Definition: Matters where a court, regulatory body, or government authority has issued a final judgment, conviction, settlement with factual admissions, or binding order. The facts have been tested through an adversarial legal process.

Standard of inclusion: A formal legal proceeding has concluded with a ruling, verdict, or enforceable agreement. The entry cites the specific court order, judgment, or regulatory action.

Qualifying evidence includes: Criminal convictions; civil judgments, including default judgments; consent decrees and regulatory settlements; court-ordered dissolutions or penalties; findings of fact by a judge after trial.

Reader expectation: These facts are not reasonably disputable. A court has weighed evidence and ruled.

Definition: Matters where a government body — a prosecutor, congressional committee, inspector general, or regulatory agency — has formally brought charges, issued findings, or completed an official investigation, but the matter has not reached final adjudication. The absence of adjudication may result from dismissal on procedural grounds, presidential immunity, plea deals by co-conspirators, or other reasons unrelated to the strength of the evidence.

Standard of inclusion: The entry requires formal charges filed by a prosecutor, official findings published by a congressional committee or inspector general, or completed regulatory investigations with published conclusions.

Qualifying evidence includes: Criminal indictments, including those later dismissed on procedural or immunity grounds; congressional investigation findings; inspector general reports; regulatory investigation conclusions; special counsel reports.

Reader expectation: A government body with investigative authority found sufficient evidence to act. The matter may not have been fully tested at trial for reasons unrelated to the strength of the evidence.

Definition: Actions or statements captured in verifiable primary records — video, audio, sworn testimony, official filings, financial disclosures, or Trump's own public statements — where the factual record is clear even though no legal proceeding has adjudicated the specific matter.

Standard of inclusion: At least one primary source document or recording directly establishes the factual claim. The entry cites and, where possible, links to the primary source itself.

Qualifying evidence includes: Video and audio recordings from C-SPAN, press conferences, rallies, and leaked recordings; sworn depositions or testimony; financial disclosure forms and tax filings; official government documents such as executive orders, pardons, and communications; Trump's own social media posts, archived for permanence; corporate filings and SEC records.

Reader expectation: The evidence can be independently verified by examining the cited primary source. The interpretation of that evidence may be subject to debate, but the underlying facts are documented.

Definition: Actions or patterns documented through investigative reporting by news organizations with editorial standards, corroborated by multiple named or credibly described sources, where the underlying evidence has not been independently verified through primary documents or legal proceedings available to the public.

Standard of inclusion: Reporting by established news organizations with editorial review processes, corroborated by multiple sources. These organizations operate under legal exposure for defamation and negligence — an institutional check on the reliability of the material. The entry cites the specific reporting, names the outlet, and notes the sourcing basis.

Qualifying evidence includes: Investigative reporting from the Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and the Associated Press; Pulitzer Prize-winning investigations; book-length investigations by credentialed journalists; reporting corroborated across multiple independent outlets.

Reader expectation: This material comes from professional journalism subject to editorial scrutiny, but the primary evidence is not publicly available for independent verification. Readers should weigh accordingly.

Definition: Analysis of actions or patterns that involve judgments about ethics, democratic norms, presidential conduct standards, or human decency. The underlying facts may be well-documented, but the characterization involves interpretation.

Standard of inclusion: The factual basis for the interpretation is documented at Tier 1 through Tier 4. The interpretive analysis is clearly labeled as such and attributed to its source, whether the author, specific scholars, or institutional analyses. Counterarguments or alternative interpretations are noted.

Reader expectation: This is where the author's perspective enters the work. The facts are cited, and the meaning is argued. Reasonable people may disagree about the normative conclusions, but the factual record underlying them should be verifiable.