Given how spread the copies could be, and that we know when the bad actor gained the level of control needed to upset history, or if we want to go further back

Given how spread the copies could be, and that we know when the bad actor gained the level of control needed to upset history, or if we want to go further back when that user started making contributions, it is likely that by comparing many claims we can prove to a reasonable level of assurance¹ that a given version is untouched in that regard. Furthermore the original main maintainer seems to have a repository with an untouched lineage. While true paranoia says they can't be trusted without verification (he could be under external influence, as could anyone) I think we can safely give their claims more credence than those of Honest Ivan. -- [1] to the level where a clean-room implementation is not significantly less likely to be compromised by external influence with bad motives.