Clips

Note: For my most recent work, visit APNews.com.

Recent work

Reporting on Donald Trump’s criminal trial and felony conviction: I’ve led AP’s coverage of the former president’s New York hush money case from the start of the investigation to the guilty verdict that made him the first ex-commander in chief convicted of a crime. A few highlights:

• May 31, 2024: Interview: Trump’s attorney was ‘shocked’ the former president took the verdict with ‘solemnness’
• May 30, 2024: Guilty: Trump becomes first former US president convicted of felony crimes
• May 30, 2024: Inside the courtroom as Donald Trump learned he had been convicted
• May 13, 2024: Star witness Michael Cohen says Trump was intimately involved in all aspects of hush money scheme
• May 7, 2024: Inside the courtroom where Trump was forced to listen to Stormy Daniels

Investigating federal prisons: My ongoing investigation with AP’s Mike Balsamo uncovers deep, previously unreported flaws within the federal Bureau of Prisons, the Justice Department’s largest law enforcement agency, whose secrets have long been hidden within its walls and barbed-wire fences.

• Dec. 9, 2022: AP Investigation: Prison boss beat inmates, climbed ranks
• May 5, 2022: Abuse-clouded prison gets attention, but will things change?
• Feb. 24, 2022: Whistleblowers say they’re bullied for exposing prison abuse
• Feb. 6, 2022: AP investigation: Women’s prison fostered culture of abuse
» Read the full series

Recent Scoops

May 7, 2024: Attorney for Stormy Daniels tells AP the porn actor is expected to appear as a witness in Trump’s hush money trial Tuesday.

April 15, 2024: Bureau of Prisons plans to close California women’s prison after AP reporting exposed rampant staff-on-inmate sexual abuse.

Nov. 24, 2023: Ex-police officer Derek Chauvin, convicted of killing George Floyd, has been stabbed in federal prison, AP source says.

July 10, 2023: AP sources: Larry Nassar stabbed multiple times in altercation at federal prison in Florida, now in stable condition.

June 11, 2023: AP sources: Ted Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber, who carried out 17-year bombing campaign, died by suicide in prison.

June 2, 2023: New details of Jeffrey Epstein’s death and the frantic aftermath revealed in records obtained by AP.

Recent Features/Profiles

Oct. 1, 2023: Who is Arthur Engoron? Judge weighing future of Donald Trump empire is Ivy League-educated ex-cabbie

Aug. 17, 2023: The fall of Rudy Giuliani: How ‘America’s mayor’ tied his fate to Donald Trump and got indicted

Past work

New York City wrestles with surge of violent police clashes
Nov. 10, 2019 | A surge in violent police clashes has left a trail of bodies across New York City, stoking tensions between officers and critics who say they have been too quick to use deadly force.

Pot or not? Busts highlight growing confusion over hemp
Nov. 9, 2019 | Legal hemp looks and smells so much like marijuana, police officers sometimes can’t tell the difference. With hemp-based CBD showing up in everything from candy to coffee, that’s becoming a big problem.

Judge fines Trump $2 million for misusing charity foundation
Nov. 8, 2019 | A judge orders President Donald Trump to pay $2 million to an array of charities as a fine for misusing his own charitable foundation to further his political and business interests.

Big challenges await New York City’s new police commissioner
Nov. 6, 2019 | Dermot Shea will have to contend with looming bail and other criminal justice reforms, pressure to reduce arrests and incarcerations ahead of the planned 2026 closure of Rikers Island jail, and dissent among the 36,000 officers.

NYPD commissioner’s exit: ‘Right time’ after tense summer
Nov. 4, 2019 | New York City’s police commissioner, who found himself at times caught between loyalty to his officers and demands from the public and politicians for greater police accountability, announces he is retiring.

Investigations/Scoops

FEMA auctioned disaster trailers before Harvey made landfall
September 2017 | Reported exclusively that FEMA was auctioning off perfectly good disaster trailers as Hurricane Harvey was about to slam into Texas.

FEMA sells disaster trailers cheaply despite victim demand
December 2017 | Uncovered that FEMA is spending up to $150,000 apiece on brand-new disaster trailers while auctioning off perfectly good ones (used 2017 models with minimal damage) at 1/10th the price.

APNewsBreak: 298 die in rail crashes system could’ve stopped
December 2017: After a deadly train crash near Seattle, broke the news that nearly 300 people have died in U.S. train crashes since 1969 that could have been prevented by critical speed-control technology that investigators have been pushing for decades.

AP finds NJ Transit had more accidents, fines than any other commuter railroad
Oct. 13, 2016 | The railroad whose rush-hour train slammed into a station, killing a woman and injuring more than 100 people, has been involved in 157 accidents and paid $519,280 in fines to settle 183 federal safety violations since the start of 2011.

Exclusive: Penn State settlements covered 1971 Sandusky abuse claim
Oct. 13, 2016 | Penn State’s legal settlements with Jerry Sandusky’s accusers cover alleged abuse dating to 1971, which was 40 years before his arrest, the university said Sunday, providing the first confirmation of the time frame of abuse claims that have led to big payouts.

Top Pennsylvania official uses private email against policy
April 21, 2016 | The railroad whose rush-hour train slammed into a station, killing a woman and injuring more than 100 people, has been involved in 157 accidents and paid $519,280 in fines to settle 183 federal safety violations since the start of 2011.

Free to kill: A ruthless inmate, a lack of discipline, an avoidable death
Dec. 29, 2013 | How political pressure, shifting policies and lax discipline led to the murder of a correctional officer inside a federal penitentiary.

Transportation

Bar cars make last run on NYC-area commuter trains
May 9, 2014 | The railroad whose rush-hour train slammed into a station, killing a woman and injuring more than 100 people, has been involved in 157 accidents and paid $519,280 in fines to settle 183 federal safety violations since the start of 2011.

Nov. 28, 2016 | Feds: Railroads slow to make progress on train technology
Dec. 2, 2016 | Feds target sleep apnea, speeding after deadly train crash
Dec. 16, 2016 | Feds back ambitious plan to speed Northeast rail service
Jan. 18, 2017 | Exiting rail safety chief looks to technology to save lives

Politics

Trump is master of his domains, even ones that bash him
Nov. 1, 2016 | Whoever owns donaldtrumpsucks.com must really hate Donald Trump, right? Wrong! It’s the Donald himself. The same goes two dozen other web addresses that sound like they’re bashing the billionaire Republican presidential nominee.

In schools, on streets and TV, children feel Muslim backlash
Dec. 14, 2015 | A backlash against American Muslims is leaving a mark on some of the nation’s youngest minds.