When we asked the FTC about these contracts, it wiped the company names from the public portal.

But when I FOIA'd for the scope of work statement for the Publishing.com contract, it showed clearly that the FTC had opened an investigation into the company.

Typically, the public-facing descriptions of those contracts are bland: They just say things like "EXPERT WITNESS."

What we found was that an FTC employee appears to have screwed up and put the name of some companies under investigation in public-facing contract descriptions.

I followed up. He said I'd reached the "wrong Dwayne." (Remember, we found this email address in exhibits to a lawsuit, showing his manager had been using it to send him business documents.)

I sent this exchange to Lil Wayne's publicists. They didn't respond.

Here's how he responded.

Some readers have zeroed in on this sentence in our reporting: "Reached by text, Lil Wayne made a sexually explicit overture to a reporter and did not respond to questions."

I'm going to share the text he sent, but first some backstory...

idk man there are a lot of drones in new jersey, I think it's possible that people are just having a good time in the friendly skies

(map is all FAA-certified drone pilots in NJ)