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Finalist: David Barstow, Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner of The New York Times

For an exhaustive 18-month investigation of President Donald Trump’s finances that debunked his claims of self-made wealth and revealed a business empire riddled with tax dodges. (Moved by the Board to the Explanatory Reporting category.)

Nominated Work

Biography

David Barstow, a senior writer at The New York Times, is the winner of three Pulitzer Prizes.

In 2013 he and Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for “Walmart Abroad,’’ a series that exposed Walmart’s aggressive use of bribery to fuel its rapid expansion in Mexico. In 2009 he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for “Message Machine,’’ his series about the Pentagon’s hidden campaign to influence news coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2004 he and Lowell Bergman were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for articles about employers who committed egregious workplace safety violations that killed or injured hundreds of American workers.

Mr. Barstow joined The New York Times in 1999 and he has been a member of the paper’s investigative unit since 2002. He is also the recipient of three Polk Awards, the Goldsmith Prize, the Alfred I. duPont Silver Baton, the Barlett and Steele Gold Medal, a Loeb Award, the Sidney Hillman Award, the Daniel Pearl Award for Investigative Reporting, two Sigma Delta Chi awards for distinguished service, the Peabody Award, the IRE Award, the Mirror Award, an Overseas Press Club Citation, two SABEW awards and the Gold Keyboard.

Before joining The New York Times, Mr. Barstow was a reporter for The St. Petersburg Times in Florida, where he was a finalist for Pulitzer Prizes three times. Before that, he was a reporter at The Rochester Times-Union in New York and the Green Bay Press-Gazette in Wisconsin. Mr. Barstow, a native of Concord, Mass., is a graduate of Northwestern University, which honored him with a Distinguished Alumni Award in 2010. The Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University inducted Mr. Barstow into its Hall of Achievement in 2015. 

Susanne Craig is an investigative reporter who writes about the intersection of politics, money and government. She has covered Wall Street for The Times and has served as Albany bureau chief. Previously, Ms. Craig was a reporter at The Wall Street Journal and worked at The Globe and Mail, Canada's national newspaper.

Since joining The Times in 2010, Ms. Craig has produced in-depth articles on a wide range of subjects, including presidential politics and state-house corruption.

Ms. Craig has won numerous awards during her career. At The Journal, she was the lead reporter on a team of writers who were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for national affairs reporting for their coverage of the fall of Lehman Brothers and the financial crisis.

She graduated from the University of Calgary and lives in New York City.

Russ Buettner is an investigative reporter for The New York Times. Since 2016, his reporting has focused on the personal finances of President Donald J. Trump, including articles exploring Mr. Trump’s record of failure in Atlantic City and overstating revenues from his businesses.

In 2018, an investigative report by Mr. Buettner and two colleagues revealed that President Trump, contrary to representing himself as a self-made businessman, had received the equivalent of at least $413 million from his father, a figure that had been greatly enhanced by tax avoidance schemes.

His prior reporting at The Times included exposing unpaid taxes by The Rev. Al Sharpton and numerous examples of corruption in state politics.

In 2012, he and a colleague, Danny Hakim, were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for a series of articles highlighting abuse, neglect and deadly mistakes in New York’s system of caring for developmentally disabled people.

He joined The Times in 2006 after working on investigations teams at The Daily News in New York and New York Newsday.

Winners

Prize Winner in Investigative Reporting in 2019:

Matt Hamilton, Harriet Ryan and Paul Pringle of the Los Angeles Times

For consequential reporting on a University of Southern California gynecologist accused of violating hundreds of young women for more than a quarter-century. Investigative Reporting

Finalists

Nominated as finalists in Investigative Reporting in 2019:

Kathleen McGrory and Neil Bedi of the Tampa Bay Times

For impactful reporting, based on sophisticated data analysis, that revealed an alarming rate of patient fatalities following Johns Hopkins’ takeover of a pediatric heart treatment facility.

The Jury

Matthew Doig(Chair)

Network Investigations Editor

Michael J. Berens*

Investigative Reporter

David Boardman

Dean, Klein College of Media and Communications, Temple University

Michael I. Days

Vice President, Diversity & Inclusion

Chris Hamby*

Investigative Reporter

Joe Sexton

Senior Editor

Jeff Taylor*

Executive Editor, News, USA Today

Winners in Investigative Reporting

Staff of The Washington Post

For purposeful and relentless reporting that changed the course of a Senate race in Alabama by revealing a candidate’s alleged past sexual harassment of teenage girls and subsequent efforts to undermine the journalism that exposed it.

Eric Eyre

For courageous reporting, performed in the face of powerful opposition, to expose the flood of opioids flowing into depressed West Virginia counties with the highest overdose death rates in the country.

Eric Lipton

For reporting that showed how the influence of lobbyists can sway congressional leaders and state attorneys general, slanting justice toward the wealthy and connected.

2019 Prize Winners