The Standing Record

This is the Standing Record for July 3, 2026. We recorded 5 events from July 2, 2026 and added 17 more from earlier dates — 51 so far this month, bringing the total archive to 601. If you saw something happen — yesterday, or any other day — that belongs here, send it to our tip line.

FBI Director Patel ordered 260 analysts from all field offices to surge on 2020 Georgia election investigation

Event: July 2, 2026 Location: Washington, D.C. Jurisdiction: Federal Abuses: Politicized investigations, Weaponizing the Justice Department

On July 2, 2026, FBI Director Kash Patel ordered every FBI field office to immediately contribute intelligence analysts to a priority investigation in Atlanta focused on individuals connected to the 2020 Georgia presidential election. An unclassified memo from the Directorate of Intelligence and Criminal Division specified a total of 260 analysts, assigned each office a quota of records checks to complete by July 17, and authorized overtime including weekends and holidays. The investigation was based on a referral from Kurt Olsen, a White House official heading the administration's election integrity portfolio, despite Georgia's 2020 result having been confirmed by both a machine recount and a full hand recount of every county in the state.

People & Organizations: - Kash Patel (FBI Director) - Federal Bureau of Investigation

Read the full entry: https://standingrecord.com/entries/2026/07/02/federal-politicized-investigations-c413b4cd/ Primary source: FBI orders field offices to send analysts to Atlanta for 2020 election investigation, sources say

DOJ indicted former Olympian David Hearn on felony charge for touching Reflecting Pool liner, serving Trump's vandalism narrative

Event: July 2, 2026 Location: Washington, D.C. Jurisdiction: Federal Abuses: Weaponizing the Justice Department, Selective prosecution

On July 2, 2026, a federal grand jury indicted former U.S. Olympic canoeist David Hearn, 67, on a felony destruction of government property charge after he was arrested on June 19 for reaching into the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to feel a partially detached piece of the blue liner installed during Trump's $14.7 million renovation. U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announced the felony charge at a press conference, claiming Hearn had "forcefully and violently" pulled up the liner, a characterization Hearn and his lawyers disputed. The felony charge carries a maximum sentence of ten years in prison; Hearn's attorneys called it "outrageous" and "a misuse of government power" designed to provide political cover for the administration's renovation failure.

People & Organizations: - Jeanine Pirro (U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia) - U.S. Department of Justice

Read the full entry: https://standingrecord.com/entries/2026/07/02/federal-weaponizing-doj-8e356050/ Primary source: Former Olympic canoeist indicted for allegedly damaging Reflecting Pool

Senatobia police refused to release the incident report and camera footage of the shooting that killed 1-year-old Kohen Wiley

Event: July 2, 2026 Location: Senatobia, Mississippi Jurisdiction: Local Abuses: Suppression of government data, Shielding officers from prosecution

Nearly three weeks after a Senatobia police officer fatally shot 1-year-old Kohen Wiley outside a Walmart, city police and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation refused repeated public-records requests for the incident report, body-worn and dashboard camera footage, and store surveillance video. A Senatobia sergeant declined to release the incident report despite Mississippi law making such records public, and the family's attorneys said every footage request had been denied.

People & Organizations: - Senatobia Police Department (refused to release incident report and camera footage) - Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (withheld and heavily redacted shooting records)

Read the full entry: https://standingrecord.com/entries/2026/07/02/local-suppression-of-government-data-18ed1995/ Primary source: Senatobia police stonewall requests for details of officer shooting that killed 1-year-old outside Walmart

Justice Department refused a federal judge's order to justify Epstein-file redactions, moving to delay or dissolve it

Event: July 2, 2026 Location: Washington, D.C. Jurisdiction: Federal Abuses: Ignoring statutory requirements, Suppression of government data

On July 2, 2026, hours before a court-ordered deadline, the U.S. Justice Department declined to produce unredacted Epstein investigative files and asked U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan to delay his order two months or dissolve it, arguing it had not violated the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Sullivan had sided with journalist Katie Phang, ordering the Department to justify certain redactions, produce records supporting them, and publish the redaction log the law requires. The Department said it "strongly disagrees" with the order and would appeal.

People & Organizations: - U.S. Department of Justice - Todd Blanche (Acting Attorney General)

Read the full entry: https://standingrecord.com/entries/2026/07/02/federal-ignoring-statutory-requirements-2ea35794/ Primary source: Justice Department defends decision not to release, unredact more Epstein files

Education Department withheld its 2023-24 Civil Rights Data Collection six months past its publication deadline

Event: July 2, 2026 Location: Washington, D.C. Jurisdiction: Federal

As of July 2, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education had not released its Civil Rights Data Collection for the 2023-24 school year — the federal dataset used to hold schools accountable on discipline, access, and discrimination — six months after its own December 2025 publication deadline. The department did not respond to repeated inquiries about the delay, which came as it cut roughly half its staff and announced plans to move the Office for Civil Rights, home to the data-collection team, to the Justice Department.

Read the full entry: https://standingrecord.com/entries/2026/07/02/federal-suppression-of-government-data-ad0843a6/ Primary source: Federal civil rights data holds schools accountable. Under Trump, it's 6 months late

Filling out the archive

We're steadily backfilling the archive — working backward through the record so the timeline is complete, not just current. These are older events we archived yesterday. If you know of something from months or years back that belongs here, send it to our tip line.

• February 29, 2024 — Federal judge held journalist Catherine Herridge in civil contempt and imposed an $800-a-day fine for refusing to reveal a confidential source
• May 20, 2025 — Interior Secretary Burgum ordered National Park Service to review and remove public content deemed to disparage Americans
• August 29, 2025 — EPA fired at least 8 probationary employees who signed dissent letter, overriding internal First Amendment warning
• October 31, 2025 — Education Department issued rule stripping PSLF eligibility from organizations supporting immigrant rights and transgender healthcare
• April 30, 2026 — U.S. Air Force agreed to buy interceptor drones from Powerus, a startup backed by Trump's sons
• May 7, 2026 — DOJ served a sealed grand jury subpoena on Lucile Packard Children's Hospital seeking transgender minors' medical records
• May 13, 2026 — Louisiana AG Murrill threatened to remove New Orleans mayor, DA, and 5 council members over court clerk fight
• June 9, 2026 — Indiana election officials canceled voter registrations of 981 Hoosiers, including naturalized citizens, under HEA 1264
• June 11, 2026 — Public Citizen investigation reveals Freedom250 funneled $103M through pay-to-play donor tiers, sidelining Congress's America250 commission
• June 14, 2026 — Senatobia, Mississippi police officer fatally shot 1-year-old Kohen Wiley while firing into a car during a shoplifting call
• June 26, 2026 — Justice Department sued Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Minnesota to compel five years of SNAP applicant data
• June 29, 2026 — Arkansas Gov. Sanders announced the state would enforce a SNAP candy-and-soda ban despite a ruling that such bans exceed federal law
• June 29, 2026 — DOJ opened an investigation into Sen. Ruben Gallego's campaign spending days after the Senate Ethics Committee cleared him
• July 1, 2026 — Gov. Jared Polis fired two Colorado clemency board members after they publicly criticized his commutation of Tina Peters
• July 1, 2026 — EPA issued draft guidance departing from its Biden-era assessment of PFAS cancer risk in farmland sewage sludge
• July 1, 2026 — Trump DOJ refused to renew federal grant for Minnesota's Conviction Review Unit, forcing its closure
• July 1, 2026 — Gov. Ron DeSantis designated CAIR Florida and the Muslim Brotherhood as domestic terrorist organizations under new state law