Methods and evidence labels
This page explains the rules every published story follows. The point is simple: a reader should always be able to tell what kind of evidence sits behind a sentence, and should be able to open the source and check.
Evidence labels
Each story carries one label that reflects its strongest supporting source.
| Label | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Primary record | A court filing, ruling, agency document, executive order, inspector general report, official dataset or regulator order that we opened directly. |
| Reporting | Original reporting by an identified news organization that we opened and dated. Investigative findings are attributed to the outlet, not asserted as adjudicated fact. |
| Estimate | A valuation, projection or model from a named party (for example Forbes, CBO, a committee staff) with its method and date. Partisan estimates are identified as such. |
| Conditional calculation | Arithmetic applied to a scenario that did not happen or has not happened, shown only as an illustration. |
| Attributed opinion | A characterization or judgment attributed to a named person or body, not a factual finding of this site. |
| Disputed account | Significant reporting that the subject or another credible party disputes; both the account and the dispute are presented. |
Labels appear as colored chips on every story, card and search result. If a story mixes kinds of evidence, the label reflects the central claim, and the "What remains uncertain" section says what rests on weaker ground.
Money rules
- Every figure is tied to an entity, a money type, a period and a status (actual, estimate or scenario).
- Net worth estimates (for example Forbes figures) describe fluctuating valuations, not cash received. They are never added to income figures.
- Contract values are ceilings or awards, not revenue, unless a source reports actual payments.
- Gift values, settlement amounts, appropriations and outlays are kept separate.
- Scenario calculations (for instance what a proposed tax might have cost) are labeled as conditional calculations and never used as headlines.
- Partisan estimates (congressional minority or majority staff, campaign committees) are labeled as such.
Dates
Each story carries the date of the event it describes and the precision we have for it: a full date, a month, or a year. We never invent a day for a month-only date. Sources show the publication date as printed on the page we opened.
Sources and citations
Every source has a title, publisher, publication date, link, type and the date we last opened it. Citations point to a location inside the source. Paywalled articles are cited only to the extent we could read them, and the citation says so. We link to sources; we do not republish their text.
Subject responses
Where the person or organization responded to reporting, the response is included. Where no response was located, the story says where we looked. A denial is never dropped because it is inconvenient.
Review cadence
- Litigation, conflicts of interest and live investigations: reviewed every 7 days.
- Live policy and finance figures: every 30 days.
- Background and historical material: every 90 days.
Each story shows its last review date and the date the next review is due.
Corrections
Errors are fixed in place, noted at the bottom of the story with the date and the reason, and logged on the Corrections page. Material corrections also appear in the site feed.
Research records
Stories are composed from numbered research records (for example C010 or HCR20261021-05). Record numbers appear on each story so the editorial trail can be traced. The research set's cutoff for migrated records was 2026-10-25; later developments are added as stories are reviewed.