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Latest Briefings

Every published briefing, newest first.

These are the standing accountability files of the Muckrakers Accountability Network. Each briefing is researched against dated, linked sources, written by a human editor, and reviewed before it publishes. Numbered citations in each piece point to the documents underneath the claim, so any assertion here can be checked against the record it came from. Nothing is published on the strength of a rumour alone; where something is reported rather than established, it is labelled that way.

The briefings below cover the figures this newsroom follows continuously rather than episodically: members of Congress and state officials whose filings, court dates and public money are worth tracking between news cycles, and the Kremlin desk, where the Putin Watch Index scores observable pressure on the regime week by week. A target earns a standing file when the public record about them is either scattered across enough filings and jurisdictions that no ordinary reader would assemble it, or when nobody else is examining power they already hold. Inclusion is not an accusation, and several of these files rest largely on documents the subject filed themselves.

Corrections run in place, with the change noted. Where a subject has responded, the response is carried in the file. Where a claim is disputed or unproven it is labelled as such rather than asserted, and no one is called a criminal here without a conviction or a formal charge.

Julian Beaudion · September 4, 2026

The Muckraker in the Mirror: How Beaudion's Exit Landed on Our Doorstep

South Dakota's Democratic Senate nominee quit blaming a fire, financial ruin and 'intimidating threats', and named American Muckrakers, the outfit behind this podcast, as part of the pressure campaign.

By David B. Wheeler
Susan Collins · September 3, 2026

Susan Collins Skips the Veep, Trashes the Tariffs, and Prays You Forgot the Medicaid Vote

Down in the polls and running from her own party, Maine's senior senator is auditioning for the role of independent. The receipts say otherwise.

By David B. Wheeler
Lauren Boebert · September 2, 2026

Broke in the Reddest Seat in Colorado: Boebert's Bank Account Is a Punchline

The state's senior Republican is getting out-raised twenty-fold in a district built to protect her, while her son answers five felony counts and the House quietly punts a shutdown.

By David B. Wheeler
Michael Whatley · August 28, 2026

Whatley Runs on Law and Order. He Also Put a Convicted Child Sex Offender in Party Leadership.

The ex-RNC boss is broke, down double digits, and dodging questions about a man who did six years for abusing girls, while banking on a Supreme Court-blessed money cannon.

By David B. Wheeler
Julian Beaudion · August 27, 2026

Beaudion Torches the Bridge: SD Democrat's Exit Curdles Into Race, Threats, and a Named Rival

Julian Beaudion quit the South Dakota Senate race citing a house fire and threats. Days later, on Substack, he put a name to it: independent Brian Bengs. Bengs says nobody was threatened.

By David B. Wheeler
Lauren Boebert · August 26, 2026

Second Garfield County Arrest Mirrors Charges Against Tyler Boebert

Lyric Wailyn James was arrested on the same statutes, in the same county, with the same bond as Tyler Boebert, with no established connection between the two men.

By David B. Wheeler
Lauren Boebert · August 26, 2026

Boebert's Son Faces Five Child-Exploitation Felonies. She Held a Photo Op.

Tyler Boebert stood before a Garfield County judge Aug. 19 on five felony counts. That same day, the congresswoman was pinning a medal and running for reelection.

By David B. Wheeler
Lauren Boebert · August 25, 2026

What Happened at Tyler Boebert's Advisement Hearing

A bylined, transcript-checked account of the Colorado advisement hearing where Tyler Boebert was formally advised of the charges against him.

By David B. Wheeler
Ken Paxton · August 25, 2026

Ken Paxton Is Broke, and Trump Is Flying In With a Tin Cup

The most powerful attorney general in Texas won his primary, torched his war chest doing it, and now needs a $443,000-a-couple bailout in Houston.

By David B. Wheeler
Susan Collins · August 24, 2026

Susan Collins Discovers Tariffs Are Bad. Again. Right On Schedule.

Maine's senior senator scolds Trump's Canada trade war days after finding she can't outrun a poll that has her losing at home.

By David B. Wheeler
Michael Whatley · August 21, 2026

Whatley Wants to 'Back the Blue.' He Also Hired a Cop Who Pleaded Out on Child Sex Charges.

The former RNC boss runs the whole campaign on Roy Cooper being soft on crime. He won't answer why he handed a party post to a registered sex offender, and he's still losing.

By David B. Wheeler
Vladimir Putin · August 19, 2026

Putin Bombs Ukraine Into Rubble While He Poses for Caviar Photos in the Pacific

July was the war's deadliest month in over three years. The man who calls it a 'just cause' just spent last week eating fish and mugging for cameras on islands he stole.

By David B. Wheeler
Ken Paxton · August 18, 2026

Paxton Won't Tell Voters Why He Cheated. He'll Just Regulate Your Screen Time.

The Texas AG is deadlocked with a former schoolteacher, dodging adultery questions while cranking out lawsuits and cheering a court ruling that makes it harder to vote by mail.

By David B. Wheeler
Susan Collins · August 17, 2026

Susan Collins Voted To Put Abortion Surveillance In Charge Of The CDC

Maine's incumbent broke with Trump on the AG fight and grabbed the headlines. She also cast a quieter vote for a CDC director who wants to track your abortions, and she's trailing.

By David B. Wheeler
Lauren Boebert · August 15, 2026

Boebert's Son Cuts a Deal, Faces Five New Felonies, and the Congresswoman Says 'I Love My Son'

While Lauren Boebert cranks out press releases about grid corridors, her 21-year-old son barrels toward a courtroom on child sexual exploitation charges and a jail-time plea in a separate case.

By David B. Wheeler
Julian Beaudion · August 14, 2026

South Dakota's Democrat Quit With $3,078 and a House Still Under Investigation

Julian Beaudion walked away from the Rounds race citing a fire, financial ruin, and threats. Brian Bengs says nobody was threatened. Both can't be right.

By David B. Wheeler
Michael Whatley · August 8, 2026

Whatley Ran on Protecting Kids. He Handed a Convicted Child Sex Offender Party Power.

The Trump-picked Senate hopeful trails by nine, gets bailed out by $71 million in PAC cash, and still won't answer why he put Harvey West in charge of NCGOP rules.

By David B. Wheeler
Vladimir Putin · August 7, 2026

Putin Sends His Money Man While His Refineries Burn

As Trump's ceasefire deadline arrives, Witkoff gets three hours in the Kremlin, Russia's fuel supply collapses, and Putin's own bankers reportedly want out.

By David B. Wheeler
Ken Paxton · August 3, 2026

Fox News Just Handed Ken Paxton a Poll He Can't Spin Away

Trump's man in Texas trails a former schoolteacher by three, and even a quarter of non-MAGA Republicans have had enough of him.

By David B. Wheeler
Susan Collins · August 3, 2026

Susan Collins Wants a Medal for the Cameras That Weren't Rolling When ICE Killed a Man

Collins voted against ICE bodycams in June, then took a victory lap for them in August. A 26-year-old Colombian father is dead. The receipts don't flatter her.

By David B. Wheeler
Julian Beaudion · August 3, 2026

Bengs Buries Beaudion 3-to-1 While the Democrat's Cash Runs Out and His Money Flees to Iowa

FEC filings show the independent out-raised the Democrat by a factor of three on twice the small-dollar base, and Beaudion's biggest single Q2 destination was not South Dakota. It was Iowa.

By David B. Wheeler
Ken Paxton · August 2, 2026

Ken Paxton's Homes Multiply, His Poll Numbers Don't

A fresh Fox News poll has Paxton losing to a Democrat in Texas, as the mortgage-fraud allegations, illegal-donation letters, and a hushed divorce follow him into the general.

By David B. Wheeler
Susan Collins · August 2, 2026

Susan Collins Wants a Medal for the Bodycams. She Wrote ICE the Blank Check.

Maine's senior senator takes a victory lap on ICE bodycams the same summer an ICE bullet killed a 26-year-old father in Biddeford, and the same election year Wall Street billionaires flooded her PACs.

By David B. Wheeler
Michael Whatley · August 2, 2026

Whatley's $17 Million Crime Ad Blitz Has One Small Problem: Harvey West

Down 9 in Fox's own poll, Michael Whatley lets a super PAC brand Roy Cooper soft on criminals while dodging why he twice installed a convicted child sex offender in GOP leadership.

By David B. Wheeler
Lauren Boebert · August 1, 2026

Boebert's Botox Alibi, a Whiffed Defense Vote, and a Son Back in Weld County Court

Fresh July 2026: she blamed GOP staffers and bad Botox for missing the NDAA, her trans ban died, and her Q2 filing landed. Tyler's Colorado cases are a separate matter.

By David B. Wheeler
Vladimir Putin · August 1, 2026

Putin's Magic Trick Is Wearing Off, and the Rabbit Is Out of Petrol

Even Kremlin-owned pollsters clock the steepest approval slide of the war as fuel lines snake across Russia and the tsar goes hat in hand to his oligarchs.

By David B. Wheeler
Vladimir Putin · July 22, 2026

When the Kremlin Eats Its Own: The Blogger Who Called Putin a War Criminal Now Faces Ten Years

Ilya Remeslo spent years informing on the opposition. On July 17 the machine he helped build swallowed him whole, the same day it barred Boris Nadezhdin from the ballot.

By David B. Wheeler
Vladimir Putin · July 17, 2026

Putin's Popularity Runs Out of Gas: Rating Posts Steepest Wartime Drop

As Ukrainian drones gut Russia's refineries and gas lines stretch for hours, the Kremlin's own pollsters clock Putin's sharpest fall since he started the war, while Washington readies a sanctions sledgehammer.

By David B. Wheeler
Vladimir Putin · June 7, 2026

MUCK YOU, Vlad: Trump Sends an Envoy to Putin's Party as Russia Bombs Kids

An ICC-indicted war-crimes suspect is throwing his 'Russian Davos', and Trump's White House ballroom guy is the guest of honor, days after a Russian barrage killed 22 civilians. Body count, both sides, as of June 7, 2026: more than 525,000 dead and wounded, per [Le Monde](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2026/02/27/with-an-estimated-500-000-dead-the-russia-ukraine-war-is-europe-s-deadliest-since-1945_6750914_4.html).

By David B. Wheeler
Michael Whatley · June 5, 2026

Michael Whatley Can't Name a Hurricane, But He Sure Can Fake One

Trump's handpicked Senate pick rolled out an AI-invented hockey player while trailing Roy Cooper by double digits. The fakery is the through-line.

By David B. Wheeler
Susan Collins · June 5, 2026

Collins Hits 10,000 Votes, and Still Found Time to Fund Trump's $70 Billion Deportation Machine

Maine's senior senator threw herself a milestone party last week. Then she helped advance the ICE bill, voted for a doomed amendment, and watched her challenger hammer her millionaire stock portfolio.

By David B. Wheeler
Lauren Boebert · June 5, 2026

Boebert Finds a Missing Congressman, and a Mirror

On the Capitol steps this week, Lauren Boebert flamed an absentee colleague for 'taxation without representation' while her own truce with Trump lies in ruins.

By David B. Wheeler
Ken Paxton · June 5, 2026

Ken Paxton's Lucky Streak: A Cancelled Divorce, a Dodged Trial, and a Race He's Already Losing

Paxton spent two decades dodging consequences. Now the same machine that hated him is bankrolling him, and the first poll out of the gate has him losing.

By David B. Wheeler
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