Standards & Sources
How we know what we say we know.
An accountability project is only as good as its sourcing. Here is the standard every claim on this site is held to — and how to make us fix it if we get something wrong.
Public record only
Every claim on this site is drawn from unsealed public dockets, Texas Public Information Act returns, campaign-finance filings submitted to the Texas Ethics Commission, and reporting by named news outlets. Where a figure appears, its primary source is linked.
Procedure, not guilt
This project audits how the District Attorney’s office handled its own institutional duties — what evidence was preserved, what was disclosed, how appointments and funds were managed. It does not, and cannot, adjudicate the guilt or innocence of any person. Where a grand jury declined to indict, we say so.
The dread is the reader’s
We report the record and let you draw the conclusion. We do not assert that any named individual committed a crime that a court has not found. When we describe a pattern, we mean the documented outcomes — not a claim about anyone’s private intent.
We correct the record
If something here is factually wrong, we want to fix it. Send the correction with a source and we will update or remove the item and note the change. Accuracy is the entire point of a watchdog; an uncorrected error discredits the rest.
See something the record gets wrong? Send the correction, with a source →