Discord is a messaging and server-based community platform. Originally geared toward gamers, many different groups use Discord to chat and coordinate, from the fandoms of particular influencers to political or advocacy organizations. You can browse and search public servers on the server discovery page. Discord community files and transcripts can be helpful for a number of investigations, e.g.: in 2023, as reported by the Washington Post and Bellingcat, classified documents related to U.S. Military operations and intelligence appeared on two fan-community discords for YouTube creators and a Minecraft community server before spreading across the social web. UnicornRiot collected Discord server transcripts to report on the planning of far-right rallies and neonazi groups. You can search Discord servers for mentions of individuals and their connections, or to look for an individual’s posts.

This database includes both currently incarcerated and released inmates. For any inmate identified, look for the corresponding criminal cases in PACER.

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) collects campaign finance disclosure forms from candidates for federal office. In the “Campaign finance data” dropdown menu, choose “Look up contributions from specific individuals” to look for federal campaign contributions by a specific person, such as a candidate, dating back more than 20 years. In the same dropdown menu, select “Committees” to search for a candidate’s official campaign committee and browse both receipts and disbursements. The best way to analyze this data is to export it to Excel and then sort and filter it to search for patterns in the data. Who are the candidate’s largest supporters? Where are they from? What industries do they work in? How has the candidate spent campaign funds? Who are the campaign’s largest vendors? What is the campaign’s total amount of non-itemized disbursements? Also check whether the FEC has sent any Requests for Additional Information (RFAI) to a candidate’s campaign committee. These inquire about potential issues in a campaign committee’s FEC filings and potential violations of regulations, such as donors who may have exceeded contribution limits. In the statement of organization for a candidate’s official campaign committee, the campaign must disclose any joint fundraising committees in which it participates. Joint fundraising committees allow donors to make larger contributions to several candidates at the same time. For example, donors can give up to $6,600 to any one official campaign committee in the 2024 election cycle but can give $19,800 to a joint fundraising committee composed of three different campaigns. From the FEC home page, click on the campaign finance dropdown menu, choose “Spending,” and then click on the “Independent Expenditures” link to search campaign spending by nominally independent political action committees (PACs). The filters in the left hand panel allow you to view only independent expenditures supporting or opposing a specific candidate so that you can identify the key PACs supporting a candidate. “Super” PACs, or independent expenditure-only committees, can raise and spend unlimited funds on expenditures for or against political candidates and are most easily identified through the Independent Expenditures search. Identify the PACs supporting (or opposing) a candidate through Independent Expenditures and then research that committee’s largest contributors, its officers and its vendors. If you are researching a candidate for federal office who previously ran for state or local office, search for campaign finance reports in the relevant jurisdictions as well.

The U.S. General Services Administration maintains this database, which complements the GSA System for Award Management.

Follow the Money, operated by OpenSecrets, aggregates campaign finance data from the federal, state and local level in a single online database. It is a secondary source, and you should verify findings from Follow the Money through the relevant elections authority.

Like the federal procurement database, the General Services Administration maintains SAM. In addition to providing information on public tenders for federal contracts, this database provides information on federal contractors that have been disciplined for misconduct or barred from participating in future public tenders. You will need to create a free account to use this database. When you search for a contractor, be sure to search for active and inactive contractors by using the options in the left-hand panel.