paper trail

noun

|Updated on: 1 Aug 2018

Examples: paper trail in a Sentence

Definition of paper trail

: documents (such as financial records) from which a person's actions may be traced or opinions learned

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Examples of paper trail in a Sentence

They covered up the fraud and were careful not to leave a paper trail.

Recent Examples of paper trail from the Web

McGahn and others told Trump that Kavanaugh did have a paper trail from his time investigating President Bill Clinton in the 1990s and from the Bush White House that would be parsed by Democrats.

— author: ashley parker, robert costa, Anchorage Daily News, "‘All a little misdirection’: Inside Trump’s sometimes-wavering decision to nominate Kavanaugh," 11 July 2018
McGahn and others told Trump that Kavanaugh did have a paper trail from his time investigating President Bill Clinton in the 1990s and from the Bush White House that would be parsed by Democrats.

— ashley parker and robert costa, chicagotribune.com, "Inside Trump's sometimes wavering decision on Brett Kavanaugh," 11 July 2018
In years of public service — including work for the independent counsel investigation of President Bill Clinton, on the 2000 Florida recount and as a White House aide to George W. Bush — Judge Kavanaugh generated a lengthy paper trail.

— katie benner, New York Times, "Rosenstein Asks Prosecutors to Help With Kavanaugh Papers in Unusual Request," 11 July 2018
Kethledge has a shorter paper trail than either of the others, which might make confirmation easier, but which makes some conservative activists uneasy.

— david lauter, latimes.com, "As Trump readies Supreme Court pick, Democrats prepare a fight even though a loss is likely," 6 July 2018
Records can be dangerous in court confirmations, and partisan politics offer the temptation to avoid nominees with long paper trails.

— j.d. vance, WSJ, "The Case for Brett Kavanaugh," 2 July 2018
Rivera said even if there were to be a computer hack, the integrity of the vote is backed by a paper trail overseen by election workers and party monitors.

— andrea rodriguez, chicagotribune.com, "Ahead of Mexico's presidential election, fears and warnings over possible fraud," 29 June 2018
Caskey said Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who recently led an ill-fated presidential task force investigating voter fraud, has always favored purchasing machines with paper trails.

— greg gordon, kansascity, "Voting machines in 14 states — including Kansas — are highly vulnerable | The Kansas City Star," 3 Apr. 2018
Their struggle to trace dozens of supply lines across 35 states, on a paper trail that often may actually be on paper, demonstrates the limits of tracing food by methods rooted in another century.

— geoffrey mohan, The Seattle Times, "Could blockchain have solved the mystery of the romaine lettuce E. coli outbreak?," 3 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'paper trail.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.