In the summer of 2010, as U.S. agents dug into allegations that a powerful drug mafia had poured money into Mexican politics, the investigators took direct aim at the man who is now the country’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

According to confidential government documents obtained by ProPublica, the Drug Enforcement Administration knowingly risked a political furor to try to penetrate López Obrador’s campaign organization before Mexicans could elect a government that might be beholden to the traffickers.

From the start, the documents indicate, the Americans’ primary target was López Obrador, then the leader of the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party, or PRD, and the front-runner in the 2012 presidential race.

(The president’s spokesperson, Jesús Ramírez Cuevas, said López Obrador would not respond to questions about “false allegations” related to the 2006 campaign. But in a letter, he said the president wanted answers to his own questions about ProPublica’s sources and motives in reporting on the DEA inquiry. “Your reporting has damaged the image of the government and the president of Mexico,” the letter added.)

Last week, we published an investigation into Ziklag, a secret charity funded by wealthy conservative donors, whose members include the families behind Hobby Lobby and Jockey apparel. Ziklag is spending millions to mobilize Republican-leaning voters and purge more than a million people from the voter rolls in key swing states, aiming to tilt the 2024 election in favor of former President Donald Trump. The group also has a long-term plan to steer the U.S. toward Christian nationalism — but lawyers and tax experts say it may be violating the law.

On Instagram, producer Jose Sepulveda spoke with reporter Andy Kroll about his investigation into the Christian nationalist organization — and how it connects with Project 2025. On the surface, Ziklag and Project 2025 appear to be different things, Kroll explained. But, he said, “They are all part of this longer-term plan to try to move the country in this, again, conservative Christian direction, and they believe that another Trump administration is the best way to do that.”

Ziklag officials did not respond to a detailed list of questions. Martin Nussbaum, an attorney who said he was the group’s general counsel, said in a written response that “some of the statements in your email are correct. Others are not,” but he then did not respond to a request to specify what was erroneous.

Using the official tax name for Ziklag, he wrote that “USATransForm does not endorse candidates for public office.” He declined to comment on the group’s members.