Evidence method

Evidence before interpretation.

Whale Fall separates broad proximity from stronger documentary evidence and keeps source provenance visible.

Structural chain

PERSON → ROLE / SEAT → ORGANIZATION → ACCESS CHANNEL → DECISION / POLICY / CONTRACT / INVESTMENT → MONEY / ASSET / DATA / AUTHORITY → BENEFICIARY → OUTCOME

Evidence ladder

I0: Same ecosystem.
I1: Documented relationship or affiliation.
I2: Documented access.
I3: Participation in a relevant matter.
I4: Decision authority.
I5: Material benefit connected to the decision.
I6: Undisclosed/conflicting interest or rule deviation supported by documentary evidence.
I7: Documentary evidence of intentional influence or concealment.

Whale Fall does not jump from a lower evidence level to a higher one without supporting records.

Interpretation boundaries

Campaign donations, appointments, lobbying registrations, board overlap, shared institutional membership, meeting attendance, registered-agent relationships, agenda appearances, public office, or institutional proximity do not by themselves establish influence, wrongdoing, control, causation, conflict, or coordination.

Source provenance

Where possible, Whale Fall preserves source identity, original URL, retrieval state, archived copy, SHA-256 checksum, historical URL, verified successor URL, site-migration evidence, relevant time period, and publication state.

Publication boundary

Parser candidates, weak matches, unresolved identities, inferred relationships, source-replacement candidates, notes, and hypotheses remain research-only until reviewed and admitted.