Notes on the Crises Investigative Journalism Source Wish List.

Sources can contact me over email or over signal (a secure and encrypted text messaging app) — linked here. My Signal username is “NathanTankus.01”. I will speak to sources on whatever terms they require (i.e. off the record, Deep Background, on Background etc.)

June 16th 2026: 

Since the Trump Musk Payments Crisis began, my desire for sources across the Federal Government has exploded. Rather than listing them in front of each piece, I keep a separate page list. I update this list periodically based on the current focus of Notes on the Crises but that doesn’t mean I’ve lost interest in sources related to older coverage.

1. Office of Management and Budget Program Examiner
2. Office of Management and Budget Legal Counsel
3. OMB Employees Who can Explain the functions of Resource Management Offices in detail
4. OMB experts in “reprogramming and transferring” of appropriated funds
5. Legal counsel sources from the Treasury, Federal Reserve Board or Federal Reserve Banks
6. Current or Former Bureau of the Fiscal Service employees in the Budget Appropriations and Analysis Section (BAAS)
7. Payments Department employees in the Federal Reserve System
8. National Association of Clearing House Associations (NACHA) employee with knowledge of NACHA’s rules and legal standards
9. Any Administrative Agency employee with knowledge of the Bureau of the Fiscal Service directly stopping payments your agency has authorized
10. Any source who has direct knowledge of Elon Musk’s, Donald Trump’s or Treasury Secretary Bessent’s thinking regarding the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, the Treasury payments crisis or operationally organizing impoundment (also any high level government agency or White House figure)