Welcome back to The Stratosphere.

Today, we go back inside the high-wattage political operation that surrounded Sam Bankman-Fried, but with a special focus on his two alleged co-conspirators: Ryan Salame and Nishad Singh. Singh, this morning, pleaded guilty to campaign-finance violations, and I have new exclusive reporting on just how Singh cooperated with Sam’s aides to make his political giving decisions.

But first—some actual personal news: After six years in S.F., I am moving back to D.C. next week with my partner. It shouldn’t change much about your experience here at Puck, and I’ll still be in San Francisco every month or so for events and meetings and gossip. And I’m excited to chop it up with folks from my previous stint in Washington—do reach out.

Unbeknownst to Gray’s team, they were fighting against Sam Bankman-Fried and one of his top deputies, Nishad Singh, whose political aides had hatched a then-creative, now-legally-explosive plan to defeat her. S.B.F.’s team had initially been excited about Gray’s commitment to pandemic preparedness, the core mission of Guarding Against Pandemics, a dark money group run by Sam’s brother, Gabe. But Gabe & Co. soured on Gray after what they felt was a muffed Zoom call in February with the once-favored candidate, who bristled at the notion that the group had a super PAC that might spend in the race. They next interviewed Balint, who struck...