The Standing Record

This is the Standing Record for August 2, 2026. We recorded 1 event from August 1, 2026 that erode our democratic ideals and added 43 more from earlier dates — 54 so far this month, bringing the total archive to 1452. If you saw something happen — yesterday, or any other day — that belongs here, send it to our tip line.

New York Times reveals DOJ subpoenaed freelance journalist over North Korea SEAL Team 6 reporting

Event: August 1, 2026 Location: Newport News, Virginia Jurisdiction: Federal Abuses: Press retaliation

The New York Times reported on August 1, 2026 that the Justice Department had subpoenaed freelance journalist Matthew Cole, seeking two years of his notes and grand-jury testimony to identify sources for his reporting on a failed 2019 Navy SEAL Team 6 mission in North Korea. FBI agents delivered the previously undisclosed grand-jury subpoena to Cole's New York home in February 2026; it was issued by federal prosecutors in Newport News, Virginia. The Times is paying for Cole's legal defense and called the subpoena "another brazen and illegal attack" on journalists.

People & Organizations: - U.S. Department of Justice

Read the full entry: https://standingrecord.com/entries/2026/08/01/federal-press-retaliation-7b553a61/ Primary source: Justice Dept. Subpoenas Times Freelancer in Effort to Identify Sources

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.

• July 1, 2024 — Biden administration began funding Panama's deportation of US-bound migrants
• January 20, 2025 — United States began mass unwritten third-country deportations to Mexico under Trump
• February 2, 2025 — Panama accepted 299 third-country deportees under expanded, unwritten MOU
• February 20, 2025 — United States deported 200 third-country migrants to Costa Rica without written agreement
• March 10, 2025 — United States and Honduras signed Asylum Cooperative Agreement capped at 240 transfers
• April 3, 2025 — United States redirected foreign aid to fund Costa Rica's interception of US-bound migrants
• April 30, 2025 — DHS announced Uzbekistan third-country deportation partnership, first deal of second term
• May 10, 2025 — United States and South Sudan agreed to single deportation flight via diplomatic notes
• May 14, 2025 — United States and Eswatini signed MOU for third-country deportations
• June 3, 2025 — Rwanda agreed to accept up to 250 US deportees for $7.5 million payment
• June 11, 2025 — Kosovo agreed to accept up to 50 third-country deportees from United States
• June 11, 2025 — United States and Guatemala signed agreement diverting Central American migrants
• July 16, 2025 — United States and Ecuador secretly signed Asylum Cooperative Agreement
• July 29, 2025 — United States and Uganda signed asylum transfer deal, later used to fast-track dismissals
• August 14, 2025 — United States and Paraguay signed Safe Third Country Agreement at State Department
• September 5, 2025 — United States deported protected migrants to Ghana under undisclosed third-country deal
• September 10, 2025 — United States and Liberia signed asylum protection-claims agreement
• October 2, 2025 — United States paid Equatorial Guinea $7.5 million to accept deportees with US protections
• October 20, 2025 — United States and Belize signed safe third-country agreement diverting asylum seekers
• November 18, 2025 — United States deported 50 Ukrainians to Poland, transferred them into war zone
• November 19, 2025 — United States and Cabo Verde signed Asylum Cooperative Agreement diverting asylum seekers
• November 20, 2025 — Sierra Leone agreed to accept US deportees, later described months in chains
• November 25, 2025 — Guyana agreed to accept US third-country deportees despite no refugee treaty status
• December 8, 2025 — United States and Burundi agreed to transfer of nationals flagged as security risks
• December 8, 2025 — United States and Cameroon reached undisclosed third-country deportation agreement
• December 12, 2025 — St. Kitts and Nevis signed CARICOM-only third-country deportation MOU with United States
• December 17, 2025 — Dominica signed third-country deportee agreement with United States after visa threat
• December 19, 2025 — United States and Antigua and Barbuda signed non-binding third-country deportation MOU
• December 24, 2025 — Palau's president signed deportee MOU despite legislature's repeated objections
• December 24, 2025 — United States and DR Congo signed undisclosed third-country removal agreement
• January 11, 2026 — St. Lucia signed non-binding third-country deportee MOU, faced disclosure-timing backlash
• January 30, 2026 — United States and Grenada signed third-country deportation MOU after months of resistance
• February 27, 2026 — Judge found 32 warrantless Operation Midway Blitz arrests violated Castañon Nava consent decree, ordered releases
• March 10, 2026 — Trump administration began forced third-country deportations to Moldova
• April 10, 2026 — USCIS rescinded automatic deferred-action protection for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status youth a second time via Policy Memorandum PM-602-0198
• May 12, 2026 — Dominican Republic reversed refusal, agreed to accept US third-country deportees
• May 13, 2026 — Vance and Oz blamed immigrants for California Medicaid fraud that HHS's own watchdog later traced mainly to corporations
• May 19, 2026 — ICE detained Nashville nursing mother in violation of its own postpartum-detention policy
• June 10, 2026 — Jamaica signed MOU with United States to transit third-country deportees
• July 29, 2026 — ICE deported Arizona detainee to El Salvador with unremoved medical tube despite hospital orders
• July 31, 2026 — CBP contractor Barnard Construction bladed and cleared Texas state trust land in Presidio County without required consent
• July 31, 2026 — Habersham County deputy misused Flock license-plate database for personal, non-law-enforcement searches; fired and arrested
• July 31, 2026 — Federal judge found New York prison system showed 'deliberate indifference' to incarcerated cancer patient's medical needs

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