Taibbi's piece Thursday in Rolling Stone on Alayne Fleischmann, the lawyer who blew the whistle on mortgage fraud at the financial institution, came only a week after he parted ways with First Look Media, the startup launched last year by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.

After becoming a star at Rolling Stone, Taibbi joined First Look in February to lead a digital magazine at the company that was going to be called Racket. But Taibbi's seven months at First Look were stormy, and ended amid ongoing tension with higher-ups.

It didn't take long for him to land on his feet. Days after Taibbi's departure from First Look, a spokesperson for Rolling Stone confirmed that he was set to return to the magazine with a "big piece."

According to Elle Reeve, Taibbi's former colleague at First Look, that "big piece" — a nearly 6,000-word story on Fleischmann — had originally been reserved for Racket's launch.

and here is the story that was supposed to launch Racket! http://t.co/CH5FYK78jI so glad everyone's personal brand made it out ok

— Elle Reeve (@elspethreeve) November 6, 2014