The Intercept’s criminal justice coverage has long focused on wrongful convictions and the death penalty. 2018 was no exception. Our investigations into the unconstitutional policing, junk science, and prosecutorial misconduct that invariably contribute to the unjust incarceration of innocent people were joined by important work on predictive policing, voting rights, and the #MeToo movement.
Murderville, Georgia
By Liliana Segura, Jordan Smith
A Father Took His 10-Year-Old Fishing. She Fell in the Water and Drowned. It Was a Tragic Accident — Then He Was Charged With Murder.
By Jordan Smith
New York Gang Database Expanded by 70 Percent Under Mayor Bill de Blasio
By Alice Speri
His Conviction Was Overturned. Why Is Arizona Doing Everything in Its Power to Keep Barry Jones on Death Row?
By Liliana Segura
Chicago Faces a Defining Moment in Police Reform and Civil Order
By Jamie Kalven
Chilling Testimony in a Tennessee Trial Exposes Lethal Injection as Court-Sanctioned Torture
By Liliana Segura
Indigenous Women Have Been Disappearing for Generations. Politicians Are Finally Starting to Notice.
By Alleen Brown
No, Aziz Ansari’s Accuser Is Not Breaking Up #MeToo — the Divisions Have Been There All Along
By Natasha Lennard
Jessica Robertson Got Sick Working as an Inspector at a Poultry Plant. Now She’s Speaking Out to Defend Workers Exposed to Chemicals.
By Eyal Press
Inside a Sleazy FBI Sting Involving Diet Clinics, Fitness Models, Money Laundering, and a Supposed Plot to Hire a Hitman
By Trevor Aaronson
As FBI Whistleblower Terry Albury Faces Sentencing, His Lawyers Say He Was Motivated by Racism and Abuses at the Bureau
By Alice Speri
Standing Rock Pitches Last-Ditch Fight for the Right to Vote in North Dakota
By Alleen Brown
IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT.
What we’re seeing right now from Donald Trump is a full-on authoritarian takeover of the U.S. government.
This is not hyperbole.
Court orders are being ignored. MAGA loyalists have been put in charge of the military and federal law enforcement agencies. The Department of Government Efficiency has stripped Congress of its power of the purse. News outlets that challenge Trump have been banished or put under investigation.
Yet far too many are still covering Trump’s assault on democracy like politics as usual, with flattering headlines describing Trump as “unconventional,” “testing the boundaries,” and “aggressively flexing power.”
The Intercept has long covered authoritarian governments, billionaire oligarchs, and backsliding democracies around the world. We understand the challenge we face in Trump and the vital importance of press freedom in defending democracy.
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
IT’S BEEN A DEVASTATING year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
That’s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
I’M BEN MUESSIG, The Intercept’s editor-in-chief. It’s been a devastating year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
That’s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
Contact the author:
Latest Stories
Voices
We Need to Kick Prediction Market Betting Out of Journalism While We Still Can
Treating journalism like a casino will harm reporting — and erode democracy.
The War on Immigrants
Who Decided to Indict Kilmar Abrego Garcia Over a Years-Old Traffic Stop?
A DOJ prosecutor insists he charged Abrego based strictly on evidence of human smuggling. A federal judge seems skeptical.
Voices
How Trump’s America Produces Normie Assassins
The only extremism would-be assassins like suspect Cole Tomas Allen share is an extreme response to Trump’s deranging politics.