This is where trust comes in. Most people need a narrative and a story to follow the threads; they are not experts in determining what the data does or does not tell us, and someone has to attempt to do so.
I'd give ProPublica the benefit the doubt here. They have the resources to hire the right talent, and that talent is likely empowered to keep conjecture at bay or properly disclosed.
And, of course, you're unlikely to get all the data. Stories like this will nearly always, in some form or fashion, be based on a somewhat incomplete snapshot of data or documents. But taking that data and corroborating it with what we do know is often enough to add validity to the assumptions that are being reached by a publication such as ProPublica.
I'd give ProPublica the benefit the doubt here. They have the resources to hire the right talent, and that talent is likely empowered to keep conjecture at bay or properly disclosed.
And, of course, you're unlikely to get all the data. Stories like this will nearly always, in some form or fashion, be based on a somewhat incomplete snapshot of data or documents. But taking that data and corroborating it with what we do know is often enough to add validity to the assumptions that are being reached by a publication such as ProPublica.