The documents came first: thousands of pages of court filings tied to January 6 Capitol attack prosecutions, dense with legal language and countless names. From his laptop in Los Angeles, Isaac Vargas began working through them, not line by line, but at scale.
Using tools like Google Pinpoint designed to process large volumes of text, he extracted names, roles and timelines, assembling a database of federal prosecutors connected to the cases. Then he widened the search. LinkedIn profiles. Press releases. Social media posts. Each detail helped map where those prosecutors were and, increasingly, where they were not.
Patterns began to surface.
“As the picture was being built, we began to visualize the exodus,” Vargas said.
What started as a dataset became a line of reporting. Prosecutors who had worked on Capitol riot cases were leaving their positions in notable numbers. The work shifted from aggregation to inquiry: phone calls with former prosecutors, conversations about why they had stepped away and what they were experiencing in the aftermath.
Some described taking steps to scrub their online presence after being named and targeted on social media. At the same time, Vargas helped track those digital threads, identifying posts that singled out prosecutors and called for consequences against them. Each example was reviewed alongside Reuters reporters, part of a process that balanced speed with verification.
Months later, that work would become part of a Reuters investigative series awarded the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting.
For Vargas, the recognition has arrived at a defining moment. He is graduating this week with a MS in Journalism from USC Annenberg, entering the profession at the same time he is being recognized at its highest level.
He was bylined on a December 2025 story in the Pulitzer-winning series, which examined efforts to scrutinize federal prosecutors involved in Capitol riot cases. In another story for the series, Vargas helped gather social media elements for reporters to parse through as part of their examination of a government-backed crackdown that targeted hundreds for alleged pro-violence rhetoric in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
The broader Reuters investigation documented how President Donald Trump and his allies used the powers of government, including criminal investigations, security clearance revocations and funding cuts, to pursue political retribution against perceived adversaries across institutions.
Vargas’s path into that reporting began two years earlier, in a USC Annenberg classroom.
During the Summer Digital Journalism Immersion program for incoming master’s students, adjunct instructor Kevin Reyes introduced open-source investigative reporting tools and techniques that use publicly available information — from satellite imagery and social media networks to online databases — to sift through vast amounts of visible data and collect insights.
Earlier that same year, with an investment from the Scripps Howard Fund, the school had launched its Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) Reporting initiative aimed at building America’s premier open-source investigative reporting education program offering hands-on, real-world reporting experience.
For Vargas, the opportunity was clear: a chance to develop investigative skills while working directly with major news organizations. He enrolled in Reyes “Introduction to OSINT Reporting” course the following spring and quickly found his niche.
“The principles of investigative journalism — calling folks, knocking on doors and asking the right questions — that is fundamentally what really good reporters have been doing for a while,” Vargas said. “OSINT reporting really feels like it's building on those same skills but in another really cool sandbox.”
During that semester, Reuters reached out looking for support with an early-stage idea related to the January 6 Capitol riot. Guided by Reyes, Vargas and his fellow students helped build Reuters initial datasets using open-source methods.
Two students from the class, Vargas and Lyla Bhalla-Ladd, continued working on the same project after being selected for Reuters’ summer fellowship, with Vargas continuing for another three months. Both ultimately received recognition in the December 2025 article, Vargas as a bylined reporter and Bhalla-Ladd as a contributor.
Vargas said that while he used OSINT techniques to analyze large datasets and track online activity, his work remained grounded in the fundamentals of investigative journalism: verifying information, conducting interviews and collaborating closely with editors and reporters.
“Getting to hear the other reporters talk about how they were going to approach their tasks — even just to be at that table — was an absolutely incredible experience all around,” he said.
When the Pulitzer Prize was announced, Vargas found himself reflecting on the broader context of the recognition. The reporters he worked alongside had spent years, in some cases decades, building careers in investigative journalism.
“This past week, I’ve talked with Ned Parker, Peter Eisler and Mike Spector, who led the series reporting with Linda So, about what this kind of honor means,” Vargas said. “Honestly, they've really helped put things into perspective, and I think I'm still wrapping my head around it all. I find it very humbling.”
For Vargas, these connections were central to what he hoped to gain from graduate school.
“The fact that USC Annenberg has partnerships with these newsrooms — to get us into these rooms and give us a chance to work on stories like this — that’s why I did the master’s,” he said.
As he prepares to graduate, Vargas’ next steps remain open. He plans to travel to Mexico City to meet extended family for the first time, then return to Los Angeles, where he will continue teaching journalism skills to high school students as a mentor with The LA Local through the fall.
Vargas also looks forward to returning to share his experience with USC Annenberg students.
“The faculty and experts I’ve had the chance to work with are genuinely invested and care about developing us into journalists who go out into the world ready to do the real work of telling stories that have meaningful impact,” Vargas said. “I think that's the magic of USC Annenberg: folks keep pouring out wisdom or opportunities for us. It really pays off, if you commit to it. And, now, I am part of that network and can talk with students about how they can do it, too.”