[Do you have a confidential tip? There are several safe ways to reach out to The Times.]

The documents included sometimes-testy emails between lawyers for the two sides, opinions of medical experts on Mr. Armstrong’s treatment and records from the Ohio probate court that handled his estate.

The package was accompanied by a brief typed note: “While the health system surreptitiously tried to cover this up by requesting court documents be sealed, we felt compelled to share this information with you,” the anonymous tipster wrote. “We hope others can be saved as a result of the dissemination of this information to the public because this American hero did not have to die an untimely death.”

If real, such a settlement would be newsworthy for several reasons, including these two: First, just about any significant development in the life or death of a public figure of Mr. Armstrong’s historic stature is news. Second, the sealing of legal settlements is an old and contentious practice, because the secrecy sometimes deprives the public of important information — say, a potentially lethal flaw in a consumer product — and leaves in place hazards that could be corrected.

But before we could consider publishing a story based on the documents, we would have to authenticate them. Anonymous tips are welcome, but they are also challenging: You have no idea who the source is, which means the person could be a hoaxster feeding you fabricated documents. So we were pleased to discover that the probate court records, though stamped “Filed under seal,” were available online to anyone who knew where to look. They confirmed the authenticity of the submitted material. A few days after the envelope arrived at The Times, we published an article about what was inside.