William Turton

William Turton

@williamturton.bsky.social

Reporter, ProPublica. Focused on federal law enforcement Contact me on Signal: 804-295-7201 william.turton@propublica.org

3,754 Followers 373 Following 116 Posts Joined May 2023
1 week ago

What's angered Trump re Noem? Her testimony about a $200 million self-promotional ad campaign at DHS — about which @propublica.org broke the critical details last year:

www.propublica.org/article/kris...

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2 weeks ago

"But at a certain point, this childish indulgence in an unchecked id and a bottomless compulsion to be the center of attention takes a toll on the FBI’s actual work; what the world saw in a locker room Sunday evening marks such an inflection point."

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2 weeks ago
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William Turton Joins ProPublica as National Reporter

So thrilled to join the staff of ProPublica. Please reach out if you know about an important story involving the Department of Justice or the FBI. www.propublica.org/atpropublica...

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1 month ago
A line chart going from Jan 2009 to Jan 2026 showing very few cases until Trump’s second term, where the line takes off nearly vertically, showing more than 6,600 cases in Jan 2026 alone.

Habeas cases filed by immigrants claiming their detention is illegal have taken off to levels we have never seen before. Just look at that chart.

www.propublica.org/article/habe...

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1 month ago
How “Bitcoin Jesus” Avoided Prison, Thanks to One of the “Friends of Trump” Billionaire fugitive Roger Ver was facing federal criminal charges until he sought the services of a select club of President Donald Trump’s former personal attorneys who have easy access to top Justi...

www.propublica.org/article/bitc...

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2 months ago

We at ProPublica obtained internal government data in May that showed the Trump administration knew the vast majority of Venezuelans sent to El Salvador had not been convicted of violent crimes. Our reporting is featured in Frontline. Read our full coverage: www.propublica.org/series/depor...

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2 months ago
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Sick in a Hospital Town, Part 1: The Business of Care Welcome to Albany, Georgia, where one hospital dominates the political and economic landscape. The story of Phoebe Putney Memorial is the story of American health care.

I went to Albany, Ga., 5 years ago to write about Covid-19, but I realized there was a bigger story to be told about the unchecked power of our health care system and who benefits from its growth.

Spoiler: Far too few of us. @propublica.org

projects.propublica.org/albany-georg...

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3 months ago
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Trump’s DOJ Pressured Lawyers to “Find” Evidence that UCLA Had Illegally Tolerated Antisemitism An investigation by ProPublica and The Chronicle of Higher Education reveals how the U.S. government ignored due process to gin up its attack on the University of California.

NEW! The Shakedown: How Trump's DOJ pressured lawyers to 'find' evidence that UCLA had illegally tolerated antisemitism. by me and @KatherineMangan w/ @chronicle.com
www.propublica.org/article/ucla...

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3 months ago
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Nicole Foy ProPublica is an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest.

Hey folks 👋 I'm the reporter who revealed immigration agents detained 170+ citizens this year

My fellowship w/ProPublica has been incredible, but it wraps January. I'm looking for my next gig. Please reach out to share leads & opportunities! nicolemfoy@gmail.com
www.propublica.org/people/nicol...

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3 months ago
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Trump’s Own Mortgages Match His Description of Mortgage Fraud, Records Reveal The Trump administration has argued that Fed board member Lisa Cook may have committed mortgage fraud by declaring more than one primary residence on her loans. We found Trump once did the very thing ...

NEW:

Trump’s Own Mortgages Match His Description of Mortgage Fraud, Records Reveal

www.propublica.org/article/trum...

w/ @robert-faturechi.bsky.social @amierjeski.bsky.social

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3 months ago
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Sick in a Hospital Town: As Phoebe Memorial Grew, the Health of Albany, Georgia, Declined The five-part series, “Sick in a Hospital Town,” pursues one question: Why are people in Albany so sick when its most powerful institution is a hospital?

Welcome to Albany, Georgia, where one hospital dominates the political and economic landscape.

The story of Phoebe Putney Memorial is the story of American health care.

By @gingerthompson.bsky.social, with research by Doris Burke

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3 months ago
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Happening now in NYC: The names of journalists, artists, writers, scholars, and media workers killed in Gaza are being projected onto 33 Thomas Street.

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3 months ago
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FBI Director Kash Patel Waived Polygraph Security Screening for Dan Bongino, Two Other Senior Staff As the FBI’s deputy director, Bongino receives some of the country’s most sensitive secrets, including the President’s Daily Brief. His ascent to that position without passing a standard bureau backgr...

The FBI has recently used polygraph tests to ask senior employees if they have said anything negative about FBI Director Kash Patel or had spoken to the media.

Separately, Patel granted waivers to Deputy Director Dan Bongino and two other staffers, exempting them from passing polygraph exams.

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3 months ago

FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal assistant Nicole Rucker worked for Stephen Miller since January 2020, according to her resume.

The White House said Rucker is not sharing information on the FBI’s operations with Miller and referred further questions to the bureau and the Department of Justice.

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3 months ago

Doesn't surprise me in the least. Full disclosure: I was one of the lawyers interviewed about this, and everything they say is accurate about how unprecedented this is. If I were to ask for a waiver for a client after they didn't pass a poly, I'd be laughed out of the room.

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3 months ago
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FBI Director Kash Patel Waived Polygraph Security Screening for Dan Bongino, Two Other Senior Staff As the FBI’s deputy director, Bongino receives some of the country’s most sensitive secrets, including the President’s Daily Brief. His ascent to that position without passing a standard bureau backgr...

NEW: FBI Director Kash Patel granted waivers to Deputy Director Dan Bongino and two newly hired senior FBI staff, exempting them from polygraph exams normally required to gain access to America’s most sensitive classified information, officials said.

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3 months ago
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FBI Director Kash Patel Waived Polygraph Security Screening for Dan Bongino, Two Other Senior Staff As the FBI’s deputy director, Bongino receives some of the country’s most sensitive secrets, including the President’s Daily Brief. His ascent to that position without passing a standard bureau…

"Former FBI officials said they could not recall a single instance in which a senior official like Bongino received a waiver and was then given a top secret clearance."

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3 months ago
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FBI Director Kash Patel Waived Polygraph Security Screening for Dan Bongino, Two Other Senior Staff As the FBI’s deputy director, Bongino receives some of the country’s most sensitive secrets, including the President’s Daily Brief. His ascent to that position without passing a standard bureau backgr...

New: FBI Director Kash Patel Waived Polygraph Security Screening for Dan Bongino, Two Other Senior Staff www.propublica.org/article/fbi-...

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3 months ago
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NEW: DHS launched a $200mln+ ad campaign, featuring, Kristi Noem, aimed at stemming illegal immigration.

We found the firm secretly hired for the work has ties to Noem.

@justinelliott.bsky.social, @josh-kaplan.bsky.social & @amierjeski.bsky.social:

www.propublica.org/article/kris...

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4 months ago
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Few people outside North Carolina have heard of Paul Newby, the chief justice of the state’s Supreme Court.

But Newby has had a huge impact on America and his state. He’s done this with the goal of delivering what he’s called “biblical justice, equal justice, for all.”

THREAD 👇

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4 months ago
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More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days. The government does not track how often immigration agents grab citizens. So ProPublica did. Our tally — almost certainly incomplete — includes people who were held for days without a lawyer. And near...

Justice Brett Kavanaugh: “If the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a U.S. citizen...they promptly let the individual go."

The reality: Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot by immigration agents.

A must read from the very talented @nicolefoy.bsky.social:

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4 months ago
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More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days. The government does not track how often immigration agents grab citizens. So ProPublica did. Our tally — almost certainly incomplete — includes people who were held for days without a lawyer. And near...

BREAKING from PP

We found immigration agents have held more than 170 *citizens*

The govt doesn't track citizens held. So we did. We tallied:

Nearly 20 kids, two w/ cancer

More than 20 citizens held for day or more, incommunicado

www.propublica.org/article/immi...

by @nicolefoy.bsky.social

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4 months ago

I’m speaking on this panel alongside Matthew

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4 months ago

major

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7 months ago
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His Former Company Got Caught Employing Undocumented Workers. Now He’s Profiting Off an Immigrant Detention Camp. Disaster Management Group is one contractor behind the nation’s largest detention camp, to be built at Fort Bliss. It’s run by Nathan Albers, who previously co-owned a company that pleaded guilty to a...

NEW: Nathan Albers once co-owned a company that schemed to hire and conceal undocumented workers.

Now his company could make hundreds of millions from work on the nation's largest detention camp.

“The irony is thick,” said a former DHS official.

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7 months ago
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You may have seen reports about the release of Venezuelans the Trump administration sent to a Salvadoran prison and called "the worst of the worst."
But when we set out to learn more about them, that's not what we found. 🧵

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7 months ago

The former *police commisioner* said a “rogue” NYPD unit was run by Adams cronies and reported directly to direct City Hall — exactly as we reported.

Adams was so tight with the unit, sources told us, he had secret access to live body-cam footage.

www.propublica.org/article/eric...

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7 months ago
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A Little-Known Microsoft Program Could Expose the Defense Department to Chinese Hackers The Pentagon bans foreign citizens from accessing highly sensitive data, but Microsoft bypasses this by using engineers in China and elsewhere to remotely instruct American “escorts” who may lack expe...

www.propublica.org/article/micr...

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7 months ago
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The IRS Is Building a Vast System to Share Millions of Taxpayers’ Data With ICE ProPublica has obtained the blueprint for the Trump administration’s unprecedented plan to turn over IRS records to Homeland Security in order to speed up the agency’s mass deportation efforts.

“If this program is implemented in its current form, it’s extremely likely that incorrect addresses will be given to DHS and individuals will be wrongly targeted.”

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7 months ago
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The IRS is building a database that would let ICE access people's home addresses to speed up mass deportations. It could make dangerous mistakes. Great scoop from @williamturton.bsky.social, @chrisbing.bsky.social, and Avi Asher-Schapiro. www.propublica.org/article/trum...

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