Let me tell you a story – one of the more haunting I’ve seen in 20 years of journalism. It’s about greed, death and denial. It took two years to unravel one doctor’s myth, a hospital’s complicity in creating it, and a documented trail of suspicious deaths… 🧵 2/ While reporting on COVID, I found myself in Helena, Montana, talking to medical staff at St. Peter’s hospital. It’s the only acute care facility in ~ 100-mile radius & was the only option for residents. It was home to a fabled oncologist named Dr. Thomas C. Weiner…

1/ This @ProPublica investigation has it all: Money laundering allegations, Mennonite & evangelical Christians, Obamacare, CPAC, a family “conglomerate” that includes a pot farm, a private airline & a bank in the Ozarks.
Strap in as we magically whisk you away to… Canton, Ohio. 2/ This is the story of the rise & fall of Liberty Healthshare (CPAC sponsor below) which promised to pay people's medical bills but left many in financial ruin. And it's the story of the patriarch & family members who got rich exploiting this country's broken healthcare system…

1) Let me tell you a crazy story. It's consumed 2 years of my life.
As COVID-19 shut down the world in April 2020, I decided to follow the money. I began with a call to a no-name federal contractor who’d somehow landed a $35M deal for masks. Hours later, I’m on a private jet … 2) Robert Stewart, CEO of Federal Government Experts, chartered the jet to oversee delivery of 6 million N95s to the VA (the largest hospital system in the US). These were the terrifying weeks. No vaccine, hospitals overrun, masks the only protection for healthcare workers …

1/ The pink-hatted Capitol rioter known as #BullhornLady, who shouted detailed instruction to others as they invaded the building, is now among the FBI’s Most Wanted, but her identity is still not publicly known... 2/ Here are some additional images of #BullhornLady that we’ve pulled from various videos taken during the Jan. 6 insurrection:

1/ A nurse at a company central to Trump's COVID plasma therapy push said workers were in danger. @CSLPlasma gave unsafe masks, she alleged, as it recruited once-infected donors w/ cash bonuses.

This reporting journey ends w/ a document somebody forged & unanswered questions … 2/ @HSteadman_RN said workers' fears began in March, when CSL still wasn’t supplying and mandating masks. In fairness this was around the same time this famous Tweet made the rounds…

1/ A TaskRabbit contractor in San Antonio told me he stumbled onto a warehouse where people were repackaging non-medical Chinese masks so they could pass for medical use and be sold to Texas.

So began my latest journey into the world of COVID profiteers .. 2/ His name was Lucas Rensko and he showed up in a warehouse where there were other “Taskers” earning about $20/hr ripping Chinese masks out of plastic bags and stuffing them into new ones that were identical but for one potentially deadly difference …

1/ This company got a $10 million contract for test tubes & gave the gov’t mini soda bottles instead.

The owner shouted at me and slapped my notebook when I asked about it.

Just the latest absurdity we’ve found looking at who the gov’t is paying for #coronavirus supplies ... 2/ We heard from states & Fillakit workers that the company wasn’t actually selling test tubes.

It was selling oddly shaped plastic “preforms” better suited for, say, The Coca-Cola Company. They’re basically mini soda bottles that blow up with heat and air into 2L soda bottles.

I've received a ton of strange messages from mask brokers — on twitter, in email, through encrypted apps…

An unregulated mask market has spread like wildfire, attracting middlemen, grifters, billionaires etc. Our government fanned the flames.

Let’s go inside this world… 2/ At 10 p.m. one night, I got a call from a guy named Tim Zelonka. He heard through the grapevine I’d asked questions about a California mask supplier.

I was on the right track, he said…

1) The VA signed a $34.5 million deal for N95 masks with a company that advertised “block chain” solutions and had only existed for 2 years.

I called the company to see why

Ended up on a private jet, following one of the most bizarre stories of my career … 2) The CEO, Robert Stewart, had ZERO experience getting medical supplies. But he told me he had found 6 million N95 masks.

He was flying to Chicago on a private jet to see them delivered. I asked to tag along.