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July 1, 2026

10 entries on this date.

Gov. Jared Polis fired two Colorado clemency board members after they publicly criticized his commutation of Tina Peters

Colorado Governor Jared Polis fired two members of the state's Executive Clemency Advisory Board on July 1, 2026, after they publicly criticized his May 2026 commutation of convicted election denier Tina Peters. Azra Taslimi and Hannah Seigel Proff had participated in the board's two unanimous votes against Peters's clemency application and subsequently co-wrote a Denver Post opinion piece revealing those votes and criticizing the governor's override. Polis stated in termination letters that the two members had "breached the required duty of confidentiality by publicly divulging Board members' votes pertaining to a clemency application."

EPA issued draft guidance departing from its Biden-era assessment of PFAS cancer risk in farmland sewage sludge

On July 1, 2026, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a draft guidance document that criticized and departed from a Biden-era draft risk assessment finding that applying PFAS-contaminated sewage sludge to farmland posed cancer and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."

U.S. Attorney Boutros publicly detailed a sealed Tren de Aragua complaint in violation of a court sealing order

On July 1, 2026, at a Washington press conference alongside acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Andrew Boutros publicly detailed a criminal complaint charging three alleged Tren de Aragua gang members while the complaint was still under a magistrate judge's sealing order. The seal had been signed on June 30 and was not lifted until the following day. A federal magistrate judge later found the disclosure a "clear violation" of her order.

ICE detained as many as 100 people during week-long enforcement operations in Gallatin County, Montana

Over the week of roughly June 25 through July 2, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted a series of enforcement operations across Gallatin County, Montana, detaining an estimated several dozen to more than 100 people, according to local immigrant-resource organizations. Community members reported people being pulled over in their vehicles and detained along with other occupants, including bystanders in the same vehicle, and agents knocking on doors in search of specific individuals. The largest single-day wave, more than 80 detentions, was reported on Wednesday, July 1.

Trump took first flight on Qatar-gifted Air Force One without congressional consent

On July 1, 2026, President Trump took his first flight on a Boeing 747-8 luxury aircraft gifted by the government of Qatar, using it as Air Force One for a trip to North Dakota. The plane, valued at approximately $400 million, was put into presidential service without the consent of Congress, which the Foreign Emoluments Clause requires before a federal officeholder may accept gifts of value from a foreign state. The Senate had passed S.Res.244 formally withholding that consent, and the House had passed H.Res.410 demanding Trump submit his plans for the gift to Congress.

Executive Office of the President awarded a no-bid contract to Parscale's Campaign Nucleus for Freedom 250 sites that collected visitors' data

The Freedom 250 websites — including the government-redirect domain 250.gov and the event-registration platform events.freedom250.org — were built and operated by the Executive Office of the President's National Design Studio and by Campaign Nucleus, a firm founded by former Trump campaign digital director Brad Parscale. The sites tracked visitors' precise geolocation and logged form-entered personal information through an analytics script that was quietly removed in mid-June 2026 after The Guardian sought comment, while Campaign Nucleus separately collected registrants' names, ZIP codes, and mobile numbers and scores individuals for voter-targeting purposes. On July 1, 2026, the Executive Office of the President awarded Campaign Nucleus a non-competitive $66,000 blanket purchase agreement, running through 2031 and described only as "EVENT PLANNING."

NBC News reveals White House task force gathered thousands of 2020 election intelligence documents for planned declassification

On July 1, 2026, NBC News reported that a White House task force had been secretly collecting thousands of pages of intelligence and law enforcement documents related to the 2020 presidential election, with plans to declassify some material to support President Trump's claims of election fraud. The task force, staffed by loyalists including former Trump national security aide Derek Harvey and right-wing writer John Solomon, drew from the CIA, the NSA, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI, and the Justice Department. Courts and federal investigators have repeatedly found no evidence of fraud sufficient to alter the 2020 results.

Trump DOJ refused to renew federal grant for Minnesota's Conviction Review Unit, forcing its closure

The Trump administration's Department of Justice declined to renew a federal grant sustaining Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison's Conviction Review Unit, forcing the unit's suspension on July 1, 2026. The grant—originally $300,000 in 2020 and renewed at $500,000 in 2023—was denied by the Trump DOJ when the unit applied for another renewal in 2025. Over its five-year operation, the CRU overturned three wrongful convictions and reviewed more than 1,000 applications from people claiming wrongful conviction.

DOJ sued Virginia and California seeking to overturn state assault-weapons and pistol restrictions

On July 1, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice filed lawsuits against Virginia and California, alleging that firearm restrictions newly enacted in both states violate the Second Amendment. The Virginia suit challenges Senate Bill 749's ban on AR-15-style rifles and magazines over 15 rounds and asks the court to overturn contrary Fourth Circuit precedent, while the California suit targets Assembly Bill 1127's convertible-pistol ban and the state's handgun Roster.

Gov. Ron DeSantis designated CAIR Florida and the Muslim Brotherhood as domestic terrorist organizations under new state law

On July 1, 2026, Governor Ron DeSantis announced Florida's first domestic terrorist designations under the newly effective House Bill 1471, naming the Council on American-Islamic Relations Florida, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Antifa, along with more than 90 foreign terrorist organizations including the Sinaloa Cartel and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The law authorizes the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's chief to recommend designations that trigger criminal penalties for material support and exclusion from public funding. A federal court had blocked DeSantis's December 2025 executive order making the same CAIR designation, finding it violated the First Amendment; the legislature then enacted HB 1471 as a statutory vehicle to accomplish the same result.