Barrett spent nearly 40 years at
The Village Voice. His groundbreaking work into the early career of Donald Trump made him a latter-day authority for a new generation of reporters interested in the character and psyche of America’s 45th president. Following his tenure at
The Village Voice, Barrett was a fellow at
The Nation Institute and a contributor to
Newsweek. He was also a professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Barrett was best known for authoring many articles and books about politicians, including
New York City figures such as
Donald Trump,
Rudy Giuliani, and
Ed Koch. Barrett was the first journalist to uncover Trump's business deceptions. He began reporting on Trump in the late 1970s and did 10 hours of taped interviews with Trump while the
Grand Hyatt New York was under construction; his two-part series led to the impaneling of a
federal grand jury in the Eastern District in Brooklyn against Trump. Barrett's 1991 biography of Trump was republished with the title of
Trump: The Greatest Show on Earth: The Deals, the Downfall, the Reinvention in 2016. Barrett's book,
Rudy!: An Investigative Biography of Rudolph Giuliani, was adapted into a 2003 television film,
Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story. He was interviewed for the 2006 documentary
Giuliani Time and the 2017 documentary
Get Me Roger Stone. Barrett was a mentor to progressive activist and political commentator
Nomiki Konst. After Barrett's death, his family donated his papers, mainly consisting of research notes related to his investigative reporting, to the
Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the
University of Texas at Austin. ==Death==