How Google and AI Nearly Made a Seasoned Reporter Spiral

Collage by Alex Bandoni/ProPublica Last month, my colleagues and I published an investigation into a Texas oil refinery startup , America First Refining, that had secretly gotten investment from Donald Trump Jr. We discovered a saga involving the Trump administration’s tariff policy, sanctioned Russian oil and an Indian billionaire family’s private zoo. At the center of the story was the CEO of the refinery company, Texas businessman John Calce.