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How Changes Are Confirmed

This bulletin compares whole agency lists, not chosen names. Every row of each file is compared with the same row in the previous good copy of that file. A change is printed only when two copies bracket it.

Copies and Checks

  • A copy is one dated download of an agency file: from the agency site, from an Internet Archive capture of the same URL, or from the MEF data lake's last ingest. Each copy is hashed with SHA-256; the hashes are on the researcher tier.
  • A copy must parse, carry its required columns, and hold at least 95% of the rows of the previous good copy. A copy that fails is kept on file and produces nothing.
  • A copy below the row threshold produces no removals. A copy whose key fields change fill rate by more than 20 points (a sign of a format change at the source) produces no removals and no edits.
  • When removals exceed 2% of the earlier copy, they are held for human review rather than printed. When additions or edits exceed 10% of the earlier copy (the sign of a date or key format change at the source), they are held too. A held total is never printed as a finding; the page says what was held and why.
  • A file seen only once is a baseline. It produces no entries until a second copy arrives.

Change Types

  • Delisting: an OFAC SDN or non-SDN entry present in one copy and absent from the next.
  • Registrant termination and foreign principal termination: a FARA termination date that was blank in one copy and filled in the next. The agency date is the date DOJ entered, which can precede the copy by months.
  • Revocation: a row added to the IRS Automatic Revocation of Exemption List; the reason code is the statute the list implements, IRC 6033(j). Reinstatement: a reinstatement date filled in.
  • Restatement: an ED Section 117 row withdrawn, or its amount, dates, country or type revised, between two releases. Releases often respell labels (for example "Restricted Gift" to "Restricted or Conditional Gift", or "KOREA" to "SOUTH KOREA"). A move is treated as a label change, and is not printed, only when both labels name the same thing (same words, spelling or a listed synonym) and the move is systematic: it retires the old label, covers 90% of its rows, or covers ten or more rows. A move between two different names, such as "PANAMA" to "PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES", is printed as a restatement.

Official Notice

Each entry links the agency notice where one exists: a DOJ filing that the DOJ document index ties to the same foreign principal, the OFAC Recent Actions page that carries the entry's identifier or full name, the IRS list itself. Where none is located the entry says so in a fixed form: "none found in" the named sources "on" the search date. No notice is required for many of these changes.

The DOJ index rarely names the principal on a filing. FARA entries then also show the nearest registrant filing, the Supplemental Statement or Amendment stamped closest to the change, labeled "not matched". It is a lead for the reader to open, not a notice of the termination.

Base Rates

FARA and IRS figures are weekly totals by the date each agency gives, over the 52 weeks before the bulletin date; the current week is shown as a share of that mean. DOJ enters many FARA terminations weeks or months after the date it enters, so the latest weeks fill in later and the current week's share runs low. Section 117 releases are compared with the mean of earlier releases. OFAC figures begin with the first bracketed pair of copies; until a second pair exists OFAC gets a one-line note, not a chart. The headline gives FARA terminations dated this week against the 52-week mean. The first screen uses one definition: the FARA terminations new in the latest DOJ file, split into those dated this week and those dated earlier. The figures under the headline, the crimson bar and the list beside them carry the same numbers, and the build stops if any figure differs from the length of the list it labels. The FARA chart shows the last six weeks on a labelled scale whose top tick sits above the mean, each value printed once over its bar; crimson marks the current period in every chart and nothing else. Below, a separate band gives the terminations that first appeared in the latest DOJ file, whatever date they carry, and splits them by date with the same marks the charts use. Under it, all 52 weeks share an axis cut just above the ordinary weeks: the one or two weeks at least twice as tall as the next are cut at the top with a white break and their values printed, and the caption gives the median week, since those spikes lift the mean. Hatched bars, in both charts, are terminations with earlier dates that first appeared in the latest DOJ file, so late entry shows week by week. In the agency charts the current period is the crimson bar on a lightly shaded column, with a dot and its value printed even when it is zero; a bar more than 2.5 times the next tallest runs off the scale, marked with a slanted white axis break and its value printed, so one bulk posting does not flatten the other weeks; the line under the chart names it, and the mean still includes it. Each agency section gives the same number as its chip and its list, and says which changed rows it leaves out; entries with no official notice share one line per file instead of one per row. Below the first screen, the bulletin shows this week's termination as it stands in the DOJ bulk file, as a card of its fields with dates set in the page style; for a foreign principal the registrant name and address columns are left out.

The Latest copies band shows the newest pair of copies of each agency file and the number of entries between them, the same number its section prints under By agency.

Names

Organizations are named as filed. Private individuals are named on the researcher tier only; on the public tier their names are withheld, including inside changed-field values. A FARA registration number and the DOJ filing link stay on the public entry: both are public federal documents and may name the person. Names link to MEF research by name where an entity page exists.

Evidence

Agency files are cited by URL and version date. MEF's hashes corroborate; the Internet Archive capture list for each notice and source file is staged for submission at publication.

Method version Oct 17, 2026.