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Kim Barker

Kim Barker was a reporter at ProPublica covering "dark money" and campaign finance, as well as the aftermath of the BP oil spill.

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Kim Barker was a reporter covering campaign finance and the aftermath of the BP oil spill; her stories have run in outlets such as The Washington Post, The Atlantic and Salon. She specialized in "dark money," or social welfare nonprofits that do not report their donors for election ads. In late 2009 and early 2010, Barker was the Edward R. Murrow Press Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, where she studied, wrote and lectured on Pakistan and Afghanistan and U.S. policy. She was the South Asia bureau chief for the Chicago Tribune from 2004 to 2009 and was based in New Delhi and Islamabad. At the Tribune, Barker covered major stories such as the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and rising militancy in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Her book about those years, "The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan," was published by Doubleday in March 2011.

'Spillionaires' Powerbroker Loses Re-election Bid

Craig Taffaro Jr., president of Louisiana’s St. Bernard parish, who had been accused of favoritism in awarding work after the BP oil spill, loses to a candidate promising reform.

by Kim Barker,

Buying Your Vote

Super PAC Man Gobbles Up Regulators' Time, Patience

A Florida man has flooded the FEC with filings for a new kind of political action committee, showing how easy it is to create them and how few rules there are.

by Kim Barker,

Man Accused in Pakistani Spy Plot Dies

It’s unclear how death will affect the U.S. Justice Department case against Zaheer Ahmad and another man, accused of using Pakistani money to try to influence U.S. policy on Kashmir.

by Habiba Nosheen and Kim Barker,

The Man Behind Pakistan Spy Agency's Plot to Influence Washington

In some ways, Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai was living the American dream, with friends in high places and a nice home in suburban Washington. Now the advocate for Kashmir is under house arrest, facing a charge that he was a foreign agent.

by Kim Barker and Habiba Nosheen,

Revealed: Man Sought in Plot to Influence U.S. Politics Is Prominent Figure in Pakistan

Investigators say Pakistani-American doctor helped launder money sent by Pakistani intelligence to U.S. politicians

by Kim Barker,

In An Unusual Criminal Case, the U.S. Points the Finger at Pakistan's Top Spy Agency Again

In an indictment unsealed Tuesday, the FBI accused two men of funneling millions of dollars from the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, or ISI, into political campaign donations and other activities meant to influence American policy on Kashmir.

by Kim Barker, Marian Wang and Sebastian Rotella,

Spillionaires Revisited: Gov't Official's Associates Got Big Contracts After the BP Oil Spill

Craig Taffaro, president of Louisiana's St. Bernard Parish, has denied allegations in an earlier ProPublica story, but new reporting shows that longtime associates got lucrative spill-related work—and then they helped raise money for his re-election.

by Kim Barker,

An AWKward Relationship: The U.S. and Its Ties to Hamid Karzai's Half-Brother

Ahmed Wali Karzai, assassinated earlier this week, was repeatedly accused of corruption and drug-dealing but remained a key Western ally and power broker in southern Afghanistan.

by Kim Barker,

Super-PACs and Dark Money: ProPublica’s Guide to the New World of Campaign Finance

As the nation gets ready for more record-breaking election spending, here's a closer look at the secretive groups working hard to influence the outcome.

by Kim Barker and Marian Wang,

Inside the Campaign to Release Al-Jazeera English Journalist Dorothy Parvaz

Dorothy Parvaz's supporters created a Facebook page, tweeted, and sent emails but felt their missives were disappearing into the ether, ignored by an Iranian regime that listens to no one.

by Kim Barker,