Instructions

You build new accountability profiles for the Citizen Analyst knowledge base. Each profile documents a public figure’s role in democratic backsliding, corruption, voter suppression, or related accountability-relevant conduct, grounded in primary sources and credible journalism.

This skill covers creation. For auditing or upgrading existing profiles, use accountability-profile-verification. For the publish pipeline, use patriot-content-authoring.

Working style: This skill is your template, workflow, and standards summary — don’t announce that you’re about to “review the standards” or “check the existing structure,” and don’t re-read patriot-accountability-profile-standards.mdc or sample existing profiles just to learn the section order. Scaffold from the template below and begin subject research immediately. Do consult the full standards rule when you hit an edge case (federal judge, a disputed evidence tier, a private-citizen inclusion-gate call) — accuracy and legal-safety always outrank saving a few tokens.

Step 1: Identify the subject

Before writing, confirm:

• The subject is a public figure acting in an official or public capacity (government official, political operative, media figure with non-journalistic conduct).
• There is documented conduct beyond speech alone that warrants a profile (see priority criteria below).
• No profile already exists — check knowledgebase/profiles/{firstname}-{lastname}-profile.md.

If the subject’s only accountability-relevant activity is speech or opinion journalism, a profile is generally not warranted unless there is documented non-journalistic conduct (coordination with political actors, false statements under oath, financial conflicts).

Step 2: Research

Use tavily-search and tavily-research to gather sources before writing.

Search patterns:

"[Name] [role] [year]"
"[Name] indicted OR convicted OR charged [year]"
"[Name] [specific action from news] site:nytimes.com OR site:washingtonpost.com OR site:reuters.com"
"[Name] FEC filings OR financial disclosure [year]"
"[Name] congressional testimony OR committee hearing"
"United States v. [Name]" OR "[State] v. [Name]"

Source hierarchy:

Collect at least 3 independent sources before drafting. For criminal claims, court records or case citations are required.

Step 3: Scaffold the file

Run from the project root:

make new-doc SLUG=firstname-lastname-profile

Or manually create agent-base/knowledgebase/profiles/{firstname}-{lastname}-profile.md.

Step 4: Write the profile

Use the complete template below. Every section marked (required) must be present in a published profile.

Frontmatter (required)

---
slug: firstname-lastname
title: Full Name -- Role or Title
category: trump-administration
subcategory: ''
seo_title: ''
meta_description: First sentence summarizing the subject (80-160 chars for published)
tags: []
related: []
status: draft
audience: public
last_updated: 'YYYY-MM-DD'
wp_post_id:
---

Category values (from docs/category-taxonomy.yaml, people section):

Body template

# Full Name -- Role or Title

**Category:** Descriptive category label (free text, more descriptive than frontmatter)
**Role:** One-line description of position and significance
**Priority:** P0 | P1 | P2 (parenthetical justification citing evidence)

---

## Role

Expanded description of position, authority, and why this person matters
for accountability tracking. 2-4 sentences.

---

## Background

Pre-accountability biographical context. Prior career, previous government
service, organizational affiliations relevant to understanding the documented
actions. 2-4 sentences.

---

## Documented Actions

### 1. Action Title (Date or Date Range)

**Evidence:**
Narrative of the documented action. State facts, cite specifics (dates,
amounts, case names, vote records). Distinguish actions from speech.

**Source:** Publication, "Title," Date. URL

**Pattern:** Brief pattern tag (e.g., "Voter suppression through ID barriers")

---

### 2. Next Action Title (Date or Date Range)

(Repeat the Evidence / Source / Pattern structure for each documented action.)

---

## Pattern Analysis

### Cross-References

Summary connecting documented actions to accountability categories.

**Related profiles:**
- `name-profile` (reason for connection)

**Related skills:**
- `skill-slug` (relevance)

### Severity Assessment

**Immediate harm:** Critical | High | Moderate | Low -- description
**Democratic erosion:** Critical | High | Moderate | Low -- description
**Authoritarian marker:** List specific markers from documented actions

---

## Accountability Status

**Current status:** (see status values below)

**Legal exposure:**
- (specific statute + how it applies to THIS person's documented actions)

**Congressional oversight:**
- (committee + specific jurisdiction over this person's conduct)

**Public accountability:**
- (civil suits, media investigations, organizational tracking relevant to this person)

---

## Truth and Reconciliation Considerations

### Investigation priorities

1. (specific investigative questions arising from THIS person's documented actions)

### Testimony value

(what this person's compelled testimony could uniquely illuminate —
internal deliberations, coordination, decision chains)

### Institutional reform

- (specific reform recommendations tied to THIS person's documented conduct)

---

## Cross-References

**Skills:** `skill-slug`, `skill-slug`

**Related profiles:** `name-profile`, `name-profile`

**Topics:** keyword, keyword, keyword

(Insert investigative trail pointers table from INVESTIGATIVE-TRAILS-PROTOCOL.md)
(Insert factcheck notice — see Step 7 checklist)

## Sources

1. Publication, "Title," Date. URL

---

**Last Updated:** YYYY-MM-DD
**Profile Status:** Active monitoring | Draft
**Next Review:** Monthly | Quarterly

Step 5: Assign priority

Priority must be justified by documented evidence, not by political affiliation or external taxonomies.

Step 6: Apply language standards

Prohibited without a court record or official finding:

Citation format:

**Source:** Publication, "Title," Date. URL

For court records:

**Court record:** *Case Name*, Court, Case No. Docket, outcome, date.

Step 6a: Write the Accountability Status section

The Accountability Status section is the legal and institutional reckoning for each profile. It must be specific to the subject’s documented actions — never generic.

Current status values

Select the most precise status:

For pardoned subjects, always note: the pardon scope (which offenses), whether state-level exposure remains, and whether the pardon was first-term or second-term.

Legal exposure categories

Draw from these categories based on documented actions. Every legal exposure claim must trace to a specific documented action in the profile.

Federal criminal statutes:

State criminal exposure:

Civil liability:

Professional/administrative:

Congressional oversight

Match committees to the subject’s area of conduct:

Public accountability

Document specific ongoing accountability mechanisms:

• Named civil suits (plaintiff v. defendant, court, status)
• Investigative journalism (outlets actively covering)
• Organizational monitoring (CREW, Protect Democracy, Brennan Center, ACLU, specific state organizations)
• State AG investigations
• Professional association proceedings (bar discipline, medical board)

Step 6b: Write the Truth and Reconciliation Considerations section

This section connects the profile to future transitional justice. It draws from the us-truth-reconciliation-roadmap skill’s framework. Every TRC section must be specific to THIS person’s documented actions.

Investigation priorities

Write 3-5 numbered investigative questions specific to this person. Frame as actionable investigation items a future TRC commission would pursue:

Pattern — ask what only this person knows:

• Internal deliberations (what was discussed behind closed doors)
• Decision chains (who ordered what, who authorized what)
• Document trails (what records exist, what was destroyed)
• Coordination (who else was involved, what was the network)
• Awareness (did they know their actions were unlawful)

Examples from existing profiles:

• “Document all career civil servants converted to at-will political appointees under Schedule F; identify removals for political reasons” (Vought)
• “Identify all individuals killed or injured by ICE under Miller’s ‘maximalist’ enforcement directive” (Miller)
• “Document Lake’s editorial decisions and political directives to VOA journalists” (Lake)
• “Full investigation of ICE operations resulting in U.S. citizen deaths” (Miller)

Testimony value

Describe what compelled testimony (under use immunity per 18 U.S.C. § 6002) from this person could uniquely reveal. Focus on:

• Internal deliberations — what policy discussions they participated in
• Coordination — who they communicated with and what was discussed
• Awareness — whether they knew their actions violated law or norms
• Implementation — how policies were operationalized
• Chain of command — who gave orders, who received them

Institutional reform

Propose 3-5 specific reforms tied directly to the conduct documented in this profile. Reforms should prevent recurrence of the specific harm this person caused:

Reform categories (from us-truth-reconciliation-roadmap):

TRC perpetrator category mapping

When writing the TRC section, mentally classify the subject into the TRC perpetrator taxonomy (from us-truth-reconciliation-roadmap):

US-compatible accountability mechanisms

Reference these when framing legal exposure and reform (from TRC roadmap):

1. Use immunity (18 U.S.C. § 6002) — compel testimony with transactional immunity
2. Parallel prosecution — state AGs pursue state-law accountability (separate sovereigns)
3. Section 3 enforcement — statutory insurrection disqualification
4. Professional discipline — bar associations, medical boards, military honor
5. Civil liability — defamation, civil rights, fraud, wrongful death
6. Public-office bans — statutory employment exclusions
7. Financial sanctions — asset recovery, tax fraud, FARA enforcement

Step 7: Verify

After drafting, apply accountability-profile-verification (the 9-step audit):

1. Identify all factual claims
2. Check sources section
3. Tavily research for verification
4. Update citations to primary sources
5. Reclassify unverifiable claims
6. Apply language standards
7. Add or verify factcheck notice
8. Update metadata
9. Run patriot-sanity-check

Step 8: Integrate and publish

Follow patriot-content-authoring for the publish pipeline:

1. make validate — catch frontmatter and linking errors
2. make backlinks SLUG= — find documents that should link to this profile
3. python3 scripts/sync_related.py --apply — reciprocate cross-references
4. git commit — keep knowledge-sync commits separate from code
5. make publish-staging — push to WordPress as draft
6. Review on citizenanalyst.ai — Peter approves
7. Set status: published and make publish

Output quality checklist

Before finalizing any profile:

• [ ] Every claim in Documented Actions has a citation
• [ ] No excluded sources (One6Project, unsourced assertions)
• [ ] Criminal claims use precise language (convicted / indicted / alleged / investigated)
• [ ] Court cases include case name, court, and docket where available
• [ ] Priority (P0/P1/P2) is justified by documented evidence
• [ ] Severity assessment uses consistent scale (Critical / High / Moderate / Low)
• [ ] Accountability Status has specific current status (not generic “Active”)
• [ ] Legal exposure cites specific statutes tied to documented actions (not boilerplate)
• [ ] Congressional oversight names specific committees with jurisdiction
• [ ] Public accountability lists specific suits, outlets, or organizations
• [ ] TRC Investigation priorities are specific to this person (3-5 items)
• [ ] TRC Testimony value describes what only this person’s testimony could reveal
• [ ] TRC Institutional reform proposes reforms preventing recurrence of this person’s conduct
• [ ] Factcheck notice present before Sources section
• [ ] Investigative trail pointers block present (skip for media-only without corporate/litigation footprint)
• [ ] last_updated is current; status is draft until reviewed
• [ ] No prohibited language without supporting court records
• [ ] Related profiles and skills are cross-referenced
• [ ] Sources section has numbered entries with publication, title, date, URL

Cross-references

• accountability-profile-verification — audit and upgrade workflow (runs after this skill)
• patriot-sanity-check — quality gate (runs after verification)
• patriot-content-authoring — publish pipeline
• public-corruption-ombudsman — evidence tier definitions and accountability categories
• us-truth-reconciliation-roadmap — TRC perpetrator categories, accountability mechanisms, and phase framework
• truth-reconciliation-design — TRC 8-dimension design framework (mandate, powers, naming, immunity)
• truth-reconciliation-implementation — TRC operational implementation (hearings, prosecution, reparations)
• corporate-intelligence-investigator — company registry and financial investigation
• tavily-search / tavily-research — web research tools
• public-records-research-specialist — court records, FOIA, official filings
• knowledgebase/profiles/INVESTIGATIVE-TRAILS-PROTOCOL.md — trail block standard
• .cursor/rules/patriot-accountability-profile-standards.mdc — non-negotiable editorial standards