– 24 entries
Trump Administration Data and Record Suppression Campaign
Federal agencies across the government suppressed, deleted, or restricted access to public records and research, including shuttering a decades-old CIA reference publication, purging official social-media history, and blocking publication of a completed vaccine-effectiveness study. The episode documents a cross-agency pattern of limiting public access to government data and research.
Across 2026, federal agencies systematically suppressed, deleted, or restricted access to public records and official research. The CIA shuttered its World Factbook after more than 60 years; the State Department purged all pre-2025 official social-media posts; the Interior Department flagged hundreds of National Park signs on slavery, civil rights, and climate for removal; the CDC blocked publication of a cleared vaccine-effectiveness study; NIAID barred U.S. scientists from communicating with the WHO during active outbreaks; the DOJ scrubbed January 6 conviction records from public releases; and the White House halted publication of AI model safety evaluations by the federal AI-testing unit CAISI. This episode collects entries documenting the administration's cross-agency campaign to limit public access to official government data and research; it should absorb future entries as additional suppression actions are recorded.
2026 Events (22)
Education Department stripped nonbinary-student data from civil rights collection, dropped decade-old summary report
On September 4, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights released its 2023-24 Civil Rights Data Collection with nonbinary-student data stripped from all 37 published files, citing President Trump's January 2025 executive order recognizing only two sexes. The department also eliminated the nonbinary-student category from the next collection cycle and discontinued the "First Look Report," the simplified public-summary format it had published for over a decade, leaving only raw data files for release.
NOAA ended federal funding and coordination for the Arctic Report Card, jeopardizing its future publication
On August 10, 2026, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration informed editors of its Arctic Report Card — a peer-reviewed annual assessment of Arctic climate change compiled with more than 100 scientists from around the world over the report's 20-year history — that it was ending federal funding and coordination support for the publication. NOAA said the underlying data it has historically contributed would remain publicly available but confirmed it would no longer provide coordinating editors or fund the report's web presence, external peer review, graphics, or public rollout, leaving the report's authors uncertain whether the 2026 edition can be produced. The move follows other Trump administration cuts to federal science, including efforts to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the termination of the National Science Board.
EEOC voted 2-1 to advance proposed rule rescinding 60-year employer demographic reporting requirement
On July 21, 2026, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission voted 2-1 along party lines to advance a Trump administration proposal to eliminate the EEO-1 reporting requirement, under which employers with 100 or more workers have submitted annual demographic data on staff sex, race, and ethnicity since 1966. The proposed rule would also end reporting for state and local governments with 100 or more employees; it will be published in the Federal Register for a 30-day public comment period, with a public hearing scheduled for August 11, 2026.
Intercept and ProPublica investigation reveals Pentagon under Hegseth gutted civilian protection unit and abandoned civilian harm-tracking database
Under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the Pentagon's Civilian Protection Center of Excellence was cut from 40 staff in January 2025 to nine by the end of 2025, and the civilian harm records database was abandoned during a department-wide restructuring. A May 2026 Pentagon inspector general report found the remaining civilian-protection efforts "largely inactive" and concluded the U.S. could not adequately protect civilians in conflict zones or track harm when it occurred. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and nine colleagues warned Hegseth that gutting civilian harm mitigation capacity had left the administration "potentially in violation of federal law."
Intercept investigation found Pentagon withheld dozens of Iran-strike service-member injuries while official casualty count undercounted wounded
On July 20, 2026, The Intercept reported that the Pentagon had been withholding injury data from Iran strikes, with a U.S. official saying the wounded count was "far more" than publicly disclosed and that the official Defense Casualty Analysis System recorded significantly fewer casualties than actual figures. Secretary of Defense Hegseth's office actively discouraged media inquiries about new casualties, and Pentagon spokesperson Parnell dismissed New York Times reporting on the concealed injuries as "baseless and malicious." Under press scrutiny the following day, Parnell confirmed that nearly 100 service members had been injured since July 7, while the official DCAS database continued to show far fewer.
Navy barred release of sailors' service history in sweeping new press access restriction
On July 16, 2026, the Navy's top spokesman, Rear Admiral John Robinson, issued a policy removing all public-facing information about commanding officers from Navy platforms. The Chief of Naval Personnel subsequently expanded the policy, directing the service to deny journalists and the public access to any sailor's service history — including unit assignments, awards, and service status — information that Pentagon policy classifies as normally releasable. The restriction was reported July 23, 2026 and attributed to broader press-access curbs driven by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
National Park Service replaced the President's House slavery exhibit in Philadelphia overnight, softening Washington's role as enslaver
On July 15, 2026, the National Park Service completed an overnight swap of the interpretive exhibit at the federally owned President's House Site in Philadelphia, installing Trump administration-proposed panels that historians say soften George Washington's role as an enslaver of nine people at the site. Workers replaced the displays "under the cover of darkness," in the mayor's words, days after the Third Circuit ruled that Philadelphia had no legal authority over interpretive content at the federally owned memorial. The new panels devote more space to the early presidency and recast Washington's views on slavery, drawing condemnation from Philadelphia's mayor and civil-rights advocates.
Trump administration appointed climate-science critic Matthew Wielicki to head reconstituted U.S. Global Change Research Program
On July 9, 2026, the Trump administration reconstituted the U.S. Global Change Research Program — the interagency body that produces the congressionally mandated National Climate Assessment — and placed it under Matthew Wielicki, a former University of Alabama geochemist who describes himself as a "professor in exile" and routinely disputes mainstream climate science. The program's office had been closed and its website taken dark in mid-2025; Wielicki will now oversee the coordination of federal climate research across more than a dozen agencies.
DOT directed FHWA staff to strip bike lane safety data from federal websites
On July 9, 2026, Federal Highway Administration staff received an internal email directing them to remove bike lane references and related safety materials from FHWA websites, following Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's July 7 public statement branding Biden-era bike lane funding as "DEI." The directive led to the removal of bike lanes and speed cameras from FHWA's "Proven Safety Countermeasures" list and the takedown of the Pedestrian and Bicycle Crash Analysis Tool (PBCAT), eliminating resources used by safety engineers to reduce crash fatalities on U.S. roads.
U.S. Department of Energy deleted 1,600+ energy-saving webpages amid summer heat wave
At least 1,662 U.S. Department of Energy webpages providing guidance on lowering energy costs and protecting the electrical grid during heat waves had gone dark as of July 3, 2026, according to a Guardian analysis of deleted-URL data from the Internet Archive published July 15. More than 300 of the removed pages had drawn over 160,000 views in the preceding 30 days, and at least 18 were removed within days of a proposed DOE rollback of home-appliance efficiency standards. The department did not respond to questions about when or why the pages were removed.
Education Department withheld its 2023-24 Civil Rights Data Collection six months past its publication deadline
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.
EPA issued draft guidance departing from its Biden-era assessment of PFAS cancer risk in farmland sewage sludge
On July 1, 2026, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a draft guidance document that criticized and departed from a Biden-era draft risk assessment finding that applying PFAS-contaminated sewage sludge to farmland posed cancer and other health risks. The guidance, signed by EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Jess Kramer, called the earlier assessment's assumptions "too disconnected from real-world conditions" and replaced its findings with voluntary recommendations. Environmental advocates said the move abandoned EPA's duty to regulate the "forever chemicals."
Reuters exclusive reveals White House suppressed ODNI voting machine vulnerability report for months ahead of 2026 midterms
White House officials delayed the release of an unclassified Office of the Director of National Intelligence report on voting machine vulnerabilities for months ahead of the November 2026 midterm elections. Reuters reported on June 19, 2026, citing three sources familiar with the matter, that officials internally debated shelving the report over concerns it could undermine Republican voter confidence — and separately that some objected the report did not go far enough in supporting Trump's false claims about the 2020 election. The ODNI assessment examined security gaps in voting machines and recommended remedial measures such as software updates; it did not conclude that any votes had been flipped.
White House orders federal AI-testing unit CAISI to stop publishing model evaluations
Trump administration officials, including National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross, directed the Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI) — the main U.S. government body that tests frontier AI models — to halt publication of its assessments pending implementation of President Trump's June 2, 2026 AI security executive order. The order shifts model evaluation from CAISI's public process toward a classified framework run by national-security agencies, after the agency had already published more than 40 model evaluations that served as a shared public baseline. Companies will still submit models for review, but results will largely remain behind closed doors.
DOJ scrubs Jan. 6 prosecution releases, erasing records of pleas and convictions
In late May 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice mass-deleted news releases from its website detailing federal prosecutions of Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol-attack defendants — including guilty pleas, jury verdicts, and prison-sentence announcements covering portions of the roughly 1,600 cases, with assaults on Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan Police officers and seditious-conspiracy convictions of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders among the purged set. The DOJ's rapid-response social-media account defended the takedown as removing "partisan propaganda" from the prior administration. The formerly accessible URLs now return "Page not found" errors.
NIAID bars U.S. disease scientists from communicating with the WHO during active outbreaks
A May 18, 2026 internal directive from a senior National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases official, obtained by CNN, restricted U.S. infectious-disease researchers to attending World Health Organization meetings only in groups of three or fewer and only in a "listening capacity," with any research questions or countermeasure ideas routed through HHS's chain of command. The limits were imposed during active Ebola and Hantavirus responses; current and former officials called barring direct scientist-to-scientist coordination during an emerging public-health emergency unprecedented.
FDA blocked publication of its own studies finding COVID-19 and shingles vaccines safe
On May 5, 2026, reporting revealed that FDA officials had blocked the publication of completed agency research concluding that the COVID-19 and shingles vaccines were safe. The findings contradicted the vaccine-skeptical stance of the current HHS and FDA leadership. The suppression was first reported by The New York Times and confirmed by additional outlets.
CDC blocks publication of cleared MMWR study showing COVID vaccine effectiveness
A CDC scientific report finding that the 2025–2026 COVID-19 vaccine roughly halved healthy adults' risk of emergency-department visits and hospitalizations was scheduled to run in the agency's flagship Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on March 19, 2026, after clearing internal scientific review. Acting CDC Director Jay Bhattacharya blocked its publication, objecting to the study's test-negative design — a methodology the CDC has long used to measure vaccine effectiveness and that appeared in an MMWR flu-vaccine study the prior month. A former CDC immunization director called blocking an already-cleared, scheduled MMWR report unprecedented.
AP investigation revealed DHS, ICE, State Department and USCIS immigration data had gone stale amid Trump's deportation push
An Associated Press investigation published March 15, 2026 found that federal immigration-enforcement data from the Department of Homeland Security, ICE, the State Department, and USCIS had gone stale or stopped updating amid the Trump administration's mass-deportation push. DHS's Office of Homeland Security Statistics had not updated its monthly enforcement reports since early 2025, ICE's arrest/removal dashboard had not updated past January 2025, and State Department and USCIS statistics had also gone stale, while DHS made inconsistent, unverifiable public claims about deportation totals. Researchers, including the UC Berkeley/UCLA Deportation Data Project, had to pursue FOIA litigation to reconstruct basic enforcement figures.
Interior/NPS database flags hundreds of park signs on slavery, civil rights, climate for removal
An internal Department of the Interior and National Park Service database, authenticated by The Washington Post with current federal employees, flags several hundred signs, exhibits, films, and books across national park sites for removal or revision under President Trump's order to scrub "partisan ideology" and content that "disparages" Americans. Flagged materials include exhibits on slavery, the civil rights movement, Japanese-American internment, racial violence, and climate science — among them at least 30 signs at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. Some materials had already been removed when the database was reported on March 2, 2026, while the department said final decisions on others had not been made.
State Department orders all pre-2025 official X posts removed, accessible only via FOIA
The State Department directed all of its official accounts on X — including those of U.S. embassies and missions, ambassadors, and department bureaus and programs — to remove every post made before President Trump returned to office on January 20, 2025, spanning the Obama, first Trump, and Biden administrations. The posts will be internally archived but taken off public view, with anyone seeking them required to file a Freedom of Information Act request, a break from the usual practice of leaving prior administrations' agency posts publicly visible. A department spokesperson said the goal was to "limit confusion" and to "speak with one voice."
CIA shuts down its World Factbook after more than 60 years, with no warning
On or about February 4, 2026, the CIA abruptly took its World Factbook — the authoritative public reference on the world's countries, published since 1962 and online since 1997 — offline, replacing it with a webpage declaring the publication had "sunset." The agency gave no advance notice and no explanation, declined to comment on the record, and set up redirects that led away from the data while removing the Factbook's historical archives, breaking millions of links used by schools, researchers, and news organizations.
2025 Events (2)
U.S. Agency for International Development adopted blanket "still interested" FOIA policy, threatening to close pending public-records requests
On September 16, 2025, the U.S. Agency for International Development published a Federal Register notice requiring requesters with FOIA requests filed before January 20, 2025 to reconfirm continued interest by October 31, 2025 or have their requests administratively closed. American Oversight warned USAID on October 31, 2025 that the policy exceeded the agency's statutory authority, and renewed the demand after an August 5, 2026 federal court ruling vacated the Department of Energy's nearly identical policy. It remains undocumented whether USAID has closed any requests under the policy.
U.S. Department of Energy adopted blanket "still interested" FOIA policy, closing pending public-records requests
On August 14, 2025, the U.S. Department of Energy published a Federal Register notice requiring requesters with pending Freedom of Information Act requests filed before October 1, 2024 to reaffirm interest within roughly 30 days or have their requests administratively closed. American Oversight sued, and on August 5, 2026 a federal judge vacated the policy as exceeding DOE's statutory authority.