How to read Receipts
Receipts shows where the record ends and the story begins. Every entry keeps these apart.
What each entry separates
- Claim: what is being said, and by whom.
- Evidence: what records actually establish.
- Source: where each piece comes from (document, testimony, press, interpretation).
- Relationship: what connects to what, and how (the graded ties).
- Verdict: how much is behind it.
Verdicts
- Documented The record establishes it. It carries a basis:
- Documented · occurred records establish that the event or fact itself happened.
- Documented · said records establish only that a statement, document or claim was made. It says nothing about whether that statement is true. Shown as an outlined badge so it can't be mistaken for a documented event.
- Unproven Alleged or plausible, not established by the record.
- Smoke, no fire Widely repeated, with nothing solid underneath once checked.
- Concept A framework, synthesis or research trail, not a factual claim.
- Stub An entry with one tie or none so far; incomplete.
Sources and claims
- A Source (episode, interview, document) is not graded. It lists the claims made in it, with timestamps.
- A Claim is one assertion, graded on its own. A source asserts or reports a claim; that says nothing about whether it's true.
- Whether a claim holds comes from its Evidence: records that document, corroborate or contradict it, or none found.
- Handling A flag, not a grade: this record or tie concerns how officials withheld, redacted, destroyed, denied or re-explained the information. The grade says whether that handling is established. The flag appears on a record when any of its ties concerns handling; specific handling events on claims appear as Handling: ….
- Prediction · check by … A forecast. It stays open until the date, then gets graded.
Rules
- A documented relationship doesn't prove the explanation attached to it.
- A missing record is a finding about the record, not proof of what was in it.
- An allegation stays an allegation even when the person making it is credible.
- A government denial is evidence of the government's position, not that the event didn't occur.
- Nothing Richard Doty says counts as corroboration.
- Speculative or pattern-level synthesis is marked Concept and kept separate from checkable claims.
- Documented · said proves a statement was made, not that it is true.
- A record's grade covers every clause in its title. Compound claims that mix documented and undocumented parts are split into separate records.
The graph
Lines are graded ties. Line style is the grade: solid = documented, dashed = unproven, dotted = smoke. Purple marks a Handling tie: it concerns how officials withheld, redacted, destroyed, denied or re-explained the information, and the line style says whether that handling is established, so a dashed purple line is an unproven handling claim. A line means the two entries are connected in the way its label says, not that one proves the other.
Limits
Receipts grades what the record establishes. That is a deliberate bias toward the record: a claim that is true but was never documented, or was successfully concealed, can stay Unproven. Unproven means "not established by the record," not "false." Where officials withheld, destroyed or re-explained information, that shows up in the Handling flag and the graph's purple handling ties, not in the claim's grade. Missing records are treated as findings about the record, never as proof of what the record would have said.
Sworn (outline tag): the record shows the statement was made under oath, with a link to the transcript or declaration. Perjury exposure raises the cost of lying. It does not make the statement true, and it never changes the grade. Secondhand sworn testimony is marked as such.
Contradicted by record (outline tag, Unproven or Smoke only): a cited record says otherwise. Unproven alone means only "not established." A missing or withheld record never counts as a contradiction.