Brett Murphy
I’m a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter on ProPublica’s national desk, where I write about the government, companies and power.
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What I Cover
I currently cover the federal agencies at the center of Trump’s foreign affairs agenda and the corporations that help carry it out. Most recently, I wrote about the Biden administration’s State Department and how top officials there repeatedly disregarded government experts and appeared to flout U.S. law in order to continue supplying weapons of war to Israel.
My Background
I’ve been a reporter on ProPublica’s national desk since 2022. That year, I published a series of articles uncovering a new junk science in the justice system known as 911 call analysis. The reporting won a George Polk Award, among other honors.
In 2023, a team and I revealed how a set of politically connected billionaires provided lavish gifts and travel to Supreme Court justices over many years. Those stories won the Pulitzer Prize Gold Medal for public service.
I joined ProPublica after working as an investigative reporter at USA Today, where I covered labor, criminal justice and the federal government. There, I won several journalism awards, including the international Livingston Award for our investigation into a U.S. military attack on its own security forces in Afghanistan, which killed dozens of civilians, including as many as 60 children.
My series on widespread labor abuses in California’s port trucking industry was a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize and spurred a raft of reforms. Before USA Today, I covered courts and hurricanes for the Naples Daily News and other Gannett newspapers. I also co-founded the “Local Matters” newsletter, a weekly roundup of the best investigative and watchdog reporting from local newsrooms around the country.
I live in Brooklyn.
Clarence Thomas Friend Acknowledges Harlan Crow Paid Child’s Tuition
In response to ProPublica reporting, the friend said Crow covered two years of schooling for the teen, which would amount to roughly $100,000 of undisclosed gifts.
Fiscales de Nueva York ignoraron evidencia contaminada utilizada durante años contra conductores hispanohablantes
Las advertencias por Conducir en Estado de Ebriedad mal traducidas utilizadas en el Condado Westchester habrían presionado a algunos conductores a someterse a pruebas de alcoholemia. La oficina del fiscal de distrito tardó tres años en investigar.
New York Prosecutors Ignored Tainted Evidence Used Against Spanish-Speaking Drivers for Years
Mistranslated DWI warnings used in Westchester County may have pressured some drivers into taking a Breathalyzer test. The district attorney’s office didn’t investigate for three years.
Ethics Watchdog Urges Justice Department Investigation Into Clarence Thomas’ Trips
In pushing to kick-start an inquiry into Thomas’ lavish travel provided by a GOP megadonor, the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center wrote that the ethics issue has “historic implications far beyond one Supreme Court justice.”
Pressure Mounts to Ban Use of 911 Call Analysis, Review Convictions
Following a ProPublica investigation, attorneys have called for punishing prosecutors who used the technique knowing it was inadmissible in court. One conviction gets another look.
“I Cannot Put His Name in the Past Tense”
In the wake of Tyre Nichols, a mother discusses the familiar role of grieving with purpose.
Is It Forensics or Is It Junk Science?
Dubious forensic techniques have spread throughout the criminal justice system for decades. Here’s what ProPublica has learned about junk forensic science techniques and how they proliferate.
They Called 911 for Help. Police and Prosecutors Used a New Junk Science to Decide They Were Liars.
Tracing the fallacy of 911 call analysis through the justice system, from Quantico to the courtroom.
How Jessica Logan’s Call for Help Became Evidence Against Her
After her baby died in the night, a young mother called 911. Police thought they could read her mind just by listening. Now she’s haunted by the words she chose.