Peter Overby
Peter Overby has covered Washington power, money, and influence since a foresighted NPR editor created the beat in 1994.
Overby has covered scandals involving House Speaker Newt Gingrich, President Bill Clinton, lobbyist Jack Abramoff and others. He tracked the rise of campaign finance regulation as Congress passed campaign finance reform laws, and the rise of deregulation as Citizens United and other Supreme Court decisions rolled those laws back.
During President Trump's first year in office, Overby was on a team of NPR journalists covering conflicts of interest sparked by the Trump family business. He did some of the early investigations of dark money, dissecting a money network that influenced a Michigan judicial election in 2013, and — working with the Center for Investigative Reporting — surfacing below-the-radar attack groups in the 2008 presidential election.
In 2009, Overby co-reported Dollar Politics, a multimedia series on lawmakers, lobbyists and money as the Senate debated the Affordable Care Act. The series received an award for excellence from the Capitol Hill-based Radio and Television Correspondents Association. Earlier, he won an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton for his coverage of the 2000 elections and 2001 Senate debate on campaign finance reform.
Prior to NPR, Overby was an editor/reporter for Common Cause Magazine, where he shared an Investigative Reporters and Editors award. He worked on daily newspapers for 10 years, and has freelanced for publications ranging from Utne Reader and the Congressional Quarterly Guide To Congress to the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post.
-
"It all just looks really bad," said anti-corruption expert Stuart Gilman. "It looks like Trump is trying to simply protect his properties." -
The Trump Organization reportedly is moving ahead with plans for resorts in Scotland and the Dominican Republic. Last month, President Trump's attorney said he would take on "no new deals" overseas. -
Voters in South Dakota adopted a package of ethics and campaign finance reforms in November. Now the legislature is declaring a state of emergency in order to repeal it.
-
The Koch network and some other conservative groups are redirecting their efforts from supporting Donald Trump to sending a lifeline to endangered Republican senators and representatives.
-
The Supreme Court ruled Monday on whether to uphold the conviction of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell on federal corruption charges.
-
A fundraiser for the pro-Bush superPAC Right to Rise USA blasted the campaign strategy in an NPR interview. Now, he's accused of having an ax to grind against Bush's campaign manager. -
Jeb Bush's Right to Rise USA broke all records for presidential superPACs, but it didn't propel him to frontrunner status in the Republican presidential race. NPR explores if this means superPACs are overrated.
-
It was a point of agreement between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders at their last debate. It's also supported by some Republican contenders. But that doesn't mean it'll happen easily. -
Jeb Bush's presidential campaign got a nice fundraising haul last quarter, $11.5 million. But that's piddling compared to the $103 million his Super PAC pulled in, thanks to unlimited contributions.
-
Donald Trump held up a one-page summary of his wealth that he claimed showed he's worth almost $9 billion. But the public essentially has to take his word for it until more details are disclosed.
