The Standing Record

This is the Standing Record for July 4, 2026. We recorded 2 events from July 3, 2026 and added 24 more from earlier dates — 58 so far this month, bringing the total archive to 608. If you saw something happen — yesterday, or any other day — that belongs here, send it to our tip line.

Trump pardoned Adam Kidan, Abramoff-scandal figure and Republican fundraiser host, for his 2005 fraud conviction

Event: July 3, 2026 Location: Washington, D.C. Jurisdiction: Federal

On July 3, 2026, President Trump pardoned Adam Kidan, a former business partner of lobbyist Jack Abramoff who pleaded guilty in 2005 to fraud and conspiracy in the SunCruz gambling-boat scandal and was sentenced to nearly six years in prison. Kidan, who reporting indicates helped host a 2026 Mar-a-Lago fundraiser for a Long Island Republican congressional candidate, was among 11 people granted clemency that day.

Read the full entry: https://standingrecord.com/entries/2026/07/03/federal-pardons-for-allies-or-self-67da9060/ Primary source: Trump pardons 11 people, including several for Clean Air Act violations

Trump pardoned six people prosecuted for Clean Air Act 'defeat device' emissions violations

Event: July 3, 2026 Location: Washington, D.C. Jurisdiction: Federal Abuses: Pardons for allies or self

On July 3, 2026, President Trump announced pardons for six people who had been prosecuted for disabling vehicle emissions controls in violation of the Clean Air Act, describing the cases as an act of "weaponization and stupidity" by federal prosecutors. A lawyer and a lobbyist representing five of the six defendants — Ryan and Wade Lalone, Matt Geouge, Tim Clancy, and Mac Spurlock — identified them to CBS News after the White House declined to release the names. The clemency followed an organized advocacy campaign and came after the Justice Department earlier in 2026 ordered prosecutors to drop all pending "defeat device" cases and after Trump pardoned a similar Wyoming defendant last fall.

People & Organizations: - Donald Trump (President of the United States)

Read the full entry: https://standingrecord.com/entries/2026/07/03/federal-pardons-for-allies-or-self-f67584dd/ Primary source: [Trump announces pardons for pollution violators prosecuted for ](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-announces-pardons-pollution-violators-fixing-their-car/)

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.

• March 25, 2018 — Connecticut prison officers struck and pepper-sprayed inmate J'Allen Jones, who died; medical examiner ruled the death a homicide
• November 7, 2024 — Hinds County DA Jody Owens accepted at least $115,000 in cash bribes and facilitated payments to Jackson officials
• April 8, 2025 — Trump bought 327 stocks, including Apple and Nvidia, on April 8, 2025, one day before announcing a tariff pause that sent markets soaring
• September 5, 2025 — BIA stripped immigration judges of bond authority, mandating detention without hearings in Matter of Yajure Hurtado
• October 2, 2025 — Clay County school board fired teacher Kelly Brock-Sanchez over off-duty Charlie Kirk posts as Florida sought to revoke her license
• January 12, 2026 — ICE arrested NYC Council employee Rafael Rubio at a routine asylum interview and detained him 158 days despite his valid TPS
• April 8, 2026 — Mississippi Gov. Reeves signed SB 2114 directing state police to compile a registry of undocumented residents and criminalizing unlawful presence
• April 23, 2026 — Pentagon fired Stars and Stripes ombudsman Jacqueline Smith after columns criticizing its restrictions on the newspaper
• April 23, 2026 — Georgia Attorney General's office indicted three Stop Cop City activists 47 months after a 2022 protest
• April 27, 2026 — Interior terminated Golden State Wind's $120M Morro Bay offshore lease via settlement of never-filed litigation
• June 17, 2026 — Interior agreed to pay Invenergy $765 million from the Treasury Judgment Fund to cancel four offshore wind leases
• June 19, 2026 — Mexican detainee Felix Alcorta-Rodriguez, 63, died in ICE custody at Webb County Detention Center in Laredo; 20th ICE death of 2026
• June 23, 2026 — U.S. State Department bypassed congressional review of a $700 million fighter-engine sale to Turkey without invoking emergency authority
• June 23, 2026 — ICE detained Colombian asylum-seeker Diana Socha Torres and her 8-year-old son at their Wisconsin Dells home, transferring them to a Texas facility
• June 23, 2026 — Department of Education opened Title IX investigations into Maryland state agency and three school districts over trans-inclusive policies
• June 24, 2026 — Trump directed the Justice Department to investigate oil companies for alleged gas-price gouging
• June 26, 2026 — Acting DNI Pulte named RNC election operative Christina Norton, who lacks intelligence experience, ODNI chief of staff
• June 26, 2026 — Commerce Department directed NOAA to review California's coastal program after the state delayed oil, pipeline, and spaceport projects
• June 28, 2026 — New York Times investigation revealed White House privately pressured Merit Systems Protection Board over federal-firing ruling
• June 28, 2026 — U.S. ambassador to Belgium accepted a jeweled gold ring for Trump from a diamond group that won U.S. tariff relief
• June 30, 2026 — ICE arrested Guatemalan man at New York City immigration court in defiance of federal court orders, including a June 23 nationwide ban
• July 1, 2026 — DOJ sued Virginia and California seeking to overturn state assault-weapons and pistol restrictions
• July 2, 2026 — Justice Department refused a federal judge's order to justify Epstein-file redactions, moving to delay or dissolve it
• July 2, 2026 — Education Department withheld its 2023-24 Civil Rights Data Collection six months past its publication deadline