Joshua Kaplan

Reporter

Joshua Kaplan is a reporter at ProPublica. Since joining the newsroom in January 2020, he has reported on the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and misconduct by undercover police officers in New York City, among other subjects.

Kaplan’s work with colleagues at ProPublica has received national honors including a George Polk Award, an Edward R. Murrow Award and the Al Nakkula Award for Police Reporting. He holds a degree in mathematics from the University of Chicago.

January 6 Select Committee Subpoenas Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Other Top Aides

Citing a June ProPublica report, the committee says there is “credible evidence” of Meadows’ involvement in events leading up to the attack on the Capitol.

New Details Suggest Senior Trump Aides Knew Jan. 6 Rally Could Get Chaotic

Text messages and interviews show that Stop the Steal leaders fooled the Capitol police and welcomed racists to increase their crowd sizes, while White House officials worked to both contain and appease them.

In Exclusive Jailhouse Letter, Capitol Riot Defendant Explains Motives, Remains Boastful

The material obtained by ProPublica sheds light on the radicalization of a Jan. 6 defendant whom prosecutors have characterized as a “serious danger ... not only to his family and Congress, but to the entire system of justice.”

As New York City Moves to Address Racialized Policing of Sex Work, Advocates and Lawyers Say It’s Not Enough

In the wake of a 2020 ProPublica investigation, Mayor Bill de Blasio has called for convening a task force to address problems with how the city polices the sex trade. “But it feels like planning to make a plan,” one attorney said.

6 Questions Officials Still Haven’t Answered After Weeks of Hearings on the Capitol Attack

More than 15 hours of testimony failed to answer fundamental questions about the Capitol attack. Among them: Why national security officials responded differently to BLM protesters than to Trump supporters.

“I Don’t Trust the People Above Me”: Riot Squad Cops Open Up About Disastrous Response to Capitol Insurrection

Interviews with 19 current and former officers show how failures of leadership and communication put hundreds of Capitol cops at risk and allowed rioters to get dangerously close to members of Congress.

“No One Took Us Seriously”: Black Cops Warned About Racist Capitol Police Officers for Years

Allegations of racism against the Capitol Police are nothing new: Over 250 Black cops have sued the department since 2001. Some of those former officers now say it’s no surprise white nationalists were able to storm the building.

Before Mob Stormed the Capitol, Days of Security Planning Involved Cabinet Officials and President Trump

A Pentagon memo offers one version of events — six days of preparation for a rally that quickly spiraled out of control.

New York Lawmakers Demand NYPD Halt Undercover Sex Trade Stings

A dozen city and state officials also called for the disbandment of vice, the primary division that polices the sex trade; some want investigations into misconduct allegations against the unit, including withholding of evidence.

NYPD Cops Cash In on Sex Trade Arrests With Little Evidence, While Black and Brown New Yorkers Pay the Price

Some NYPD officers who police the sex trade, driven by overtime pay, go undercover to round up as many “bodies” as they can with little evidence. Almost no one they arrest is white.

The Hospital System Sent Patients With Coronavirus Home to Die. Louisiana Legislators Are Demanding an Investigation.

The Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus called the practice of sending infected coronavirus patients home to die “disturbing” after ProPublica found that one New Orleans hospital system had done so numerous times.

Sent Home to Die

In New Orleans, hospitals sent patients infected with the coronavirus into hospice facilities or back to their families to die at home, in some cases discontinuing treatment even as relatives begged them to keep trying.

In Hard-Hit New Jersey, COVID-19 Saddles Some Small Health Departments With Crushing Workload

Secretaries are working as contact tracers. The person normally in charge of pet shops and tattoo parlors is monitoring nursing homes. And as the state reopens, workers worry duties will increase.

Early Data Shows Black People Are Being Disproportionally Arrested for Social Distancing Violations

Crowds of mostly white protesters have defied Ohio’s stay-at-home order without arrest, while in several of the state’s biggest jurisdictions, police departments have primarily arrested black people for violating the order.

Without Federal Help, New York Doctors Had to Ask Medical Supply Execs for Dialysis Supplies

The novel coronavirus, a respiratory illness, is damaging kidneys at an unexpectedly high rate, according to experts. A shortage of dialysis materials has forced New York doctors to directly lobby corporate executives for help.

Rationing Protective Gear Means Checking on Coronavirus Patients Less Often. This Can Be Deadly.

Low on essential supplies and fearing they’ll get sick, doctors and nurses told ProPublica in-person care for coronavirus patients has been scaled back. In some cases, it’s causing serious harm.

How New York City’s Emergency Ventilator Stockpile Ended Up on the Auction Block

A 2006 pandemic plan warned that New York City could be short as many as 9,500 ventilators. But the city only acquired a few hundred, which were ultimately scrapped because it couldn’t afford to maintain them.

Los hospitales han dejado solos, confundidos y sin atención adecuada a muchos pacientes con COVID-19 que no hablan inglés

Este fue el comentario de un empleado de servicios médicos, “Esperamos diez minutos en el teléfono para obtener un intérprete, y ese es tiempo valioso cuando estamos inundados. Entonces, comenzamos a calcular en forma utilitaria y los pacientes más convencionales son los que reciben mejor atención.”

Hospitals Have Left Many COVID-19 Patients Who Don’t Speak English Alone, Confused and Without Proper Care

One medical worker told us: “It takes 10 minutes of sitting on the phone to get an interpreter, and that’s valuable time when you’re inundated. So this utilitarian calculus kicks in. And the patients that are most mainstream get the best care.”

Your Neighborhood Might Be a Coronavirus Hot Spot, but New York City Refuses to Release the Data

Some local governments have published where coronavirus cases appear, down to the neighborhood level. New York City has made public only county-by-county data, making it difficult to see which communities are being hardest hit.

Follow ProPublica

Latest Stories from ProPublica