A look back at The Intercept’s must-read justice stories from 2019.
The Condemned
By Liliana Segura, Jordan Smith
Millions of Women Already Live in a Post-Roe America: A Journey Through the Anti-Abortion South
By Jordan Smith, Video by Maisie Crow and Lauren Feeney
Stark Lessons From Wall Street’s #MeToo Moment
By Susan Antilla
Texas Prepares to Execute Rodney Reed Amid a Flood of New Evidence Pointing to His Innocence
By Jordan Smith
With Federal Executions Looming, the Democrats’ Death Penalty Legacy Is Coming Back to Haunt Us
By Liliana Segura
Locked Inside a Freezing Federal Jail, They United to Protest Their Conditions — Only to Face Reprisals
By Emma Whitford, Nick Pinto
Veterans Affairs Police Are Supposed to “Protect Those Who Served.” They Have a Shocking Record of Brutality and Impunity.
By Jasper Craven
The Largest Gang Raid in NYC History Swept Up Dozens of Young People Who Weren’t in Gangs
By Alice Speri, Video by Stephanie Tangkilisan
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?
Latest Stories
Targeting Iran
Trump Celebrates Achieving Absolutely Nothing in Iran
To end his war on Iran, Trump was forced to return to the status quo with the Strait of Hormuz open and no nuclear deal in place.
An Army Whistleblower Believed in Pete Hegseth — Until the Military Covered Up Her Child’s Abuse
The Army told a mother that video of her son being abused didn’t exist, then produced it months later. It’s part of a pattern of obfuscation in abuse cases at military daycare centers.
Israel’s Lebanon Blitz
Civil Records for Hundreds of Thousands of Lebanese Could Be Wiped Out By Israel’s Total War
With whole towns leveled by Israel, a quarter million Lebanese people may have lost the proof of who they are and what they own.