Desmond Butler

Washington, D.C.

Investigative reporter, Climate and Environment team

Education: Georgetown University, BA in Philosophy ; Oxford University, MA in Philosophy and German

Desmond Butler is a reporter on The Washington Post's investigative unit. He previously reported on climate and environment. Before joining the paper, he worked for the Associated Press in Washington, Istanbul and New York. Butler's work has spotlighted unscrupulous military contractors, disinformation campaigns, nuclear smuggling and the "Cuban Twitter," a social media network secretly established by the United States to destabilize the government of Raul Castro. He also served as AP's chief correspondent in Turkey, where he covered Syria's civil war.
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Latest from Desmond Butler

As repression in Nicaragua deepened, one bank kept the money flowing

How foreign development loans helped the Ortega regime build a brutal police state in Nicaragua.

August 22, 2024
Police and protesters clash in Managua, the Nicaraguan capital, on April 20, 2018, following pension cuts and an increase in taxation.

The Survivors

She was told she had to take steroids to compete in bodybuilding. He ignored health warnings and nearly lost his life.

June 14, 2023

Investigating the sport my dad made famous

How a tip at a funeral became a year-long investigation into the sport of bodybuilding.

December 16, 2022

Rigged: The undoing of America’s premier bodybuilding leagues

Jim Manion subverted the National Physique Committee’s nonprofit mission by establishing a parallel for-profit company, The Post found.

December 16, 2022

Bodybuilding chief dismisses allegations of sexual exploitation

The Manions deny claims. Meanwhile, organizations that sponsor or host events with the IFBB Pro and NPC say they are taking their own steps to protect athletes.

October 31, 2022

Female bodybuilders describe widespread sexual exploitation

Leaders of U.S. bodybuilding’s two premier federations oversaw decades of sexual exploitation of female athletes, The Post found.

October 28, 2022

How I wound up investigating the sport my father made famous

Immersed in the world of bodybuilding at a young age, Post reporter Desmond Butler investigates how the sport in America has changed.

October 25, 2022

Exxon lobbyist questions urgency of climate’s catastrophic risks

ExxonMobil says it backs the scientific consensus on climate change. But one executive cast doubt about global warming’s impact while speaking to state regulators earlier this month, according to a recording obtained by The Washington Post.

November 24, 2021

Countries’ climate pledges built on flawed data, Post investigation finds

An examination of 196 country reports to the United Nations reveals a giant gap between what nations declare their emissions to be versus the greenhouse gases they are sending into the atmosphere. The gap ranges from at least 8.5 billion to as high as 13.3 billion tons a year -- surpassing the annual emissions of China.

November 7, 2021
A large plantation of palm trees, which produce palm oil, borders an undrained peat forest in Simunjan in the Sarawak region of Malaysia. When peat-rich bogs are drained and converted to farmlands, they release a rapid pulse of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases as the once-waterlogged plants’ remains degrade with the sudden exposure to air.

In secret tapes, palm oil execs disclose corruption, brutality

Undercover investigators illuminate dark side of the palm oil industry that is clearcutting virgin rainforests. Loss of tree cover and peatlands that help absorb greenhouse gases alarms climate scientists.

October 9, 2021
Logs stacked for export in Vanimo, the capital of Sandaun province in northwestern Papua New Guinea. Palm oil companies typically make a first windfall on timber before sowing oil palm plantations.