Most articles Barrett wrote weren’t about Donald Trump or Rudy Giuliani. They were about garden-variety corruption by crooks whose names most people have forgotten. Barrett’s reporting made use of campaign finance reports and the financial disclosure forms city officials are required to file—and underscored their necessity. But Barrett didn’t just read the names of big donors; he dissected this paperwork—and bank records and mortgage documents—with the zeal of a coroner searching for poison. The dot-matrix computer printouts that formed stacks in his office told the story of who was getting rich and who called the shots, who owned the city and what shape it would take for generations hence. —Ed.