At 24, Hylton was hired as a Contributing Editor at Esquire, where he wrote about the invasion of Afghanistan, attempts to patent the human genome, and the prosecution of alleged nuclear spy Wen Ho Lee. After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Hylton became a Washington Correspondent for "GQ", publishing criticism of the war and drafting articles of impeachment for Dick Cheney. He was the first journalist to interview Joe Darby, the whistleblower at Abu Ghraib prison.