Megan Twohey’s Reporting on Donald Trump

This flow tracks Twohey’s work on allegations about Donald Trump, from verification through intimidation and the unresolved public response.

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A New Assignment

A New Assignment Testing the question At The New York Times, Megan Twohey was asked to investigate whether Donald Trump’s behavior toward women crossed legal or ethical lines. His crude public persona alone was not enough to make the story. Workplace evidence Twohey and Michael Barbaro examined records and interviews about Trump’s conduct with employees and women who had encountered him through work. The distinction between private behavior and workplace power guided their reporting.

Accounts Under Scrutiny

Accounts Under Scrutiny Repeated allegations Twohey assembled accounts of forced kissing and groping, including claims by a former Miss Utah and a former pageant business partner. The accounts appeared to echo one another, but each required independent checking. A claim excluded When one alleged incident could not be corroborated by a person the source had told, the reporters left it out. That decision showed how verification could narrow a story even when the allegation remained possible.

Publication and Attack

Publication and Attack An article goes live The New York Times published a detailed account of Trump’s conduct toward women. One source later disputed the article’s framing of a comparatively less serious encounter, giving Trump an opening to attack the entire report. The reporter becomes a target Trump and his supporters criticized the reporters, and Bill O’Reilly questioned Twohey’s feminism. The attacks showed how a dispute over one anecdote could overshadow better-supported allegations.

The Tape and New Sources

The Tape and New Sources A public boast The Access Hollywood tape recorded Trump boasting about kissing women and grabbing them. Twohey saw it as relevant to the pattern she had spent months investigating. Corroborating accounts Jessica Leeds and Rachel Crooks told The New York Times that Trump’s words matched their experiences. The reporters checked their backgrounds and contacted people they had told before publication.

Election Without Resolution

Election Without Resolution Public backlash Trump denied the allegations and attacked accusers, while supporters harassed Crooks and Leeds. Twohey worried about the people whose experiences she had helped make public. Political outcome The accusations did not prevent Trump’s election. That outcome left the journalists confronting a gap between uncovering evidence and producing immediate accountability.

Early 2016

Spring 2016

May 2016

October 2016

November 2016