty because they did not know they were trespassing on military land. Yet prosecutors have continued filing the charges and appealing adverse rulings, arguing that knowingly crossing the border is sufficient to prove criminal intent. More than 20 legal scholars and former prosecutors told reporters they could not identify a conventional law-enforcement or military goal that would justify their persistence. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="501" width="752" data-id="70265" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__003_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?w=752" alt="A man walks in front of a U.S. Border Patrol van, parked near a large entrance in a tall section of the steel bollard U.S. border wall with Mexico." class="wp-image-70265" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__003_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg 3000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__003_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__003_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__003_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__003_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__003_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__003_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=863,575 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__003_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=422,281 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__003_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=552,368 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__003_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=558,372 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__003_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=527,351 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__003_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=752,501 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__003_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1149,766 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__003_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=2000,1333 2000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__003_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=400,267 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__003_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=800,533 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__003_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1200,800 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__003_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1600,1067 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" /> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="501" width="752" data-id="70264" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?w=752" alt="A sign on a post stating that the area is a military zone in English and Spanish, in front of the slotted steel bollard U.S. border wall with Mexico." class="wp-image-70264" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg 3000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=863,575 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=422,281 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=552,368 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=558,372 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=527,351 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=752,501 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1149,766 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=2000,1333 2000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=400,267 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=800,533 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1200,800 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1600,1067 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" /> A sign warning people that they are entering a military area is posted next to a stretch of border wall in Texas. The strain has been visible in crowded federal dockets. “We would do jury selection and trial on a misdemeanor case that would have no bearing on the sentence whatsoever?” West Texas District Judge Leon Schydlower asked a prosecutor in June. He noted that there were about 40 similar cases on his docket and asked the prosecutor what she would do if he scheduled all the trials on the same day. “We would have to be prepared to move to go forward on all 40, Your Honor,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Patricia “Patti” Aguayo replied, prefacing her position by saying she had no choice in the matter. “We have not been allowed to do anything but move forward.” Prosecutors were operating under a directive issued by Attorney General Pam Bondi mandating “zealous advocacy” of the administration’s priorities and warning that attorneys who declined to advance them could face discipline or termination. Military Trespass Cases Under Trump Administration Skyrocket <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="931" width="752" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/border-defense-area-chart-fallback.png?w=752" alt="A bar chart showing trespass cases from 2016 through 2025. Cases remain very low until mid-2025, when they suddenly spike to nearly 1,000. A label that says “First national defense area established” points to the highest point of the spike." class="wp-image-70359" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/border-defense-area-chart-fallback.png 1680w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/border-defense-area-chart-fallback.png?resize=242,300 242w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/border-defense-area-chart-fallback.png?resize=768,951 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/border-defense-area-chart-fallback.png?resize=827,1024 827w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/border-defense-area-chart-fallback.png?resize=1241,1536 1241w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/border-defense-area-chart-fallback.png?resize=1654,2048 1654w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/border-defense-area-chart-fallback.png?resize=863,1068 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/border-defense-area-chart-fallback.png?resize=422,522 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/border-defense-area-chart-fallback.png?resize=552,683 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/border-defense-area-chart-fallback.png?resize=558,691 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/border-defense-area-chart-fallback.png?resize=527,652 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/border-defense-area-chart-fallback.png?resize=752,931 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/border-defense-area-chart-fallback.png?resize=1149,1423 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/border-defense-area-chart-fallback.png?resize=1292,1600 1292w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/border-defense-area-chart-fallback.png?resize=400,495 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/border-defense-area-chart-fallback.png?resize=800,990 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/border-defense-area-chart-fallback.png?resize=1200,1486 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/border-defense-area-chart-fallback.png?resize=1600,1981 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" /> Note: Counts are of unique cases in which charges were filed under 50:797 (“Penalty for violation of security regulations and orders”) and 18:1382 (“Entering military, naval, or Coast Guard property”). Source: Federal Justice Center’s Integrated Database. Agnel Philip/ProPublica Senior officials in the U.S. attorney’s offices handling trespass cases declined repeated interview requests, and a spokesperson in the West Texas office asked reporters to stop contacting prosecutors directly. A Justice Department spokesperson noted that one of the charges carries a longer sentence and claimed the prosecutions have “proven to be a significant deterrent to both illegal crossings and cartel activity along the border,” though the department did not provide supporting documentation. Had prosecutors accepted his offer to plead guilty to illegal entry in exchange for dropping the trespass charge, Flores-Penaloza would have been processed for deportation to Mexico, his public defenders Amanda Skinner and Victoria Trull said. Instead, he remained in custody for more than a month, in a county jail where guards have been accused of threatening to use Tasers on inmates’ genitals and bursting into sleeping areas with flash-bangs. (In a court filing, attorneys for Doña Ana County denied the first allegation and wrote, about the second, that guards used “specialized equipment during operations” but disputed they were “terrorizing vulnerable detainees.”) Hours into Flores-Penaloza’s June 17 bench trial before Chief Magistrate Judge Gregory Wormuth, prosecutors could not pinpoint exactly where he had crossed the border or produce a clear map showing the boundaries of the military zone. “I also don’t dispute,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy Castellano conceded, “that we don’t meet the mens rea requirement the court has indicated in a prior opinion.” Wormuth, who had dismissed dozens of similar charges, grew frustrated. He noted that Flores-Penaloza had been in custody for 40 days largely because of the unproven allegation. “The United States has come in here and put not a single bit of evidence that would allow me to find that he even entered the national defense area,” Wormuth said. “It is very, very disturbing.” He acquitted Flores-Penaloza on the trespass counts while finding him guilty of illegal entry. The young man was deported. But more cases were coming. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="766" width="1149" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__004_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?w=1149" alt="A sign on a post stating that the area is a military zone in English and Spanish, in front of a dirt road leading past an end point of a slotted steel bollard U.S. border wall with Mexico with a low, glowing sun in the distance." class="wp-image-70266" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__004_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg 3000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__004_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__004_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__004_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__004_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__004_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__004_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=863,575 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__004_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=422,281 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__004_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=552,368 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__004_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=558,372 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__004_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=527,351 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__004_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=752,501 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__004_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=1149,766 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__004_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=2000,1333 2000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__004_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=400,267 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__004_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=800,533 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__004_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=1200,800 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__004_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=1600,1067 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1149px) 100vw, 1149px" /> Detained migrants have said they didn’t see the posted signs and had no way of knowing they had crossed military land. Federal law generally bars the military from detaining civilians on domestic soil. But there was a workaround: Troops could capture intruders on their own bases. Under orders from Trump last April, federal agencies including the Department of the Interior transferred more than 200 miles of riverbank and desert scrub in West Texas and New Mexico to the armed forces, converting the terrain into extensions of Army installations. Speaking to troops deployed to one of the new national defense areas, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested that anyone entering them would be on notice. “You’ve got signs like this one all across the border wall facing into Mexico,” he said — “clear English, clear Spanish.” The plan appeared straightforward. But once cases reached courtrooms, that clarity evaporated. Detained migrants said they hadn’t seen signs and had no way of knowing they had crossed military land. Prosecutors often couldn’t prove otherwise. ProPublica and the Tribune identified 1,300 New Mexico district court records in which the government stated how far from these signs migrants crossed the border or were apprehended. The news organizations found that some were arrested more than 20 miles away from a sign, and that most didn’t come within 1,000 feet of any posting. In at least one Texas case, defense attorneys demonstrated how difficult it was to read the 12-by-18-inch sign from about 10 feet away. A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office in New Mexico said what matters is not where a defendant was apprehended but where they entered the country. In some cases, such as Flores-Penaloza’s, prosecutors lacked evidence of that as well. These evidentiary gaps snagged most of the cases that reached judges, underscoring an existential question: “What is your evidence that he knew he was accessing a restricted national defense area?” a federal magistrate judge, Miguel Torres, asked during an El Paso, Texas, jury trial. Adequate notice was essential, he said, “so that we don’t ensnare innocent people that do not know they are violating this specific law.” Torres ruled against the government at trial, but many cases didn’t make it that far. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="501" width="752" data-id="70267" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__027_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?w=752" alt="A U.S. Army vehicle in front of the slotted steel bollard border wall with Mexico, with razor wire hanging off it." class="wp-image-70267" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__027_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg 3000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__027_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__027_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__027_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__027_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__027_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__027_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=863,575 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__027_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=422,281 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__027_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=552,368 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__027_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=558,372 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__027_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=527,351 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__027_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=752,501 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__027_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1149,766 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__027_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=2000,1333 2000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__027_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=400,267 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__027_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=800,533 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__027_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1200,800 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__027_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1600,1067 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" /> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="501" width="752" data-id="70268" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__042_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?w=752" alt="A U.S. Army vehicle sits parked on a sandy hill, with a small portion of the U.S. border wall blocking the scene." class="wp-image-70268" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__042_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg 3000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__042_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__042_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__042_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__042_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__042_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__042_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=863,575 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__042_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=422,281 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__042_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=552,368 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__042_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=558,372 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__042_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=527,351 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__042_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=752,501 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__042_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1149,766 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__042_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=2000,1333 2000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__042_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=400,267 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__042_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=800,533 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__042_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1200,800 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__042_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1600,1067 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" /> Two U.S. Army vehicles, seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, park along the border. In Texas, many defendants pleaded guilty. To fight the trespass charges meant waiting in jail possibly for weeks or months. They chose to go home instead. But in New Mexico, within weeks of the first cases, judges began throwing out the trespass charges as soon as they were filed for lack of probable cause. Prosecutors responded with an unusual maneuver. Rather than abandon the cases, they refiled them using a charging document called an information — a tool commonly used for misdemeanors but, according to the legal experts consulted by ProPublica and the Tribune, rarely deployed to revive cases judges had already deemed unsupported. Prosecutors used informations to resurrect more than 1,600 military trespass cases, the news organizations found. “If there is no probable cause, the case is supposed to end,” said Meghan Skelton, a former assistant federal public defender and prosecutor. “They are trying to circumvent that in a way that has not been done in the 30 years I’ve been practicing law.” <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="379" width="752" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/CriminalComplaint-V1_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?w=752" alt="A criminal complaint issued in New Mexico with two lines of the complaint highlighted and struck out with a pen, near a note in pen that reads “No PC found” and an initial. The struck out portions read “Count 2: 50 USC 797 Penalty for violation of security regulations and orders” and “Count 3: 18 USC 1382 Entry of military property for any purpose prohibited by law.”" class="wp-image-70269" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/CriminalComplaint-V1_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg 2550w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/CriminalComplaint-V1_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=300,151 300w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/CriminalComplaint-V1_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=768,387 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/CriminalComplaint-V1_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=1024,516 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/CriminalComplaint-V1_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=1536,774 1536w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/CriminalComplaint-V1_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=2048,1032 2048w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/CriminalComplaint-V1_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=863,435 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/CriminalComplaint-V1_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=422,213 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/CriminalComplaint-V1_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=552,278 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/CriminalComplaint-V1_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=558,281 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/CriminalComplaint-V1_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=527,266 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/CriminalComplaint-V1_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=752,379 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/CriminalComplaint-V1_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=1149,579 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/CriminalComplaint-V1_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=2000,1008 2000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/CriminalComplaint-V1_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=400,202 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/CriminalComplaint-V1_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=800,403 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/CriminalComplaint-V1_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=1200,605 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/CriminalComplaint-V1_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=1600,806 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" /> In a criminal complaint issued in New Mexico and reviewed by ProPublica, a judge crossed out two of the three counts, noting they did not have “PC,” or probable cause. Obtained and highlighted by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune The tactic kicked off what one defense attorney called a “ridiculous dance.” Judges would separate the immigration and trespass charges, accept guilty pleas on illegal entry and reiterate that there was no probable cause to detain defendants on the military counts. With deportation imminent, prosecutors would then move to dismiss the trespass charges themselves. Prosecutors who left the U.S. attorney’s offices in the early months of the second Trump administration told reporters they were alarmed to see the lengths their former colleagues were going to pursue dubious cases. “You’re just losing credibility with the court, and on a bigger picture, credibility with the public,” said Marisa Ong, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Las Cruces. It was the kind of outcome Matilda “Tilli” Villalobos sought to avoid when she saw the zealous advocacy mandate last February and left the district for private practice. “I don’t want to be the one standing up in court in front of a judge advocating for something that I don’t believe is even legal,” said the decorated former sex crimes prosecutor, who now defends immigrants charged with criminal offenses. Alex Uballez, who served as U.S. attorney in New Mexico before being fired by Trump last year, called the prosecutions a “flustering attempt to create fear and chaos by whatever means necessary.” “It would be laughable if it wasn’t so cruel and chaotic and dangerous,” he added, “both for the people involved and for the justice system as a whole.” <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="501" width="752" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?w=752" alt="A woman with long black hair, wearing a black dress with white piping, stands while holding a banister in front of the U.S. district courthouse in Las Cruces." class="wp-image-70270" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg 3000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=863,575 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=422,281 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=552,368 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=558,372 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=527,351 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=752,501 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1149,766 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=2000,1333 2000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=400,267 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=800,533 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1200,800 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_012_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1600,1067 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" /> Matilda “Tilli” Villalobos left her position in the U.S. attorney’s office in Las Cruces, New Mexico, last February. The national defense areas were supposed to allow active-duty troops to apprehend unlawful border crossers for the first time. So far, that outcome has largely failed to materialize. According to a spokesperson for Joint Task Force-Southern Border, about 1,500 deployed troops had made just 68 apprehensions as of last week, leaving the Border Patrol still responsible for the vast majority of detentions. Even so, the administration has continued expanding the zones from California to Texas. Prosecutors began filing military trespass charges in South Texas last month, starting with a man caught crossing the Rio Grande, in an area now designated an extension of the Joint Base San Antonio. Along the river, warnings of prosecution are written across floating buoys and blared in Spanish from loudspeakers that can be heard in Mexico. Border Patrol agents ask migrants detained in national defense areas to sign a form acknowledging they entered without permission, placing the documents in their immigration files, then-interim El Paso Border Patrol Sector Chief Walter Slosar said in a news conference last June. “And so the next time they cross the border unlawfully, there’s going to be no issue” about notice. In New Mexico, prosecutors have used that written notice and previous military trespass charges to help secure 20 guilty pleas from defendants who reentered. Still, the news organizations’ analysis of court records found that nearly every trespassing charge in the state has been dismissed or dropped. The Justice Department continues to press its legal theory in appellate court. In May, prosecutors filed trespass charges against Komiljon Toirov, a man from Uzbekistan detained in New Mexico. Toirov does not speak English or Spanish and could not have understood posted warnings. Prosecutors maintain that does not matter. They wanted him held in jail for trial, but a judge released him. For months since then, prosecutors have fought that decision. As the case bounced between the district court and the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, judges openly bristled at the government’s persistence. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="501" width="752" data-id="70271" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_013_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?w=752" alt="A large blue bus parked in a lot in front of a large tan building." class="wp-image-70271" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_013_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg 3000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_013_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_013_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_013_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_013_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_013_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_013_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=863,575 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_013_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=422,281 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_013_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=552,368 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_013_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=558,372 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_013_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=527,351 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_013_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=752,501 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_013_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1149,766 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_013_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=2000,1333 2000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_013_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=400,267 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_013_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=800,533 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_013_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1200,800 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_NM_NDA_propublica_013_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1600,1067 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" /> A bus used to transport migrants to their federal court hearings parked near the U.S. district court in Las Cruces. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="501" width="752" data-id="70272" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_propublcia_ep02142026_002_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?w=752" alt="A wide landscape of a cluster of tall buildings in downtown El Paso with Ciudad Juarez stretching off in the distance." class="wp-image-70272" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_propublcia_ep02142026_002_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg 3000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_propublcia_ep02142026_002_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_propublcia_ep02142026_002_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_propublcia_ep02142026_002_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_propublcia_ep02142026_002_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_propublcia_ep02142026_002_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_propublcia_ep02142026_002_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=863,575 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_propublcia_ep02142026_002_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=422,281 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_propublcia_ep02142026_002_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=552,368 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_propublcia_ep02142026_002_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=558,372 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_propublcia_ep02142026_002_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=527,351 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_propublcia_ep02142026_002_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=752,501 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_propublcia_ep02142026_002_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=1149,766 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_propublcia_ep02142026_002_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=2000,1333 2000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_propublcia_ep02142026_002_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=400,267 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_propublcia_ep02142026_002_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=800,533 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_propublcia_ep02142026_002_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=1200,800 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_propublcia_ep02142026_002_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=1600,1067 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" /> The federal courthouse in downtown El Paso, Texas, with the border and Ciudad Juarez in the distance. “The defense bar and every judge in the Las Cruces district courthouse disagrees with the government,” U.S. District Judge Sarah Davenport wrote in October. A three-judge appellate panel in December noted that prosecutors had produced “little to no evidence” to support their case for jailing Toirov. The government has now filed notice that it plans to appeal again, indicating that it will seek a higher court ruling supporting its argument that Toirov didn’t need to know about the military zone in order to trespass onto it. “We remain confident that our interpretation is consistent with the law and U.S. Supreme Court precedent,” a Justice Department spokesperson said in an email. Ryan Goodman, a national security law professor at New York University, said the government’s persistence was “jaw-dropping.” “It appears to be prosecutorial abuse by continuing to bring fatally flawed cases,” he said in an email. “This kind of abuse of the Justice Department’s powers has very significant repercussions for the ability of our democracy to survive.” Meanwhile, the El Paso courthouse has eased into a new normal. On many mornings, shackled migrants plead guilty to military trespass charges rather than remain jailed awaiting trial. Occasionally, the routine falters. On Nov. 3, a young man named Brandon David Munoz-Luna spoke up during his plea hearing. “In my case, I did not know that I was entering a military reservation,” he said through an interpreter. Federal Magistrate Judge Robert Castañeda turned to Assistant U.S. Attorney Adrian Gallegos. He asked, “Does the government insist on making this a charge you’re pursuing?” “Yes, Judge,” the prosecutor replied. “Pursuant to DOJ policy.” Minutes later, Munoz-Luna pleaded no contest, and the court moved on. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="1438" width="2560" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__017_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?w=2560" alt="A vast desert landscape, showing a thin U.S. border wall with Mexico stretching off into the setting sun." class="wp-image-70273" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__017_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg 3000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__017_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=300,169 300w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__017_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=768,431 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__017_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1024,575 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__017_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1536,863 1536w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__017_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=2048,1150 2048w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__017_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=863,485 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__017_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=422,237 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__017_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=552,310 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__017_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=558,313 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__017_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=527,296 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__017_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=752,422 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__017_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1149,645 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__017_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=2000,1123 2000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__017_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=400,225 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__017_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=800,449 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__017_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1200,674 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pratje_probublicanda__017_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg?resize=1600,899 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" /> The vast expanse of land along the southern border makes proving migrants knowingly trespassed through the new national defense area difficult to prosecute in federal court. The post The Trump Administration’s “Disturbing” New Legal Strategy to Prosecute Border Crossers Is Taxing Courts and Testing the Law appeared first on ProPublica.
This DHS Official Oversees the Security of Federal Elections. He Wants to Ban Voting Machines.
The post This DHS Official Oversees the Security of Federal Elections. He Wants to Ban Voting Machines. appeared first on ProPublica.
In his top post at the Department of Homeland Security, David Harvilicz sets policy on protecting the nation’s elections infrastructure, including voting machines. He’s also the co-founder of a company with James Penrose, who helped hatch debunked conspiracy theories blaming hacked voting machines for Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election. Penrose assisted in a push to seize voting machines to overturn Trump’s defeat. On social media, Harvilicz has called for doing away with voting machines, saying they are “eminently vulnerable to exploitation.” In a March post, he wrote that “DHS needs to ban voting machines for all federal elections. The time is now.” He also has repeatedly questioned the validity of Democratic electoral victories and pushed for Republicans to overhaul electoral systems to their advantage. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="682" width="527" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/h_14689371_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?w=527" alt="A man wearing a gray T-shirt smiles at the camera against a plain white background." class="wp-image-70485" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/h_14689371_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg 2318w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/h_14689371_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=232,300 232w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/h_14689371_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=768,994 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/h_14689371_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=791,1024 791w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/h_14689371_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=1187,1536 1187w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/h_14689371_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=1582,2048 1582w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/h_14689371_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=863,1117 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/h_14689371_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=422,546 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/h_14689371_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=552,714 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/h_14689371_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=558,722 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/h_14689371_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=527,682 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/h_14689371_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=752,973 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/h_14689371_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=1149,1487 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/h_14689371_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=1236,1600 1236w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/h_14689371_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=400,518 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/h_14689371_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=800,1035 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/h_14689371_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=1200,1553 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/h_14689371_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=1600,2071 1600w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/h_14689371_maxHeight_3000_maxWidth_3000.jpg?resize=2000,2588 2000w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 527px) 100vw, 527px" /> David Harvilicz in 2015 Sam Comen/The New York Times/Redux Election experts as well as current and former DHS officials say Harvilicz’s central role in overseeing the security of electoral systems and voting machines is especially concerning at a time when the administration is taking unprecedented steps to relitigate Trump’s baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen. That includes the FBI’s seizure of 2020 voting records from Fulton County, Georgia, and having a team working for Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, take custody of voting machines used in Puerto Rico in 2020. “The security of our election infrastructure depends on leadership that is trusted, impartial and grounded in evidence — not individuals who have promoted conspiracy theories about the very systems they are now responsible for protecting,” said Danielle Lang, vice president for voting rights and the rule of law at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan pro-democracy organization. “Placing someone with that background in charge of policies affecting election security can undermine public confidence in our elections at a time when trust is already fragile.” DHS didn’t answer detailed questions about Harvilicz or his team, providing a more general statement about the work done by the agency. “DHS and its employees are focused on keeping our elections safe, secure, and free,” it said. “Every single day appointees at the Department of Homeland Security work to implement the President’s policies and keep our Homeland safe.” Harvilicz didn’t respond to questions about his DHS role. Harvilicz’s X account notes his post as DHS’ assistant secretary for cyber, infrastructure, risk and resilience policy but says he’s been detailed to the Defense Department. (Such temporary assignments are typically done in 120-day increments.) Get Involved Do you have information you can share about David Harvilicz or other federal officials working on elections or any of the other individuals named in this article? Contact reporter Doug Bock Clark at doug.clark@propublica.org or on Signal at 678-243-0784. If you’re concerned about confidentiality, check out our advice on the most secure ways to share tips. Harvilicz was appointed to the DHS job around July, taking on a role that in the past has largely focused on shaping policy to protect the nation’s critical infrastructure, including its election systems. But current and former DHS officials say Harvilicz and his team have transformed their functions to become more hands-on. They’ve been deeply engaged with facilitating multiple administration data-gathering efforts aimed at scouring voter rolls for noncitizens, the officials said. ProPublica has reported on one such effort, which has led to hundreds of citizens being incorrectly flagged as potential noncitizens. Harvilicz’s team includes Heather Honey, the deputy assistant secretary of election integrity. ProPublica has reported that Honey was previously a leader in the Election Integrity Network, a conservative group that has challenged the legitimacy of American election systems. Honey worked closely with Cleta Mitchell, the network’s leader, who played a prominent role in helping Trump try to overturn his 2020 loss. Also reporting directly to Harvilicz is Samantha Anderson, a data specialist who previously worked to elect Trump through the advocacy arm of the America First Policy Institute, a think tank closely associated with the president. Multiple officials and elections experts said they were worried that Harvilicz and Honey would have prominent parts in assessing and describing the cybersecurity of the coming election, both to the public and to administration leaders. They also expressed concern that if Trump again wanted to get control of voting machines after the election, perhaps if Republicans lose seats in the midterms, that Harvilicz is ideally positioned to help them do so. “It would be super easy for them to get the voting machines,” a current DHS official said, adding they can “describe it as they want, if they don’t like the results.” Harvilicz co-founded Tranquility AI, which has developed an artificial intelligence tool for law enforcement, with Penrose, and they are listed on its 2025 patents as developing its systems together. Penrose, a former intelligence officer, played a leading role in the campaign to help Trump in his failed bid to overturn the 2020 election, ProPublica has reported. Penrose also participated in multiple attempts to clandestinely seize voting machines, including in Michigan, where prosecutors accused him of breaking into some of the machines. (Penrose wasn’t charged in the case.) He appeared to be an unindicted co-conspirator in the failed Georgia prosecution in which Trump was accused of conspiring to overturn the election results, according to The Washington Post. Penrose didn’t respond to a request for comment for this article. One of the purported uses of Tranquility AI’s product is for “election integrity,” according to the company’s website. It didn’t provide more details in response to a question from ProPublica. Tranquility AI’s tools, which help law enforcement agents process data and assemble cases, have been employed by New Orleans’ district attorney, and the company says it has partnered with dozens of law enforcement agencies nationwide. In July 2025, a large government IT contractor announced a partnership with Tranquility AI. Harvilicz started his career working at law firms on Wall Street and in tech. Then, in 2004, when he was 29, he launched a losing bid for a Maryland congressional seat. After that, he helped lead a crowdfunding company, a movie marketing business, a film production business that worked with former intelligence officers and several cyber security ventures (including one at which he worked with Penrose). He also did a stint in the first Trump administration, serving as cybersecurity official in the Department of Energy. In advance of Harvilicz getting the DHS position, Tranquility AI made a $100,000 donation to Trump’s inaugural fund through a newly created nonprofit based at Harvilicz’s home address, according to The Intercept. In response to questions from The Intercept, Harvilicz said the donation was designed to help them meet administration policymakers. The Intercept first reported his ties to Penrose in connection with the donation. Harvilicz has posted prolifically to social media, sharing hundreds of posts of conservative content. After Trump won a second presidential term, he wrote: “We will now dismantle the near communist takeover of America and return her to greatness.” In 2020, Harvilicz purchased a $3.3 million home outside of Los Angeles. After the Palisades Fire destroyed it around the beginning of Trump’s second term, Harvilicz stood on a roadside to greet the president’s tour of the disaster area with his young son on his shoulders. His son held aloft a picture of a bloodied Trump punching the air after surviving an assassin’s bullet. Even then, elections were not far from his mind. He told a reporter for the Los Angeles Times that he supported Trump making disaster aid conditional on the Democratic state implementing voter ID. “I hope he saw us,” Harvilicz told the Times reporter. The post This DHS Official Oversees the Security of Federal Elections. He Wants to Ban Voting Machines. appeared first on ProPublica.
They Didn’t Want to Have C-Sections. A Judge Would Decide How They Gave Birth.
The post They Didn’t Want to Have C-Sections. A Judge Would Decide How They Gave Birth. appeared first on ProPublica.
On the afternoon of Sept. 9, 2024, Cherise Doyley was in her 12th hour of contractions at University of Florida Health in downtown Jacksonville when a nurse came in with a bedsheet and told her to cover up. A supervisor brought a tablet to Doyley’s bedside. Gathered on the screen were a judge in a black robe and several lawyers, doctors and hospital staff. “It’s a real judge in there?” Doyley asked the nurse at the beginning of what would be a three-hour hearing. “Now this is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.” Doyley hadn’t asked for the hearing. The hospital had sought it. Doyley had mere minutes to prepare. She had no lawyer and no advocate — no one to explain to her what, exactly, was going on. Judge Michael Kalil informed her that the state had filed an emergency petition at the hospital’s behest — not out of concern for Doyley, per se, but in the interest of her unborn child. He described the circumstances as “extraordinary.” The hospital and state attorney’s office wanted to force Doyley to undergo a cesarean section. Doyley, a professional birthing doula, didn’t want that and had been firm about it. She’d had three prior C-sections, one that resulted in a hemorrhage, and hoped to avoid another serious complication and lengthy recovery. She was aware that doctors were concerned about the risk of uterine rupture, a potentially deadly complication for her and her baby. She would say during the hearing that she understood the risk to be less than 2% and didn’t want to agree to a C-section unless there was an emergency. But the choice would not be hers. The judge would decide how she would give birth. Watch How a Court Hearing Was Convened in Cherise Doyley’s Hospital Room Obtained by ProPublica Mentally competent patients typically have the right to choose their medical care — or refuse it. But there is one notable exception: pregnant patients. That inconsistency is particularly striking in Florida, a state that has pushed to expand medical freedom for those who wish to avoid vaccines or fluoridated water, while constricting the rights of people in various stages of pregnancy. “There aren’t any other instances where you would invade the body of one person in order to save the life of another,” said Lois Shepherd, a bioethics expert at the University of Virginia School of Law. In Florida and many other states, court-ordered medical procedures are just one of the ways pregnant patients’ rights are restricted. The effort to chip away at those rights is rooted in the concept of fetal personhood — that a fetus has equal and, in some cases, more rights than the woman sustaining it. The link between fetal personhood and court-ordered C-sections dates back to the 1980s, when courts started ruling that hospitals can override patients’ decisions in favor of the health of unborn children. In the years since, proponents of fetal personhood began to push for even broader legal protections. In 1986, Minnesota was the first state to recognize fetuses as victims in homicide cases. Some states have imprisoned pregnant women for exposing their fetuses to drugs. Nearly 30 states have passed laws that allow hospitals to invalidate pregnant patients’ advance directives, which outline the kinds of life-sustaining treatment a person wants after a catastrophic illness or accident. At least one, Alabama, extended the concept of personhood all the way to the earliest stages of fertilization and conception by giving frozen embryos the same legal status as children, though the Legislature later said the law couldn’t be enforced. And the fetal personhood movement has accelerated in the past several years, supercharged by the U.S. Supreme Court decision to reverse the abortion rights that had been protected by Roe v. Wade. Florida has long been at the forefront of fetal personhood policies. The state was one of the first in the country to prosecute a woman for “delivering” drugs to her fetus during pregnancy in 1989, although the Florida Supreme Court later overturned her conviction. And after advocates twice failed to get a fetal personhood amendment on the state ballot, the Legislature is now considering a bill that would enshrine the concept in state law by giving embryos and fetuses the same legal status as people in wrongful death suits. For women in labor, the potential impact of the bill is clear: Experts anticipate their medical needs could be further diminished in favor of the fetuses’. Several legal experts told ProPublica they are alarmed by Doyley’s case and the legislation’s potential to allow for more court interventions during childbirth. Lawyers who represent women in fetal personhood cases already have identified a higher number of forced C-sections in Florida than other states. The state attorney’s office for the 4th Judicial Circuit declined to comment on Doyley’s case, saying a response would violate her medical privacy. But in an email, a spokesperson noted why, in general, the office would intervene: “The courts have held that the State has a compelling interest in the preservation of the life of an unborn child and the protection of innocent third parties who may be harmed by the parental refusal to allow or consent to life-saving medical treatment.” C-sections account for nearly a third of all deliveries in the United States. They can be necessary when babies are breech, or in the wrong position for birth, as well as in cases of maternal or fetal emergency. But in other cases, such as slow laboring or prior C-sections, the need for the surgery is less clear. Surveys have found that more than 10% of women feel pressured into C-sections and other procedures by doctors worried about injuries to the baby. Patients generally don’t challenge doctors who say they’re necessary, and it is uncommon for someone to hold out and for the hospital to turn to the courts. It is so rare, in fact, that advocates for the rights of pregnant women were shocked to discover that the same thing that happened to Doyley had happened to another Florida woman just a year and a half earlier. The similarities in their cases were striking. Both women had three prior C-sections. They had questioned the need for their previous surgeries and arrived prepared to fight for vaginal births. And both women are Black. They had argued that compelling them to have C-sections violated their rights to make medical decisions. Hospital staff said their medical decisions threatened the health of the fetus. It would be up to the courts to decide which one mattered more. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="1128" width="752" data-id="69678" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-110_eb604a.jpg?w=752" alt="A smiling Black woman sits in a plastic chair under a wooden awning, holding a baby wearing a diaper. Light from a sunset casts a shadow on the baby and lights up the woman." class="wp-image-69678" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-110_eb604a.jpg 2000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-110_eb604a.jpg?resize=200,300 200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-110_eb604a.jpg?resize=768,1152 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-110_eb604a.jpg?resize=683,1024 683w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-110_eb604a.jpg?resize=1024,1536 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-110_eb604a.jpg?resize=1365,2048 1365w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-110_eb604a.jpg?resize=863,1295 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-110_eb604a.jpg?resize=422,633 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-110_eb604a.jpg?resize=552,828 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-110_eb604a.jpg?resize=558,837 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-110_eb604a.jpg?resize=527,791 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-110_eb604a.jpg?resize=752,1128 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-110_eb604a.jpg?resize=1149,1724 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-110_eb604a.jpg?resize=1067,1600 1067w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-110_eb604a.jpg?resize=400,600 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-110_eb604a.jpg?resize=800,1200 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-110_eb604a.jpg?resize=1200,1800 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-110_eb604a.jpg?resize=1600,2400 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" /> Doyley enjoys time with her 1-year-old daughter, Arewa, on their porch. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="1133" width="752" data-id="69679" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-015.jpg?w=752" alt="Outside, a Black woman in a white dress closes her eyes and smiles while holding a toddler wearing a white dress, white ruffled socks, shiny red shoes and pigtails." class="wp-image-69679" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-015.jpg 1991w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-015.jpg?resize=199,300 199w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-015.jpg?resize=768,1157 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-015.jpg?resize=680,1024 680w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-015.jpg?resize=1019,1536 1019w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-015.jpg?resize=1359,2048 1359w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-015.jpg?resize=863,1300 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-015.jpg?resize=422,636 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-015.jpg?resize=552,832 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-015.jpg?resize=558,841 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-015.jpg?resize=527,794 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-015.jpg?resize=752,1133 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-015.jpg?resize=1149,1731 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-015.jpg?resize=1062,1600 1062w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-015.jpg?resize=400,603 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-015.jpg?resize=800,1205 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-015.jpg?resize=1200,1808 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-015.jpg?resize=1600,2411 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" /> Brianna Bennett with her 2-year-old daughter, Aubree. Like Doyley, Bennett was forced to have a court-ordered C-section. Asked to consider the constitutionality of court-ordered C-sections, the U.S. Supreme Court declined in 1994, leaving a patchwork of decisions that vary by state. In the early 1980s, a hospital in Georgia won a court order to force a woman with a dangerous pregnancy complication to have a C-section. Then, in 1987, a judge in Washington, D.C., approved a request to perform surgery on a pregnant woman dying from cancer without her consent. Later, a higher court reversed that ruling and held that hospitals should not override medical decisions. An Illinois appellate court in 1993 refused to order a woman to undergo a C-section. Not long after, a patient named Laura Pemberton, who did not want a C-section, left a hospital in Tallahassee, Florida, against medical advice. A local judge sent law enforcement to her house to bring her back. Once she returned to the hospital, the judge ordered her to have a C-section, which doctors carried out. She later sued in federal court and lost. The 1999 decision by a federal district judge found that the state had a right to override her wishes. “Whatever the scope of Ms. Pemberton’s personal Constitutional rights in this situation, they clearly did not outweigh the interests of the State of Florida in preserving the life of the unborn child,” the decision said. The decision marked a legal turning point in prioritizing fetal rights over the religious freedom and bodily autonomy of the mother. In 2009, Samantha Burton arrived at the same hospital at 25 weeks pregnant, after going into premature labor. Doctors told her she needed to remain on bed rest, but she wanted to leave and go home to her children. The hospital got a court order for her to remain in the hospital and undergo any treatment doctors deemed necessary to save the fetus. She had an emergency C-section, and the baby was stillborn. She appealed the ruling granting the emergency order, and a Florida appeals court ruled in her favor. They said the circuit judge should have required the hospital to prove the baby was viable before imposing unwanted treatment, but the court stopped short of saying it was unacceptable to override the medical decisions of pregnant women in all situations. Pregnancy is the only condition where Florida courts have ruled that a patient can be forced to undergo unwanted treatment. Even a state prisoner on a hunger strike has more rights to make medical decisions. Those rulings give the state vast control over pregnant women. “All of it essentially is about the state’s ability to decide that a fetus, at any point during a pregnancy, is more important than the person who’s pregnant,” said Rutgers University law professor Kimberly Mutcherson. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="1129" width="752" data-id="69681" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-082.jpg?w=752" alt="A woman with her back to the camera presses her hand on a butterfly decal pasted to the wall. There are other butterfly decals nearby surrounding a flower decal." class="wp-image-69681" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-082.jpg 1999w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-082.jpg?resize=200,300 200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-082.jpg?resize=768,1153 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-082.jpg?resize=682,1024 682w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-082.jpg?resize=1023,1536 1023w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-082.jpg?resize=1365,2048 1365w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-082.jpg?resize=863,1295 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-082.jpg?resize=422,633 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-082.jpg?resize=552,828 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-082.jpg?resize=558,837 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-082.jpg?resize=527,791 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-082.jpg?resize=752,1129 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-082.jpg?resize=1149,1724 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-082.jpg?resize=1066,1600 1066w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-082.jpg?resize=400,600 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-082.jpg?resize=800,1201 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-082.jpg?resize=1200,1801 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-082.jpg?resize=1600,2401 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" /> Doyley decorates her home with decals of butterflies. She says she likes how they represent transformation. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="1128" width="752" data-id="69682" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-120.jpg?w=752" alt="Outside on a wooden porch in the sunset, a baby sits on a rocking horse and looks at a cat sitting nearby." class="wp-image-69682" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-120.jpg 2000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-120.jpg?resize=200,300 200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-120.jpg?resize=768,1152 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-120.jpg?resize=683,1024 683w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-120.jpg?resize=1024,1536 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-120.jpg?resize=1365,2048 1365w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-120.jpg?resize=863,1295 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-120.jpg?resize=422,633 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-120.jpg?resize=552,828 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-120.jpg?resize=558,837 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-120.jpg?resize=527,791 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-120.jpg?resize=752,1128 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-120.jpg?resize=1149,1724 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-120.jpg?resize=1067,1600 1067w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-120.jpg?resize=400,600 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-120.jpg?resize=800,1200 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-120.jpg?resize=1200,1800 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-120.jpg?resize=1600,2400 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" /> One-year-old Arewa plays on the family porch. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="3000" height="2000" js-autosizes src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-061.jpg" alt="A child wearing a red shirt and blue shorts runs with her arms out past a red trampoline, a football and a television set inside of a dimly lit, tidy room." class="wp-image-69683" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-061.jpg 3000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-061.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-061.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-061.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-061.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-061.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-061.jpg?resize=863,575 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-061.jpg?resize=422,281 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-061.jpg?resize=552,368 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-061.jpg?resize=558,372 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-061.jpg?resize=527,351 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-061.jpg?resize=752,501 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-061.jpg?resize=1149,766 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-061.jpg?resize=2000,1333 2000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-061.jpg?resize=400,267 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-061.jpg?resize=800,533 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-061.jpg?resize=1200,800 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-061.jpg?resize=1600,1067 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 3000px) 100vw, 3000px" /> Bennett’s 2-year-old daughter, Aubree, pretends the floor is lava. In March 2023, more than a year before Doyley’s court-ordered C-section, Brianna Bennett arrived in labor at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital — the same hospital where the women in the 1999 and 2009 lawsuits had given birth. Over the preceding years, Bennett had come to question the medical reasoning behind her three prior C-sections. Each recovery had been harder than the last, leaving her so incapacitated after the third that for two weeks she couldn’t even go to the bathroom without help. At the time Bennett went into labor with her fourth, her mother’s hip problems had gotten so bad that she needed a wheelchair and required some help from Bennett to function. Bennett did not think she could care for all her family members while in recovery from abdominal surgery, so she insisted on trying for a vaginal birth. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="501" width="752" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-035.jpg?w=752" alt="A woman looks directly at the camera wearing a red floral dress and earrings. She sits on a dark leather couch." class="wp-image-69593" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-035.jpg 3000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-035.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-035.jpg?resize=768,511 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-035.jpg?resize=1024,682 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-035.jpg?resize=1536,1022 1536w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-035.jpg?resize=2048,1363 2048w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-035.jpg?resize=863,574 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-035.jpg?resize=422,281 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-035.jpg?resize=552,367 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-035.jpg?resize=558,371 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-035.jpg?resize=527,351 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-035.jpg?resize=752,501 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-035.jpg?resize=1149,765 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-035.jpg?resize=2000,1331 2000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-035.jpg?resize=400,266 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-035.jpg?resize=800,533 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-035.jpg?resize=1200,799 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-035.jpg?resize=1600,1065 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" /> Bennett researched and weighed birthing options before going into labor. Tallahassee Memorial Hospital had specialists on staff and a neonatal intensive care unit equipped to serve critically ill babies. Bennett believed it offered the kind of support she needed to be able to follow her birth plan. The hospital has handled a lot of high-risk pregnancies. As Bennett’s labor stretched past 24 hours, a doctor confronted her about agreeing to a C-section, Bennett said. She continued to refuse, so the hospital reached out to the state attorney. In an email, Jack Campbell, state attorney for the 2nd Judicial Circuit, responded that the court needed to act quickly. “I plan to file an emergency motion with the Court to allow TMH to take whatever steps medically necessary to protect the life of the child and mother,” he wrote. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="501" width="752" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-024.jpg?w=752" alt="Two children eat pasta while sitting at a table. In the background a woman and another child look at the kitchen counter and another child reaches for a bowl." class="wp-image-69687" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-024.jpg 3000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-024.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-024.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-024.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-024.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-024.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-024.jpg?resize=863,575 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-024.jpg?resize=422,281 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-024.jpg?resize=552,368 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-024.jpg?resize=558,372 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-024.jpg?resize=527,351 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-024.jpg?resize=752,501 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-024.jpg?resize=1149,766 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-024.jpg?resize=2000,1333 2000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-024.jpg?resize=400,267 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-024.jpg?resize=800,533 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-024.jpg?resize=1200,800 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-024.jpg?resize=1600,1067 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" /> Bennett, in the red dress, prepares lunch with her children, from left, Alannah, 16, Aubree, 2, Ayden, 11, and Ava, 7. After her three prior C-sections, she was worried about recovering from a fourth while taking care of a newborn and other family members. During the hearing, 15 to 20 people squeezed into Bennett’s hospital room. As would later happen with Doyley, she found herself in front of a tablet with a judge on the screen. Bennett said she found it offensive that so many people were concerned about the method of her delivery without taking into consideration how difficult it would be to take care of both herself and her baby while recovering from a C-section. “Are any of you gonna help me bathe or shower? Are you gonna help change my pad? Are you gonna help lift the baby out of the bed and put me in the bed because I can’t lift my legs? Is anyone going to help me?” Campbell told ProPublica that he felt the hearing was necessary to save two lives, Bennett’s and her baby’s. “I’m real comfortable with what we did here,” Campbell said. “I hate the fact that she’s upset about it.” A spokesperson for Tallahassee Memorial Hospital declined to comment on Bennett’s case, even though she signed a waiver allowing the hospital to do so. “We will not be able to discuss specific patients or cases,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. The hospital did not respond to questions about its history of seeking court intervention in multiple women’s medical decisions while giving birth. Bennett said she tried to remain calm, but inside she was panicking. During the hearing, her baby’s heart rate spiked. The judge ordered her to have a C-section, and doctors wheeled her into surgery. The operation lasted two and a half hours and the surgical team had to cut around existing scar tissue and avoid her bladder. Her incision looked like an upside-down T and required a wound vac, a portable machine that helps incisions close more quickly. She said a doctor who visited her room during recovery told her she should never get pregnant again, according to a civil rights complaint filed with federal regulators.The complaint is still under investigation, but lawyers for Bennett said they haven’t heard from investigators in more than a year. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not comment on the complaint. “I cried every single day,” Bennett said. “I felt like I was supposed to be happy. I’m supposed to be thankful that I have a new life and that the Lord has blessed me to see this new baby. And I’m not even happy.” <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="1128" width="752" data-id="69688" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-017.jpg?w=752" alt="Two children wearing white dresses swing on a green swing set." class="wp-image-69688" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-017.jpg 2000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-017.jpg?resize=200,300 200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-017.jpg?resize=768,1152 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-017.jpg?resize=683,1024 683w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-017.jpg?resize=1024,1536 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-017.jpg?resize=1365,2048 1365w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-017.jpg?resize=863,1295 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-017.jpg?resize=422,633 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-017.jpg?resize=552,828 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-017.jpg?resize=558,837 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-017.jpg?resize=527,791 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-017.jpg?resize=752,1128 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-017.jpg?resize=1149,1724 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-017.jpg?resize=1067,1600 1067w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-017.jpg?resize=400,600 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-017.jpg?resize=800,1200 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-017.jpg?resize=1200,1800 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-017.jpg?resize=1600,2400 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" /> Bennett’s daughters Aubree and Ava play on a swing set. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="1128" width="752" data-id="69689" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-047.jpg?w=752" alt="A girl wearing a red “Tommy” shirt looks at a smartphone with a picture of a woman wearing a face mask and lying down in a hospital bed." class="wp-image-69689" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-047.jpg 2000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-047.jpg?resize=200,300 200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-047.jpg?resize=768,1152 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-047.jpg?resize=683,1024 683w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-047.jpg?resize=1024,1536 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-047.jpg?resize=1365,2048 1365w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-047.jpg?resize=863,1295 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-047.jpg?resize=422,633 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-047.jpg?resize=552,828 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-047.jpg?resize=558,837 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-047.jpg?resize=527,791 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-047.jpg?resize=752,1128 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-047.jpg?resize=1149,1724 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-047.jpg?resize=1067,1600 1067w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-047.jpg?resize=400,600 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-047.jpg?resize=800,1200 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-047.jpg?resize=1200,1800 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260228-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-047.jpg?resize=1600,2400 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" /> Aubree looks at a photo of her mother holding her after a court-ordered C-section. A year and a half later in Jacksonville, Doyley faced a situation eerily similar to Bennett’s. She noted as her hearing began that she was the only Black person on the screen. About a dozen faces, most of them white, had gathered to challenge her medical decisions. She said it made her feel as if her race had something to do with the fact that she was thrust into the intrusive hearing. “I have 20 white people against me, and because I am informed and I am making an informed decision, they are trying to take my rights away from me by force,” Doyley told the people on the screen, requesting a Black nurse or doctor. “I don’t find that race really has much to do with this, ma’am,” the judge responded. Dr. Erin Burnett said during the hearing that she did not think Doyley could successfully give birth vaginally because she had a history of stalled labors. A long labor after prior C-sections could increase the risk of uterine rupture, which could kill Doyley and the child, she said. She said the baby’s heart rate showed some signs of distress and told Doyley it would be better to have a C-section before it became an emergency. If the baby’s heart stopped or if she lost oxygen during delivery, the baby could suffer a brain injury or death. Dr. John Davis, the chair of the obstetrics and gynecology department, testified that the hospital had been recognized for its low C-section rate and did not perform unnecessary surgeries. Doyley’s condition required intervention, he said. Burnett and Davis did not respond to requests for comment, and the hospital declined ProPublica’s requests to interview them and others involved in Doyley’s care. Doyley signed a waiver allowing the hospital to discuss her case with ProPublica, but a spokesperson for University of Florida Health in Jacksonville would not comment, citing patient privacy. Nor did the hospital respond to questions about Doyley’s claim that race played a role in the decision to involve the court. The research on the risks of uterine rupture after prior C-sections is unclear. Studies have found that 0.15% to 2.3% of these labors resulted in a rupture, depending on a number of factors such as body mass, a history of successful vaginal births and whether the labor was spontaneous or had to be induced. Doyley, who felt comfortable with her odds and wanted to continue laboring, argued during the hearing that C-sections carry their own dangers — including a risk of death. “A lot of that comes from medical negligence and medical racism, where we have a group of white doctors that think that they know what is best for Black bodies and Black babies,” Doyley said in the hearing. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" js-autosizes height="501" width="752" src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-066.jpg?w=752" alt="Three children sit outside in plastic chairs in an open wooden structure. In the background are trees and a camping tent. One of the children holds a baby in her arms and kisses her." class="wp-image-69690" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-066.jpg 3000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-066.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-066.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-066.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-066.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-066.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-066.jpg?resize=863,575 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-066.jpg?resize=422,281 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-066.jpg?resize=552,368 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-066.jpg?resize=558,372 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-066.jpg?resize=527,351 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-066.jpg?resize=752,501 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-066.jpg?resize=1149,766 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-066.jpg?resize=2000,1333 2000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-066.jpg?resize=400,267 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-066.jpg?resize=800,533 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-066.jpg?resize=1200,800 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-066.jpg?resize=1600,1067 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 752px) 100vw, 752px" /> Doyley’s children — from left, Aganju, 7, Akilah, 11, and Arewa, 1 — sit on the porch at their home. Both the doctors and Doyley mentioned recommendations from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. However, neither one cited the organization’s stance on court-ordered C-sections, which the group has deemed to be “ethically impermissible.” After three hours of testimony — all while Doyley lay in her hospital bed — the judge ruled that she could keep laboring unless there was an emergency. If that happened, the hospital could operate, whether she wanted it or not. The judge would reconvene the hearing in the morning. In response to questions from ProPublica, Kalil wrote in an email that the judicial code of conduct prohibits judges from commenting on cases. “These ethical standards exist to protect the integrity of the judicial process, ensure fairness to all parties, and preserve the Court’s neutrality,” he wrote. Overnight, doctors said the baby’s heart rate dropped for seven minutes. Doyley woke to her hospital bed being wheeled into surgery. She called out to her sister who was asleep in the hospital room. “I had to tell her, ‘Hey, wake up,’” Doyley said. “‘Something is going on.’ She’s trying to put on her shoes. I’m like, ‘Girl, leave the shoes. Let’s go.’” Doyley recalled reciting a short prayer as her sister scrambled into the operating room. The baby was delivered by C-section. Although Doyley’s daughter was initially limp, she perked up and became responsive within a few minutes. Doctors took her to the NICU while Doyley went to recover. And to get ready to face the judge again. At the 8 a.m. hearing, Doyley looked pained and groggy. She told the judge she still hadn’t been allowed to see her daughter and asked if he could help. A doctor testified that the baby had been brought to the NICU in respiratory distress and placed on a continuous positive airway pressure machine to help with her breathing. Kalil said he couldn’t order the hospital to do anything. The matter he had been appointed to hear involved only her unborn baby. He had no authority over the child in the nursery. Kalil wished her well and quickly closed the case. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="3000" height="2000" js-autosizes src="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-104.jpg" alt="A woman wearing a floor-length black sleeveless dress stands in an open doorway with her hands on the doorframe. A clear porch roof overhead lets light stream in." class="wp-image-69585" srcset="https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-104.jpg 3000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-104.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-104.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-104.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-104.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-104.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-104.jpg?resize=863,575 863w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-104.jpg?resize=422,281 422w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-104.jpg?resize=552,368 552w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-104.jpg?resize=558,372 558w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-104.jpg?resize=527,351 527w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-104.jpg?resize=752,501 752w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-104.jpg?resize=1149,766 1149w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-104.jpg?resize=2000,1333 2000w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-104.jpg?resize=400,267 400w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-104.jpg?resize=800,533 800w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-104.jpg?resize=1200,800 1200w, https://www.propublica.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260301-Maney-Court-Ordered-C-Sections-104.jpg?resize=1600,1067 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 3000px) 100vw, 3000px" /> Doyley in her home. In Florida and many other states, court-ordered C-sections are just one way in which pregnant women’s rights are eroded. The post They Didn’t Want to Have C-Sections. A Judge Would Decide How They Gave Birth. appeared first on ProPublica.
Oregon Voters Overwhelmingly Said Yes to Limiting Money in Politics. Then Politicians Had Their Say.
The post Oregon Voters Overwhelmingly Said Yes to Limiting Money in Politics. Then Politicians Had Their Say. appeared first on ProPublica.
Back in 2019, it looked like Oregon lawmakers might finally commit to ending the state’s outlier status on campaign finance. I had just authored an investigative series for The Oregonian/OregonLive, my previous newsroom, revealing how Oregon’s lack of limits on campaign donations had allowed corporate America to give more to lawmakers, per capita, than anywhere else in the country and led to some of the weakest environmental protections on the West Coast. The state Supreme Court had allowed it to happen by saying campaign donations were protected free speech under the Oregon Constitution. Lawmakers in Oregon, one of five states without any limits at all, seemed willing to do something about what we’d revealed. They asked Oregonians to change the constitution and explicitly allow contribution limits, something legislators had repeatedly tried and failed to do before. At the ballot in 2020, 78% of voters said yes, one of the widest margins for any ballot measure in decades. All lawmakers needed to do was to write legislation limiting donations. But for the next four years, no limits were adopted. When lawmakers eventually set caps in 2024, individual donations were restricted to $3,300 per election, well short of caps in the $1,000 to $2,000 range that good-government groups had sought previously. Lawmakers left other avenues for donors to give their time and money. They allowed corporate donations, which many states ban, to continue. They made it so the limits wouldn’t take effect until 2027, after the current race for governor is over. And now, lawmakers have voted to ratchet the spigot open further — and perhaps, campaign reform advocates say, all the way. On March 5, Oregon’s Democratic-controlled Legislature approved a bill that supporters described as containing little more than technical fixes to what they’d written two years ago. Groups that seek to limit the influence of money in politics said the changes are far more serious than housekeeping. They said the new bill inserted loopholes that, among other things, will allow companies to bypass the limits by giving through corporate affiliates. Dan Meek, an attorney who for years has been at the center of efforts to curtail money in Oregon politics, labeled it “the bill to destroy campaign finance reform in Oregon.” Oregon elections haven’t had contribution limits since briefly in the 1990s. Phil Keisling, a former secretary of state who advocated for those caps only to see them overturned in court, described the Legislature’s track record on campaign finance as “one of the most profound public policy failures” in Oregon’s recent history. “Limits should have been in place decades ago,” he said. “The base problem is that there are powerful forces within both political parties who prefer the system as it is.” Legislative leaders defended their work. In a floor speech, House Majority Leader Ben Bowman described the contribution limits the Legislature adopted as delivering on “elections where the voices of everyday people are not drowned out by wealthy and powerful interests making unlimited political contributions.” He described this year’s changes as necessary for the new system to work. The investigation I worked on seven years ago found that campaign donations in Oregon did more than just help politicians get elected. They sometimes spent campaign money in ways that benefited themselves, including on luxury hotel rooms, dry cleaning, car washes — even picking up the tabs during dozens of visits to sports bars. One lawmaker used campaign money to buy a new computer three weeks before she left office; another spent it on an Amazon Prime membership, 11 days before resigning. The money shaped public policy. As a reporter covering Oregon’s environment, I watched the Legislature weaken or stall efforts on climate change, logging practices, industrial air pollution, herbicide spraying, oil spill preparedness and other issues over a decade. One retired regulator told me all it took was a single phone call from a well-connected lobbyist to kill one clean air initiative. What’s happened since my investigation was published reveals how hard it can be to eliminate this kind of influence when the people expected to rein in donations are the ones whose campaigns have long benefited from them. After Oregonians overwhelmingly voted to hand lawmakers the power to regulate election money in 2020, lawmakers failed to put restrictions in place in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. Tired of waiting, advocates for tight constraints on campaign money gathered tens of thousands of signatures to put a measure limiting donations on the ballot in 2024. Labor unions, a major source of giving to Democrats, responded by threatening to put up their own competing initiative. A backer of the union measure said recently that it would have encouraged grassroots participation through small donor committees and included public financing for candidates. Meek, the campaign reform advocate, described the union measure as an effort to create far looser limits, with less disclosure and major loopholes. Lawmakers stepped in, brokering a deal that was hailed as a historic breakthrough. Unions, the campaign reform advocates and big business produced a bill that Meek described as at least a starting point for controlling Oregon’s political money — albeit with fewer constraints and bigger dollar limits than he and others wanted. Kate Titus, Oregon director of Common Cause, an advocacy group that was involved in the negotiations alongside Meek, said everyone agreed that some technical fixes to the bill’s language would be needed before the system took effect in 2027. But she said the group, which included House Speaker Julie Fahey, agreed that no substantive changes would be made without everyone’s agreement. Then came this year’s short, monthlong legislative session — and a surprise. Titus described seeing Fahey in a state Capitol hallway in early February and asking whether any bills were coming on campaign finance. Fahey’s expression changed to what Titus described as “pure panic.” “I can’t talk,” Titus said the speaker told her, before hurrying away. (Fahey’s spokesperson, Jill Bakken, said the speaker was on her way from a floor session to a meeting and didn’t have time for an impromptu hallway conversation, telling Titus she could schedule time through her staff.) Hours later, Titus said, an 85-page bill was introduced with Fahey’s name on it and a public hearing scheduled early the next morning. It would push back the deadline that the 2024 legislation set for launching a new website for tracking campaign money, from 2028 to 2032. The bill would make the $5,000 limit on donations to one type of political committee apply per year, not per two-year election cycle — effectively doubling the amount allowed. A spokesperson for Fahey called the 2024 provision a “typo” that needed correcting because it was inconsistent with limits on other donation types. The 2024 law prohibited multiple businesses controlled by the same person from each giving as much as the law allows. The 2026 bill would allow it as long as the businesses weren’t created solely to evade limits, a change Fahey’s spokesperson said was needed to avoid a “chilling effect on community-based organizations’ participation in elections.” The Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group, called it a loophole that renders Oregon’s contribution limits “illusory.” On top of all that, the bill would remove a long-standing provision in state law that says that money someone spends in coordination with a candidate is a campaign contribution. A spokesperson for Secretary of State Tobias Read said the provision was “redundant” because the law also says “any other thing of value,” beyond money, is a campaign contribution. But the Campaign Legal Center said the change could leave Oregon functionally with “no contribution limits.” A representative of the League of Women Voters of Oregon, which was involved in the 2024 negotiations, called the bill “a complete betrayal.” Bakken, Fahey’s spokesperson, told ProPublica that groups including the league “have been part of this conversation for many years” and that they will have opportunities for input as lawmakers consider future changes. As for why the Legislature hasn’t done more to stem the flow of money into the system, Bakken said that constraining donors too greatly could push them to divert cash from campaign donations into commercials and mailers in support of candidates, something candidates legally can’t control. These “independent expenditures” have no dollar limit under federal law. Unhappy as Meek and others were with the proposal, they couldn’t do much. They threatened to go back to the ballot, but without the signatures they’d gathered to do so in 2024, they’d lost their leverage. The bill sailed through the Oregon House by a 39-19 vote and the Senate 20-9. Sen. Jeff Golden, a Southern Oregon Democrat who opposed the bill, called its passage the biggest surprise of his eight-year tenure. Given the potentially huge loopholes, he said in an interview: “I thought my colleagues wouldn’t pass it. And I was wrong.” The measure sits on the desk of Gov. Tina Kotek, a Portland Democrat. She has until April 17 to decide on it. The post Oregon Voters Overwhelmingly Said Yes to Limiting Money in Politics. Then Politicians Had Their Say. appeared first on ProPublica.
Nevada Regulators Fine Peptide Providers at Anti-Aging Festival Where Two Women Became Critically Ill
The post Nevada Regulators Fine Peptide Providers at Anti-Aging Festival Where Two Women Became Critically Ill appeared first on ProPublica.
Nevada regulators have fined three people who played a role in offering peptide injections last year at a Las Vegas anti-aging conference where two women became critically ill following treatment. Last month, the Nevada Pharmacy Board levied $10,000 fines against a doctor and a pharmacist who are licensed in California but who don’t have permission to practice in Nevada. It imposed a $5,000 fine against a third man who describes himself as an “integrative health coach” but who doesn’t appear to be a licensed health care practitioner. The pharmacy board also imposed a $10,000 fine against a Texas-based private membership association, which authorities accused of mailing the peptides to Nevada. The group, Forgotten Formula, claims a constitutional right to conduct private transactions with its members and contends those transactions occur “outside the scope” of state commercial regulations. The citations stem from an incident in July at the Revolution Against Aging and Death Festival, which is put on by an Arizona-based organization that promises pathways to an “unlimited lifespan.” Dr. Kent Holtorf, whose anti-aging medical practice is based in El Segundo, California, operated a booth at the festival offering alternative health therapies, including peptide injections. Peptides are short amino acid chains that have exploded in popularity thanks to claims they can fight aging and chronic disease. The board alleged that Forgotten Formula mailed the peptides to the casino resort hosting RAADFest, marking the package “to the attention of Dr. Kent Holtorf.” That shipment constituted “unlicensed wholesaling of drugs,” according to the board’s citation. A trustee of Forgotten Formula told ProPublica his association was not present at the festival and did not provide peptides to be offered for public use. After being injected with peptides at Holtorf’s booth, two women left the conference in ambulances, so ill they had to be intubated to assist them in breathing. They have since recovered. The pharmacy board was unable to determine why the women became ill — including whether the injections were contaminated or the women reacted to the peptides themselves. Investigators were unable to test the serums. “We were not able to obtain the product, although attempts were made,” said David Wuest, the board’s executive secretary. Although the Food and Drug Administration has approved many peptide-based medications to treat serious diseases such as diabetes and cancer, peptide therapies used for anti-aging and regenerative health are largely unregulated. (Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been a strong proponent of peptides.) The FDA allows compounding pharmacies to dispense some peptides, but has listed 19 of some of the most popular peptides as posing “significant safety risks.” Compounding pharmacies are prohibited from dispensing those on the list. As a result, many unsafe peptides are sold on a booming gray market, including directly to consumers by entities in the U.S. and abroad that are skirting FDA rules. The injections administered to both women at the Las Vegas convention included at least one peptide that the FDA warns poses a safety risk, according to the pharmacy board’s citations. Kennedy said recently that the FDA plans to reclassify 14 of the peptides currently listed as unsafe, which could allow compounding pharmacies to begin dispensing them. Holtorf, who did not respond to repeated attempts to contact him, was fined for practicing in Nevada without a state license. Han Bao Nguyen, the pharmacist accused of mixing the peptides for both women and administering the serums to one of them, also was cited for the same violation. Nguyen works at Holtorf’s practice, according to its website. He did not respond to requests for comment. Michael McNeal, the “integrative health coach” and director of education at Integrative Peptides, a company founded by Holtorf, was accused of prescribing or recommending a peptide cocktail to one of the women. Wuest said McNeal does not appear to hold any health care licenses. McNeal did not respond to requests for comment. In July, Holtorf told ProPublica he didn’t believe the peptides caused the women’s illnesses, saying he’d asked an artificial intelligence app to analyze the incident. He wouldn’t share what the app had concluded was the cause. He also apologized for the situation and said he was “reassessing everything we are doing” to keep patients safe. Wuest said the board notified the California boards that license Holtorf and Nguyen of the fines so they may consider additional discipline. The FDA also has been notified, he said. Michael Blake Fiveash is co-founder and first trustee of Forgotten Formula, which the board accused of unlicensed wholesaling of pharmaceuticals. He said pharmacy board regulations, while necessary for regulating public commerce, don’t apply to his association because it offers services only to members who have signed a contract. He said such member-to-member activity is protected by the First and 14th amendments. In a letter to ProPublica, he said Holtorf, whose peptide company is listed as a partner on Forgotten Formula’s website, was operating at RAADFest under his public medical practice, not as an association member. Nor were the women who became ill members of the association, Fiveash said. “Dr. Holtorf’s booth at RAADFest was a public commercial activity,” Fiveash said in a letter. The Forgotten Formula Private Member Association “did not supply materials for public commercial use or public distribution. If Dr. Holtorf utilized any materials in his public professional practice, that would represent his individual choice to apply private member resources to his separate public professional activities, which is beyond FFPMA’s control or responsibility.” Fiveash did not directly answer questions about whether the association mailed the peptides to Holtorf. He also shared a video of testimonials from Forgotten Formula members, including children and adults, suffering serious illnesses such as cancer, Lyme disease, diabetes and cirrhosis who said they were helped by the association’s products. Read More A Las Vegas Festival Promised Ways to Cheat Death. Two Attendees Left Fighting for Their Lives. He challenged the premise that the women became ill from the peptides. “Without comprehensive toxicology, full medical histories, and analysis of all substances and treatments administered that day, attributing causation to peptides is speculation masquerading as reporting,” he said. “Any adverse event is concerning, and we hope both patients have fully recovered.” Laura Tucker, the pharmacy board’s lawyer, said this is the board’s first encounter with a private membership association making such legal claims, but emphasized that mailing drugs to the state without a Nevada license is against state law. She added that any of the parties can appeal their citations to the board. “Of course anyone is free to make any sort of legal argument they would like to try to make in front of the board,” she said. The post Nevada Regulators Fine Peptide Providers at Anti-Aging Festival Where Two Women Became Critically Ill appeared first on ProPublica.
Election Records Handed Over to the FBI in Maricopa County, Arizona, Could Be Fatally Flawed, Experts Say
The post Election Records Handed Over to the FBI in Maricopa County, Arizona, Could Be Fatally Flawed, Experts Say appeared first on ProPublica.
This week, when 2020 voting information from Maricopa County, Arizona, was handed over to the FBI, it might have seemed like a replay of the agency’s late January raid in Fulton County, Georgia. Both are large counties in swing states that voted for Joe Biden in 2020, and both have long been targets of President Donald Trump’s claims that that year’s presidential election was stolen from him. But the evidence collected from Maricopa County is fundamentally different, in ways that election experts say threaten the accuracy and integrity of the federal government’s investigation. In Fulton, the FBI took the actual ballots cast in the county’s 2020 election, which had been kept in secure court storage facilities. In Maricopa, a federal grand jury subpoenaed digital data related to a partisan audit of the county’s vote, according to Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen, the subpoena’s recipient. This material — which may have included scans and photos of ballots — was stored by the Senate, not the county. Maricopa County destroyed the original ballots after two years, as state law requires. The firm hired by Senate Republican leaders to run the audit, the Cyber Ninjas, was funded by and took direction from Trump allies. Its leader, Doug Logan, privately admitted in text messages obtained by journalists via public records requests that its ballot recounts were “screwy.” County leaders, both Republicans and Democrats, and nonpartisan outside observers documented several ways Logan’s team had failed to follow procedures to prevent tampering. (Logan didn’t respond to a request for comment.) Several election experts, including some who watched the Arizona audit in person in 2021, said any investigation based on the Cyber Ninja data would be fatally flawed. “Accessing invalid data will only draw inaccurate conclusions and risk further degradation of public confidence,” said Ryan Macias, a national elections technology consultant who observed the audit on behalf of the Arizona secretary of state’s office. The Department of Justice and White House did not answer questions from ProPublica on experts’ concerns about the quality of the data and records produced under the subpoena. A spokesperson for the Arizona U.S. attorney’s office declined to respond to questions about whether it was involved in the case, saying it was against policy to comment on grand jury subpoenas or proceedings. Petersen, a Republican who helped launch the audit in 2021 and handed over the records to the FBI, didn’t say under which court’s authority the grand jury subpoena was issued or respond to a question on its basis. Neither Petersen nor a spokesperson for the Arizona Senate gave details on what exactly the FBI collected. The Senate has not released the subpoena. The subpoena is the latest salvo in the Trump administration’s unprecedented attempt to reinvestigate purported problems in the 2020 election. The White House has tasked Kurt Olsen, a lawyer who tried to assist Trump in overturning his loss, with helping to lead the criminal inquiry. Olsen helped initiate the Fulton County case, which is being overseen by Thomas Albus, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, according to the supporting affidavit. It’s not yet clear whether Olsen or Albus is involved in the Maricopa County investigation. The Arizona audit began in April 2021, after the Senate’s Republican leadership subpoenaed Maricopa County for scans of all 2.1 million ballots, the county’s voter rolls and other voting system data, such as logs showing who accessed the system. The Senate also had material that the Cyber Ninjas shared from the audit, such as sheets used to tally votes and track anomalies as well as data from the county’s election management system and ballot tabulators. Cyber Ninjas pulled data from the Dominion Voting Systems machines the county used in 2020, so the FBI presumably has that material. Trump falsely claimed after the election that Dominion voting machines had been hacked, switching votes for him to register as votes for Biden. The Trump administration has been trying to access Dominion machines from other locations since he took office. Fox News and Newsmax settled defamation lawsuits with Dominion after making similar claims, agreeing to pay the company millions. Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat who was secretary of state during the 2021 audit, said in an interview with ProPublica that it’s unclear what has happened to the records in the five years they have been out of the county’s hands. “I don’t think anyone should have confidence in whatever comes out of whatever was turned over to the FBI,” Hobbs said. Maricopa County’s 2020 election results have been confirmed repeatedly, both by the county’s postelection hand-count and by multiple audits conducted by independent firms commissioned by the county. Courts tossed out several cases filed by lawyers for Trump alleging fraud. The Cyber Ninjas’ review, which also concluded that Biden won, drew intense criticism from the get-go, both for its methodology and its partisanship. One of the audit managers was Heather Honey, who now holds a key post in the Trump administration as the Department of Homeland Security’s deputy assistant secretary for election integrity. The contractor conducted its review without county or Senate employees present and only allowed in observers from Hobbs’ office after a court demanded more transparency. The firm’s workers made errors recounting votes cast in the presidential race, keeping three separate tally sheets for each batch of ballots that often reflected different totals, a secretary of state’s office report found. They also had black and blue pens out as they took photos of ballots, causing concern among observers about the potential for tampering. The contractor sent data collected from ballot tabulators to a Montana cabin for analysis and wouldn’t say how — or if — it had protected the data from hacking. Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, said in an interview that the contractor’s sloppy procedures would make it unlikely a court would accept the records handed over to the FBI as evidence proving irregularities in the 2020 vote. “You can easily poke holes in any of this stuff,” Fontes said. Cyber Ninjas sometimes mistook routine aspects of the election process as signs of wrongdoing. It announced that 74,000 more mail-in ballots had been cast in Maricopa County than had been sent out. There was a simple explanation for the discrepancy, however: The ballots hadn’t been sent out; they’d been given to the voters by hand at early voting locations. Ken Bennett, a Republican who was the Arizona Senate’s liaison to the audit and is a former Arizona secretary of state, said in an interview that he thinks the county’s original election results were correct. “The only evidence I could find of mistakes made by the county were minor errors that had nothing to do with whether or not they came up with the accurate results,” Bennett said. The post Election Records Handed Over to the FBI in Maricopa County, Arizona, Could Be Fatally Flawed, Experts Say appeared first on ProPublica.