Act II
The Record: 2017–2020
Jan 20, 2017 — Jan 20, 2021
Ten public statements from the first Trump administration. Inauguration crowds, Mexico wall, Mueller exoneration, COVID, election integrity. Assess each claim against the documented record.
10 Claims
Bogost Scale
Phillips Patterns
INSUFFICIENT INFO Verdict
Open File →
Act III
The Interregnum: 2021–2024
Jan 20, 2021 — Jan 20, 2025
January 6th and its aftermath. The classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Four indictments across three jurisdictions. The Raffensperger call, on tape. Two new Phillips patterns — Legal Magic and Victim Inversion — make their debut.
10 Claims
2 New Patterns
Jan 6 Files
Indictment Layer
Open File →
Act IV
The Return: 2024–2026
Jan 20, 2025 — Present
Schedule F. DOGE savings. Birthright citizenship. The Alien Enemies Act. January 6 pardons. Tariffs. Ten claims from the second administration — assessed against statute and public record.
10 Claims
7 New Patterns
Constitutional Layer
Hall of Shame
Open File →
Act V — Nuclear Liquidation
2026 · 2027 · 2028
June 2026 — January 2028 [Projected Dossier]
Four classified dates. Four chapters. Select your entry point and your mode: Clinical, Satire Tier, Turducken, or Reverse Chrono. Four new legal patterns anchored to 18 U.S.C. § 793(e) and 15 U.S.C. § 78u-1.
40 Claims
4 Modes
Legal Patterns
Epilogue
Open Dossier →
New
Act VI — The Second Term
2025–Present
Ten claims from the second term: tariffs, DOGE accounting, birthright citizenship, Federal Reserve independence, Greenland, and more. The patterns are the same. The receipts are current.
10 claims · 2 new patterns · Stakes: everything
Play Act VI →
Bonus — Record Forge
Legal Proving Ground
Pro Se Tactical Simulator
A tactical simulator for pro se litigants. Classify legal authority, identify rhetorical patterns, file your receipt. Includes Section VI: identify which statute applies to a hypothetical fact pattern.
Haines Shield
Codex
Section VI
Docket Log
Enter Forge →
🔐 EPSTEIN MODE
Redacted Files
Act III · Classified Edition
Key evidence blacked out. Click to reveal — but every reveal costs you. Achievements, personal records, a Steam-style leaderboard, and eight fictional challengers waiting to be beaten. Share your score.
15 Achievements
Redaction Mechanic
Leaderboard
Score Multiplier
🔐 Enter Redacted Files →
How the Game Works
Each round presents a public statement. Your job is to assess it against the documented record using the same analytical tools a fact-checker, pro se litigant, or legal researcher would use.
01
Read the Claim
A verbatim or paraphrased public statement, identified by date and source.
02
Assign a Verdict
TRUE, FALSE, MISLEADING, or INSUFFICIENT INFO. Each is a first-class analytical verdict — not a guess.
03
Grade the Evidence
The Bogost Citation Scale rates evidentiary quality: STRONG, CAREFUL, WEAK, or INSUFFICIENT.
04
Name the Pattern
The Phillips Pattern Library identifies the rhetorical mechanism: Selective Summary, Whataboutism, The Big Lie, and more.
About This Project
DECLASSIFIED is a fact-checking game built on the principle that the evidentiary record is the arbiter — not political affiliation, not punditry, not personality. Every verdict in the game is anchored to a primary source: court decisions, statutes, official transcripts, government data, or verified journalism.
The game was built by Sean McKendry, a pro se federal civil litigant and independent researcher based in Lansing, Michigan. The same evidentiary discipline applied in the game — bone-honest, statute-heavy, no overreach — is the same standard applied to his own legal work.
The Phillips Pattern Library, the Bogost Citation Scale, and the Benkler Difficulty Calibration are original analytical frameworks developed for the game. They are not affiliated with the scholars whose names they reference; those names honor intellectual influences, not endorsements.
Read the full about page →
From the Dossier Files
Dispatches from players, readers, analysts, and people who found one book through the other. All characters fictional. All analytical outcomes documented. All primary sources still on the record.
The Analytical Observer — On Both Works
"The Footnotes Don't Relent in Either Format"
"Sean McKendry has built two delivery mechanisms for the same argument: a game that gives you forty-five minutes and a book that gives you four years. The game teaches the methodology. The book applies it at full length. Between them, 431 footnotes and ten verdicts leave approximately no exits. Whether you start with DECLASSIFIED or The Holy Bible of Donald J. Trump — Annotated and Unredacted, you end up in the same place: having checked the source and feeling mildly furious about it."
★★★★★
Two-Platform Hall of Shame Member
I found the game first. I found the book after I tried to rebut the game and the book was already there waiting for me with 431 footnotes. I want to be clear that I read all 431 footnotes looking for the mistake. There is no mistake. I am now in the Hall of Shame on the game AND my nephew has a copy of the book with certain passages highlighted specifically for me. I have not spoken to him at Thanksgiving for two years. The website is still up to five stars from me and I am furious about both of those facts.
★★★★★
Legal Professional · Both Works Reviewed
The game taught the Bogost Citation Scale. The book applies it to 78,000 words of primary documentation. In thirty-one years on the federal bench I reviewed a great many briefs. Most of them had fewer footnotes than this manuscript and cost the filing parties considerably more. The methodology is consistent across both works, which is the highest compliment I am willing to give. I am saying nothing further about either one except: five stars, and the Espionage Act analysis in Chapter 14 would survive a Daubert challenge.
★★★★★
Law Student · Clinically Addicted to Both
I found DECLASSIFIED during exam prep and lost eleven hours. I found The Holy Bible of Donald J. Trump — Annotated and Unredacted three weeks later and lost a weekend. The footnote apparatus in the book reads like a brief. The game's Phillips Pattern Library is cited in Footnote 112, which I recognized in the wild at an actual law school moot court argument and had to suppress a reaction. If either of these were a bar prep course I would pass on the first attempt. They are not bar prep. I am using them as bar prep. Something is deeply wrong with me and I have four stars to give the game and five stars to give the book and no more time to explain why.
★★★
Confused by Both · Still Returning
My son gave me the book first. I got to page forty and there were already nineteen footnotes about something called the Presidential Records Act and I put it down and went to the website instead. The website gave me a four-verdict quiz with a progress bar and something called the Phillips Pattern Library and it was somehow easier than the book even though the website also has a dark mode that makes it look like a CIA document. I then went back to the book. I am on page 200 and I have used the footnotes eleven times. I did not expect to use the footnotes. Three stars because I still don't know what SCI stands for but I now know more about executive privilege than my congressman, which my son says is a low bar.
★★★★
Cross-Platform Repeat Offender
I played Act III the same week I finished reading the Interregnum section of the book. The game's ten claims map directly to the book's annotated chapters and reading both in parallel is either the most educational experience available for free on the internet or a sign that I have made some deeply specific choices about how to spend my time. I identified Institutional Delegitimization in my city council meeting on Tuesday. I have not yet decided if this is the game's fault or the book's. Four stars to both. I am going back in.
★★★★★
Rebuttal Document Now 94 Pages
I finished the game and started a rebuttal document. It was seventeen pages. Then I got the book. The book has 431 footnotes. My rebuttal document is now ninety-four pages and I have not yet successfully rebutted a single primary source citation because it is very difficult to rebut something that is a verbatim transcript with a date and a docket number. I want to be clear that I went in skeptical and I remain technically skeptical on two points I have not yet resolved. The Fani Willis chapter needs a reread. Five stars for the game. Five stars for the book. My rebuttal is not done.
★★★★★
Perfect Score (Wrong) · Two Formats
I got every question in Act IV wrong. I then bought the book thinking it would explain how I got every question wrong. The book explained it in 78,000 words. Footnote 47 specifically addresses the exact error in reasoning I had been using for three years to explain pass-through tariff mechanisms. Footnote 47 is four lines long. I have read Footnote 47 eleven times. I got every question wrong on the game and I came away from the book with the distinct impression that I had also been wrong about several things I had not yet been asked about. Five stars. I am furious. The website has permanently altered my epistemology. I did not consent to this.
All player and reader reviews are satirical fiction. Characters are invented. The Holy Bible of Donald J. Trump — Annotated and Unredacted is a real work-in-progress by Sean McKendry, 78,000 words, 431+ footnotes to primary sources. Any resemblance to actual readers, living or repeatedly wrong about inauguration crowds, is coincidental. Footnote 47 is real in spirit.