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Research

Investigative briefs, data explainers, and watchlists grounded in primary sources. Every output is source-linked and clearly framed as research, not legal findings.

Open Access

Flagship brief

Flagship brief

Dark Money and Public Accountability: A Civic Data Review of Campaign Finance Transparency

Date: 2026-05-15

A platform brief reviewing what primary-source campaign-finance records do and do not reveal about dark money in U.S. politics, the categories of outside spending that are publicly disclosed, and where the gaps in public reporting create accountability blind spots. The brief is a research-agenda document grounded in publicly available FEC and disclosure data — not a novel statistical finding.

  • What "dark money" refers to in the U.S. disclosure regime, and which categories are documentable from primary sources.
  • How VigilData aggregates contribution, expenditure, and committee data into accessible public views.
  • Where disclosure rules leave structural gaps and what civic-data infrastructure can and cannot do about them.
  • How journalists, researchers, educators, and community organizations can use the platform to audit campaign-finance signals against primary records.
Methodology & primary sources
Source-verifiable research brief. Aggregations of primary-source disclosure data are described at a structural level. No legal findings of corruption or quid pro quo are made. AI-assisted summarization, where used, is reviewed by a human and linked to its primary sources.

Explainers

Explainer

Congressional Financial Disclosure Signals: What Public Records Can and Cannot Show

Date: 2026-05-15

Plain-language guide to what congressional financial disclosures publicly reveal about members' assets, income, and trading activity — and what categories of inference are not supported by the data alone.

Educational explainer. Disclosures show reported categories and ranges; they do not by themselves establish wrongdoing.
Explainer

Public Money, Private Influence: Mapping Federal Power Networks

Date: 2026-05-15

How federal spending, lobbying registrations, and campaign-finance records intersect, and how VigilData links those primary-source records into accessible public views without overstating causation.

Educational explainer. Network views show documented co-occurrence in public records; they are not findings of corruption.

Watchlists

Watchlist

AI, Antitrust, and Democracy Accountability Watchlist

Date: 2026-05-15

A curated public watchlist of regulatory, antitrust, and AI-governance developments most relevant to democracy accountability — including public-interest AI work and platform competition.

Watchlists track public regulatory activity; inclusion does not imply wrongdoing by listed entities.

How VigilData frames research outputs

VigilData research outputs are framed as source-verifiable accountability research, not legal findings. Where AI is used to summarize, categorize, or surface patterns, the use is disclosed and every signal links back to a primary record. See our responsible-AI policy for what AI Watchdog does and does not do.

Want to commission a report or partner on an investigation? Reach out to research@vigildata.org. Funder inquiries: grants@vigildata.org.