Investigation of Trump charity wins Pulitzer

Reporting also included crude sexual comments.

NEW YORK — The biggest U.S. news story of 2016 — the tumultuous presidential campaign yielded a Pulit- — zer Prize on Monday for the Washington Post reporter who not only raised doubts about Donald Trump’s charitable giving but also revealed that the candidate had been recorded crudely bragging about grabbing women.

David A. Fahrenthold won the prize for national reporting, with the judges citing his stories about Trump’s charitable foundation that called into question whether the real estate magnate was as generous as he claimed.

Fahrenthold’s submission also included his story about Trump’s raunchy behind-the- scenes comments during a 2005 taping of “Access Hollywood” in 2005. The footage rocked the White House race and prompted a rare apol- ogy from the then-candidate.

Eric Eyre of The Charleston Gazette-Mail won the investigative reporting prize for articles showing that drug wholesalers had shipped 780 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills to West Virginia in just six years, a period when 1,728 people fatally overdosed on the painkillers.

In another election-related prize, Peggy Noonan of The Wall Street Journal won the Pulitzer for commentary for columns that “connected readers to the shared virtues of Americans during one of the nation’s most divisive political campaigns,” judges said.

American journalism’s most distinguished prizes also recognized work that shed light on international financial intrigue and held local officials accountable.

The New York Daily News and ProPublica won the Pulitzer for public service for uncovering how authorities used an obscure law, originally enacted to crack down on prostitution in Times Square in the 1970s, to oust hundreds of people from their homes.

The New York Times’ staff received the international reporting award for its work on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to project Moscow’s power abroad.