Susanne Craig

Last updated

Susanne Craig
CM
Susanne Craig Photo.jpg
Craig in 2024
Born
Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Citizenship
  • Canada
  • United States
Alma mater University of Calgary (BA)
Occupations
Years active1991-present
Employers
Awards Pulitzer Prize, Order of Canada
Website Work Profile

Susanne Craig CM is a Canadian investigative journalist who works at The New York Times and author. She was the reporter to whom Donald Trump's 1995 tax returns were anonymously mailed during the 2016 presidential election. In 2018, Craig was an author of The New York Times investigation into Donald Trump's wealth that found the president inherited hundreds of millions of dollars from his father, some through fraudulent tax schemes. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting in 2019 for this coverage.

Contents

In 2020, Craig further reported on Donald Trump's tax record, which disclosed that he paid $750 in federal income tax during 2016 and nothing at all in 10 of the previous 15 years. Craig is also known for her coverage of the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and of New York State and New York City government and politics.

Early life and education

Craig was born in Calgary, Alberta, growing up in its Charleswood neighbourhood, and attended the University of Calgary, graduating in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Government. [1]

While at the University of Calgary, she reported for the campus paper The Gauntlet where she got her start in reporting. [2] She also became friends with fellow student and future Mayor of Calgary Naheed Nenshi. [3]

Career

Career beginnings

Craig began her career as a summer intern for the Calgary Herald in 1990 where she covered various city transit topics and the career of Canada’s first elected senator Stan Waters. Although she struggled finding work due to a lack of formal education in journalism, her experience at the Herald encouraged her to keep pursuing a career in reporting. [4]

She was also a summer intern for the Windsor Star in 1991, and after winning the inaugural Edward Goff Penny Memorial Prize for young journalists, she was offered a full-time job as a reporter at the paper in Windsor, Ontario. [1] She then spent four years at The Star where she worked as one of their police reporters and covered the North American Free Trade Agreement and Heinz’s operations in Leamington, Ontario. [5]

After a one-month contract with The Financial Post, Craig then joined the The Globe and Mail in 1996 in Toronto where she won the National Newspaper Award in Canada (Business - 1999) [6] and also accepted an Honorable Mention Michener Award on behalf of the Globe.

She then went on to become a staff writer for the Wall Street Journal in 2001, [7] where she became the recipient of several Gerald Loeb Awards including one for deadline writing on the resignation of New York Stock Exchange Chairman Richard Grasso. Additionally, she was the lead journalist on a team that was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for National Affairs Reporting in relation to coverage of the Lehman Brothers and their role in the financial crisis of 2008. [8]

The New York Times

In 2010, she joined the New York Times to continue reporting on Wall Street and was later promoted to bureau chief for coverage of the New York State government. [7] [9] [10] In 2015, Craig left Albany to become the Times' New York City Hall bureau chief.

On October 1, 2016, The New York Times published an article co-authored by Craig, which stated that Donald Trump had reported a loss of $916 million in 1995, which could have allowed him to avoid paying income taxes for up to eighteen years. [11] In subsequent television interviews, Craig identified herself as the reporter who had received a portion of Trump's 1995 tax records in her mailbox from an anonymous sender, who was later revealed to be Mary L. Trump. [12]

On October 2, 2018, The Times published a 14,000 exposé co-authored by Craig, David Barstow, and Russ Buettner titled Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father. [13] The findings of the story was based on over 100,000 pages worth of documents, both public sources and private disclosures, that revealed the inner workings of Trump's financial practices and misleading statements about his self-made wealth and business empire. The most common form of financial crime reported was valuation fraud. [14]

In 2019, Craig and the two other reporters shared the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for "an exhaustive 18-month investigation of President Donald Trump’s finances that debunked his claims of self-made wealth and revealed a business empire riddled with tax dodges". [15] They also shared the 2019 George Polk Award for Political Reporting. [16]

On September 27, 2020, she and others further reported on Trump's tax record, exposing that Trump paid $750 in federal income tax during 2016 and no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years. [17]

In 2021, Craig started serving as an on-air analyst for MSNBC, where she speaks about her research into Trump’s finances, tax returns, and his indictment and criminal trial. [18]

Lucky Loser

On February 22, 2024, Craig announced that she would be publishing a book titled Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created The Illusion of Success with Penguin Random House LLC in collaboration with her colleague Russ Buettner on September 17, 2024. The book draws on over twenty years’ worth of Trump’s confidential tax information, including the tax returns he tried to conceal, alongside business records and interviews with Trump insiders. [19]

According to The Washington Post, the book revealed how Fred Trump gave his son “almost endless collateral for loans, connections in banking and politics, and a reliable wellspring of cash to pursue dreams and fame.” Further, it was reported that much of the glamour behind The Apprentice was fake, staged or exaggerated. [20] Newsweek also reported how the book detailed “how Trump suffered major losses, such as the closure of multiple casinos, and tax records show that his businesses lost more than $1 billion between 1985 and 1994.” [21]

Trump’s campaign advisor Steven Cheung labelled the book as lies and claimed the book was "a desperate attempt to interfere" in the 2024 United States presidential election. [22]

Awards

Personal life

Craig is the sister-in-law of former Calgary City Councillor Ward Sutherland. [32]

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References

  1. 1 2 "Top 40 Alumni - Alumni - University of Calgary". Archived from the original on September 17, 2016. Retrieved August 13, 2016.
  2. ↑ "From the Gauntlet to a Pulitzer, Discover Susanne Craig's journey" . Retrieved August 13, 2016.
  3. ↑ Craig, Susanne (June 6, 2019). "Paging Dr Craig". Instagram. Retrieved September 21, 2024.
  4. ↑ Postmedia News (October 3, 2016). "Former Calgary Herald writer at heart of Trump tax return bombshell". The Calgary Herald. Retrieved September 22, 2024.
  5. ↑ MacLeod, Brian (November 29, 2023). "Former Star journalist Susanne Craig named to Order of Canada". The Windsor Star. Retrieved September 19, 2024.
  6. 1 2 "Winners since 1949 - National Newspaper Awards". nna-ccj.ca. Retrieved August 13, 2016.
  7. 1 2 "Times names Susanne Craig as Albany, New York bureau chief". blog.timesunion.com. Times Union (Albany). October 29, 2013. Retrieved September 23, 2016.
  8. ↑ "Susanne Craig". topics.nytimes.com. Retrieved August 13, 2016.
  9. ↑ "Susanne Craig leaving WSJ for the NYT". cjr.org. Retrieved September 23, 2016.
  10. ↑ "Journal's Susanne Craig Jumps to New York Times DealBook Section". New York Magazine. August 30, 2010. Retrieved September 23, 2016.
  11. ↑ "Donald Trump Tax Records Show He Could Have Avoided Taxes for Nearly Two Decades, The Times Found". The New York Times. October 2, 2016.
  12. ↑ "Tax documents are 'important window' into Trump". NBC News. October 4, 2016. Retrieved March 4, 2021.
  13. ↑ Craig, Susanne (November 2, 2018). "Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father". The New York Times. Retrieved September 22, 2024.
  14. ↑ Drum, Kevin (October 2, 2018). "Times Report: Trump Wealth Largely Based on Tax Scams and Bailouts From Dad". Mother Jones. Retrieved September 22, 2024.
  15. 1 2 "David Barstow, Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner of The New York Times". Pulitzer.org. 2019. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
  16. ↑ Polk, Eileen (February 19, 2019). "New York Times Wins Two George Polk Awards". The New York Times. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
  17. ↑ Craig, Susanne (September 27, 2020). "Long-Concealed Records Show Trump's Chronic Losses and Years of Tax Avoidance". The New York Times. Retrieved September 22, 2024.
  18. ↑ "'It's much larger': Trump's financial penalty nightmare may not be over, NYT reporter says". Youtube. December 22, 2022. Retrieved May 3, 2024.
  19. ↑ "ABOUT LUCKY LOSER" . Retrieved April 29, 2024.
  20. ↑ Mclean, Bethany (September 17, 2024). "Donald Trump's financial failures are stunning. 'Lucky Loser' has the receipts". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 17, 2024.
  21. ↑ Palmer, Ewan (September 18, 2024). "Donald Trump Was 'Black Hole' for His Dad's Money: New Book Author". Newsweek. Retrieved September 21, 2024.
  22. ↑ Peck, Emily (September 17, 2024). ""Lucky loser:" New book details how Trump got rich". Axios. Retrieved September 17, 2024.
  23. ↑ "THE HON. EDWARD GOFF PENNY MEMORIAL PRIZES FOR YOUNG CANADIAN JOURNALISTS". News Media Canada. Retrieved September 9, 2024.
  24. ↑ "Reporter Susanne Craig accepts 1999 Michener Honourable Mention award from Governor General Adrienne Clarkson on behalf of the Globe and Mail". Goverment of Canada. April 10, 2000. Retrieved September 9, 2024.
  25. ↑ "L.A. Times Columnist Wins Loeb Award". Los Angeles Times. June 30, 2004. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
  26. ↑ "2008 Gerald Loeb Award Winners Announced by UCLA Anderson School of Management". Fast Company . October 28, 2011. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
  27. ↑ "Loeb Winners". UCLA Anderson School of Management . June 29, 2009. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
  28. ↑ Seiler, Casey (May 4, 2017). "New York Times reporter Susanne Craig wins first Nellie Bly award". Times Union. Retrieved September 22, 2024.
  29. ↑ Polk, Eileen (February 19, 2019). "New York Times Wins Two George Polk Awards". The New York Times. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
  30. ↑ Khoeler, Kristy (April 15, 2019). "Gauntlet alumna wins Pulitzer Prize, awarded honorary degree from U of C". The Gauntlet . Retrieved September 9, 2024.
  31. ↑ "Order of Canada appointees – December 2023". Governor General of Canada. December 22, 2023. Retrieved December 28, 2023.
  32. ↑ Rumboldt, Ryan (April 16, 2019). "Former Calgarian wins Pulitzer for uncovering Trump's questionable finances". The Calgary Herald. Retrieved September 20, 2024.
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