Overview

This playbook guides citizens, researchers, journalists, and activists in identifying, preserving, and organizing evidence of government misconduct, constitutional violations, and democratic backsliding for potential future truth and reconciliation proceedings.

Why now: Truth and reconciliation processes require detailed documentation. The window for preserving evidence — before records are destroyed, officials leave office, or memories fade — is limited. Begin archiving now.

Read first: knowledgebase/truth-reconciliation/tr-preparation-now.md

Step 1: Understand the Framework

Read: knowledgebase/truth-reconciliation/tr-overview.md

What truth and reconciliation processes do, how they have worked internationally, and what a US TRC process would likely look like.

Read: knowledgebase/truth-reconciliation/tr-us-context-design.md

The specific challenges and design options for a US TRC, including constitutional constraints, political prerequisites, and institutional design choices.

Step 2: Understand What Evidence Matters

Read: knowledgebase/truth-reconciliation/tr-mechanisms-truth-telling.md

Truth-telling mechanisms and what evidence categories are most valuable for:

• Establishing a factual record
• Individual accountability
• Institutional reform
• Reparations

Step 3: Evidence Preservation Standards

Read: knowledgebase/investigative-tools/methodologies/evidence-preservation-methodology.md

Professional evidence preservation: chain of custody, hashing, metadata preservation, storage standards, and documentation requirements that will hold up in legal proceedings.

Key practices:

• Create SHA-256 hashes of all digital files at time of collection
• Document provenance (where you got it, when, under what circumstances)
• Store copies in multiple locations (including off-site)
• Never alter original files — only work with copies

Step 4: Web Archiving

Read: knowledgebase/investigative-tools/tutorials/media-verification/web-archiving-evidence-preservation.md

Government websites, social media posts, and news articles are regularly deleted. Archive them before they disappear:

• Wayback Machine (archive.org): Submit any URL for immediate archiving at archive.org/save
• Archive.today: Create archived snapshots at archive.today
• WARCIT / HTTrack: Download full websites for local preservation
• Congressional Research Service reports, OIG reports, and agency guidance documents are particularly vulnerable to deletion

Step 5: Document a Chronological Timeline

Read: knowledgebase/investigative-tools/methodologies/timeline-construction-methodology.md

Build a chronological timeline of events you are documenting:

• Date and time of each event
• Source documentation for each entry
• Cross-references between related events
• Notes on what was observed vs. inferred

Tools: TimelineJS (open source), Airtable, or a simple spreadsheet with consistent date formatting.

Step 6: Document Triage and Organization

Read: knowledgebase/investigative-tools/workflows/document-triage-workflow.md

When you have a large volume of documents:

• Classify by type, date, and subject
• Prioritize primary sources over secondary
• Flag documents with high evidentiary value
• Build a finding aid (index) for the collection

Step 7: Accountability Profile Documentation Standards

Read: knowledgebase/accountability/INVESTIGATIVE-TRAILS-PROTOCOL.md

The Patriot University investigative trails protocol: how to document evidence trails for individual officials and how each accountability profile is structured for future reference.

Step 8: The Implementation Roadmap

Read: knowledgebase/truth-reconciliation/tr-us-implementation-roadmap.md Read: knowledgebase/truth-reconciliation/tr-mechanisms-institutional-reform.md Read: knowledgebase/truth-reconciliation/tr-mechanisms-prosecution-track.md

Understanding how documentation you create today connects to future TRC processes: truth-telling forums, prosecution referrals, institutional reform mandates, and reparations programs.

Categories of Evidence to Collect

Constitutional Violations

Key documents already in the Patriot knowledgebase:

• knowledgebase/constitutional-violations-overview-2025-2026.md
• knowledgebase/first-amendment-violations-2025-2026.md
• knowledgebase/fifth-amendment-due-process-violations-2025-2026.md
• knowledgebase/separation-of-powers-violations-2025-2026.md
• knowledgebase/fourteenth-amendment-birthright-citizenship-2025-2026.md

Supplement these with primary source documentation (court filings, executive orders, OIG reports).

Immigration Enforcement

• knowledgebase/immigration-enforcement-overview-2025-2026.md
• knowledgebase/immigration-detention-conditions-2025-2026.md
• knowledgebase/minneapolis-ice-enforcement-analysis.md

Individual Accountability

• knowledgebase/accountability/ — 318 individual profiles
• Document any new conduct by profiled individuals
• Create profiles for individuals not yet documented

Collaboration and Contribution

Organizations maintaining TRC-relevant archives:

• Internet Archive: archive.org — submit URLs for archiving
• DocumentCloud: documentcloud.org — upload and annotate documents publicly
• PACER / CourtListener: Federal court record preservation
• ProPublica Data Store: Maintains government datasets at risk of deletion
• Government Attic: government-obtained records via FOIA

Related Role-Based Playbooks

• Researcher Playbook
• Journalist Playbook
• Attorney Playbook

Related Use-Case Playbooks

• Researching People
• Researching Conflicts of Interest
• Keeping Communication Secure