2,119 events on record Subscribe September 16, 2026
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Timeline

Every entry in the archive, ordered by event date. Page 23 of 43, showing February 5, 2026 to February 20, 2026. Pages contain 50 entries each; entries for a given date may continue on the next or previous page.

2026 Events (1,295)

February(96)

DOJ fired judge-appointed interim US Attorney James Hundley hours after his unanimous EDVA appointment

On February 20, 2026, the federal judges of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia unanimously appointed defense attorney James Hundley as interim U.S. Attorney, succeeding Trump loyalist Lindsey Halligan, whose own appointment a federal judge had ruled invalid three months earlier. Hours later, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced on social media that Hundley was fired, writing "EDVA judges do not pick our US Attorney. POTUS does."

Interior's Solicitor's Office falsely denied holding Karen Budd-Falen ethics records, then released redacted files after press inquiry

Interior Department ethics officials told a researcher for the Center for Western Priorities in writing that a "thorough search" had found no ethics records for senior appointee Karen Budd-Falen, then reversed that claim hours later once press inquiries followed, releasing 91 heavily redacted pages on February 20, 2026. The released documents omitted an updated ethics recusal for Budd-Falen's current tenure and redacted her full list of former legal clients, even though her own financial disclosure lists a dozen such clients from the year before she rejoined government.

Memphis Police coordinated with ICE to detain 18-year-old soccer player during traffic stop, contradicting mayor's account

On February 20, 2026, the Memphis Police Department and Tennessee Highway Patrol coordinated with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations unit during a traffic stop in Memphis, Tennessee, leading to the two-month immigration detention of 18-year-old high school soccer player Yasser Lopez Soza. Video obtained by MLK50 through public-records requests shows an HSI agent riding along in the MPD cruiser that made the stop, contradicting Memphis Mayor Paul Young's public account that federal immigration officials had arrived only after independently monitoring police radio. A federal judge ordered Lopez Soza's immediate release in April 2026, finding the Department of Homeland Security had failed to provide bond as required by law.

Federal judge stripped Arizona prison agency of control over inmate healthcare, ordering receivership

On February 19, 2026, U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver ordered Arizona's prison healthcare system into court receivership, finding the Department of Corrections had violated 131 of 154 standards required under a 2023 permanent injunction and that 14 years of litigation, contempt fines, and monitoring had failed to produce compliance. The 83-page order authorizes an independent receiver to take over healthcare operations across Arizona's nine state prisons, with authority to hire and fire staff, renegotiate or terminate the roughly $300 million NaphCare contract, set budgets, and override department administrators. ADCRR called the order "exorbitantly expensive" and "unnecessary" and said it would appeal.

Border Patrol leaves near-blind Rohingya refugee in freezing Buffalo lot; death ruled homicide

On February 19, 2026, U.S. Border Patrol agents took Nurul Amin Shah Alam — a 56-year-old, nearly blind Rohingya refugee who spoke little English — from a county jail and released him alone outside a closed Tim Hortons in Buffalo, New York, in near-freezing cold. He was found dead five days later, and the Erie County medical examiner ruled the death a homicide caused by a perforated duodenal ulcer precipitated by hypothermia and dehydration. DHS initially said agents had left him at a "safe location," but surveillance footage contradicted that account.

DHS admitted its 'Worst of the Worst' immigrant database mischaracterized hundreds of listings after CNN review

DHS launched a public website in December 2025 branding arrested immigrants the "worst of the worst," heavily promoted by Secretary Kristi Noem and the White House to justify aggressive immigration enforcement. A CNN review published February 19, 2026 found hundreds of the roughly 25,000 people listed were described as convicted of or arrested for serious crimes like homicide or sex offenses when the underlying charges were traffic violations, marijuana possession, or illegal reentry; DHS attributed the errors to a "glitch" affecting about 5 percent of entries.

U.S. Department of Education pressured 31 universities to end partnerships with minority doctoral-support nonprofit PhD Project

On February 19, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights announced that its Title VI investigation into the PhD Project — a nonprofit that helps racial minorities earn doctoral degrees — had led 31 universities, including Arizona State, Ohio State, Michigan, Yale, Duke, and MIT, to sign resolution agreements ending their partnerships with the group, with 14 more schools in negotiations. OCR opened the investigation in March 2025, asserting that PhD Project membership "unlawfully limits eligibility based on the race of participants" and warning participating schools they risked losing federal funding. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon called the agreements "the Trump effect in action."

Monroe County, Florida sheriff's deputy misused police databases and license-plate cameras to track and pull over woman he met on TV set

On February 19, 2026, Monroe County Sheriff's Office Deputy Lamar Eliseo Roman pulled over a woman on U.S. 1 in the Florida Keys using a license-plate-reader hotlist alert, the culmination of two weeks in which he repeatedly searched sheriff's-office and state databases for her personal information. Roman had met the woman on February 3, 2026 while working security on the set of Apple TV+'s "Bad Monkey," and investigators say his in-car camera showed him driving into oncoming traffic during the pursuit that preceded the stop. He was fired and arrested on a felony database-misuse charge on March 10, 2026.

Judge held DOJ lawyer in contempt after ICE released habeas petitioner in Texas without ID, defying Minnesota order

On February 18, 2026, U.S. District Judge Laura Provinzino held Justice Department attorney Matthew Isihara in civil contempt after ICE released habeas petitioner Rigoberto Soto Jimenez in El Paso, Texas without his identification documents, defying her order that he be released in Minnesota with his property returned. Provinzino lifted the contempt finding one day later once the documents were returned, but rejected the government's understaffing excuse as a problem "of its own making."

ICE defied a New Jersey court's no-transfer order, moving detainee Jagpreet Singh to a Brooklyn facility

On February 18, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement transferred detainee Jagpreet Singh from Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, roughly 22 hours after a federal judge had issued a text order barring his transfer outside New Jersey. U.S. District Judge Christine P. O'Hearn called the move "a blatant violation" of her order and ordered Singh's immediate release, later noting the government had separately admitted to more than 50 similar court-order violations in the preceding 60 days.

ICE detained DACA recipient Juan Chavez Velasco despite his active legal status

ICE agents detained Juan Chavez Velasco, a DACA recipient who had held continuous status for 13 years, outside his Weslaco, Texas neighborhood on February 18, 2026, as he drove breast milk to his premature newborn daughter in a hospital NICU. He told agents he had active DACA status; they told him it didn't matter, and DHS later said DACA does not confer legal status or protection from deportation. He was held for nearly three months at the Webb County Detention Center in Laredo, developing kidney stones and lacking adequate food and clean water, before being released to his family in May 2026.

ICE arrested DACA recipient at her permanent residency interview and deported her the next day under a decades-old removal order

On February 18, 2026, ICE agents arrested Maria de Jesus Estrada Juarez, a 27-year Sacramento resident with active DACA status, at a scheduled permanent residency interview and deported her to Mexico the following day under a 1998 removal order, denying her any notice or opportunity to contest the removal. U.S. District Judge Dena Coggins found the deportation a "flagrant violation" of Estrada Juarez's DACA protections and on March 24 issued a temporary restraining order requiring her return within seven days. She was reunited with her family in Sacramento by March 31, 2026.

USCIS and ICE directed agents to detain refugees who miss one-year green-card deadline

On February 18, 2026, USCIS Director Joseph Edlow and ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons issued a joint memo directing immigration agents to arrest and detain refugees who have not obtained a green card within one year of admission to the United States, rescinding 2010 ICE guidance under which that delay was not grounds for detention. The memo, disclosed in a federal court filing tied to refugee detentions in Minnesota, lets agents hold affected refugees in immigration detention while their green-card applications are pending.

DOJ Civil Rights Division opened investigations into three Michigan school districts over gender-identity curriculum

On February 18, 2026, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division announced investigations into the Lansing, Detroit, and Godfrey-Lee public school districts in Michigan, covering roughly 64,000 students, examining whether the districts taught sexual-orientation and gender-identity content without notifying parents of an opt-out right and whether they restricted bathrooms and locker rooms by biological sex. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said the department is "fiercely committed to ending the growing trend of local school authorities embedding sexuality and gender ideology in every aspect of public education." The department declined to explain why these three districts, of Michigan's more than 800, were selected.

Kansas Legislature overrode Gov. Kelly's veto to enact SB244 restricting transgender facility access and invalidating ID changes

On February 18, 2026, the Kansas Legislature overrode Governor Laura Kelly's veto of House Substitute for SB244, enacting a law that requires multiple-occupancy facilities in government-owned or -leased buildings to be designated by sex assigned at birth and requires driver's licenses and birth certificates to reflect sex assigned at birth, invalidating documents previously amended by transgender residents. The House voted 87-37 to override, a day after the Senate voted 31-9. The law creates a private right of action with liquidated damages of at least $1,000 and directs the state attorney general to enforce compliance by non-complying agencies.

ICE deports critically ill 2-month-old and family to Mexico after hospitalization

On February 17, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported a critically ill two-month-old, Juan Nicolás, to Mexico along with his mother, father, and 16-month-old sister, hours after the infant was hospitalized for bronchitis and roughly three and a half weeks after the family was taken into custody at the CoreCivic-run South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas. The baby had become unresponsive and was treated at a Pearsall hospital the night of February 16, then discharged around midnight and returned to detention; Rep. Joaquin Castro, who had demanded the child's release, called the removal "heinous," while ICE described the hospital visit as a "precautionary evaluation" and said the child received "proper care."

JTF Southern Spear killed eleven across three suspected narcotics vessels in Pacific and Caribbean; 40th-42nd strikes, ~145 campaign deaths

Late on Feb. 16, 2026, at the direction of U.S. Southern Command commander Marine Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear carried out three near-simultaneous "lethal kinetic strikes" on three vessels SOUTHCOM alleged were trafficking drugs along known routes, killing eleven men — four on each of two boats in the eastern Pacific and three on a third in the Caribbean. SOUTHCOM presented no evidence and made no attempt at interdiction, arrest, or judicial process, and no U.S. forces were harmed. It was the deadliest single day in the Operation Southern Spear boat-strike campaign to that point.

ICE denied humanitarian parole to 79-year-old dementia patient, holding her at Eloy nine months

An Arizona Daily Star investigation published February 15, 2026 found that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has largely stopped exercising discretion to release medically vulnerable detainees on humanitarian parole, instead issuing what immigration attorneys describe as blanket denials. The investigation centered on Julia Benitez, a 79-year-old Cuban asylum seeker with dementia who uses a wheelchair, whom ICE held at Eloy Detention Center in Arizona for nine months despite her family's repeated parole requests and her rapidly deteriorating mental condition. Detentions of people 65 and older rose 150% in the first five months of 2025 compared with the same period in 2024, according to a Lee Enterprises analysis of ICE detention data.

Judge ordered release of 4 Operation Midway Blitz detainees, rejected ICE directive expanding warrantless-arrest discretion

On February 13, 2026, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings ordered the Department of Homeland Security to release four people who had been arrested without warrants during Operation Midway Blitz, and separately rejected a recent ICE directive — a memo from Acting Director Todd Lyons — that sought to give agents more discretion to make warrantless arrests, finding it inconsistent with the 2022 Castañon Nava consent decree. The ruling followed a federal appeals court's earlier rejection of Cummings' original October 2025 order to release hundreds of people arrested without warrants under the same operation.

JTF Southern Spear killed three aboard suspected narcotics vessel in Caribbean; 39th strike, ~134 campaign deaths

On Feb. 13, 2026, at the direction of U.S. Southern Command commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a "lethal kinetic strike" on a vessel in the Caribbean Sea that SOUTHCOM alleged — without presenting evidence and without interdiction, arrest, or judicial process — was operated by a designated terrorist organization. Three men were killed and no U.S. forces were harmed. The strike is part of the open-ended Operation Southern Spear campaign of lethal strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats.

DHS and ICE began occupying a Romulus, Michigan warehouse for a detention facility without notifying local or state officials

On February 13, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement began taking occupancy of a roughly 300,000-square-foot warehouse at 7525 Cogswell Street in Romulus, Michigan, intending to convert it into a roughly 500-bed immigration detention facility, without formally notifying the city, Wayne County, the state of Michigan, or the state's congressional delegation in advance. Michigan's attorney general and the City of Romulus later sued DHS and ICE over the lack of environmental review and intergovernmental consultation, and in June 2026 the agencies abandoned the plan and agreed to sell the property.

Justice Department sued Harvard to compel production of admissions data

On February 13, 2026, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division sued Harvard University in federal court in Massachusetts, seeking an order compelling Harvard to turn over five years of undergraduate, medical-school, and law-school admissions data -- including grades, test scores, essays, and race/ethnicity -- that DOJ had demanded since opening a compliance review in April 2025. DOJ said Harvard had "thwarted" the investigation into whether the university continued considering race in admissions after the Supreme Court barred affirmative action; Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon called Harvard's refusal "a red flag." Harvard said it has been responding to the government's requests and is in compliance with the Supreme Court's ruling, and characterized the suit as "retaliatory actions" tied to its earlier refusal to accept a list of administration demands.

ICE agents tracked Minnesota protesters to their homes, ACLU court filings revealed

Nearly 100 sworn statements filed February 13, 2026 in an ACLU-led civil case over Minnesota's "Operation Metro Surge" immigration deployment describe more than a dozen instances of federal agents identifying protest-monitors' home addresses, apparently via license-plate tracking, and showing up there -- most without an individually established date. One monitor, Daniel Woo, said an ICE-linked SUV he had tracked later drove to and parked in front of his home. DHS said the agency does not use force against peaceful protesters or stop cars without reasonable suspicion, and did not address the specific incidents.

DOJ logged members of Congress's search histories as they reviewed unredacted Epstein files

It emerged that the Department of Justice had logged and tracked the searches members of Congress ran while reviewing unredacted Epstein files on DOJ systems, and a printout titled "Jayapal Pramila Search History" was photographed in Attorney General Pam Bondi's materials at a House Judiciary Committee hearing. Rep. Pramila Jayapal confirmed the listed searches were hers; the DOJ said it "logs all searches made on its systems," framing the practice as protecting victim information. Speaker Mike Johnson called the tracking not "appropriate," and Democratic lawmakers demanded the department end what they described as surveillance of the legislative branch.

United States signed third-country deportation agreement with Burundi, setting no cap on transfers

On February 12, 2026, the United States and Burundi signed a Memorandum of Understanding permitting the U.S. to deport third-country nationals -- migrants who are not Burundian citizens -- to Burundi, after Burundi had previously declined to sign without additional U.S. funding for the International Organization for Migration. The agreement, negotiated by the U.S. Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security, was not made public until it appeared on the State Department's website in June 2026; it sets no cap on the number of transfers and states Burundi will not accept people with violent-crime records. As of this entry's recording, no transfers under the agreement are known to have occurred.

Nebraska handed the Justice Department its full voter file, including partial Social Security numbers, while an appeal was still pending

On February 12, 2026, Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen transmitted the state's entire voter registration database to the U.S. Department of Justice, including every registered voter's full name, home address, date of birth and the last four digits of their Social Security, driver's license or state ID number. The transfer came one day after the Nebraska Supreme Court declined to enjoin it while an appeal by Common Cause Nebraska proceeded, and it formed part of a DOJ campaign that had by then sought voter files from 44 states and sued more than 20 of them.

Trump administration moved to rescind $600M in CDC health grants, targeting only 4 of 107 recipient states

The Office of Management and Budget ordered the CDC to cancel roughly $602 million in public health grants -- funding disease-outbreak tracking, workforce and infrastructure programs -- to California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota, effective February 11, 2026; the same directive also canceled $943 million in Department of Transportation funding to the same four states. All four states, led by Democratic governors, sued the next day, and a federal judge in Illinois granted a 14-day temporary restraining order on February 12 keeping the health funds flowing while the case proceeds.

White House fires court-appointed U.S. Attorney Donald Kinsella hours after judges seated him

After a federal court found the administration's prior U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York was serving unlawfully, the district's judges invoked 28 U.S.C. § 546 to appoint veteran prosecutor Donald T. Kinsella, who was sworn in on February 11, 2026. Within about five hours, the White House emailed Kinsella that the president had removed him, and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche posted that "judges don't pick U.S. Attorneys, @POTUS does," telling Kinsella, "You are fired."

Attorney General Bondi told the House Judiciary Committee under oath that Maxwell was not moved to a lower-security prison

On February 11, 2026, Attorney General Pam Bondi testified before the House Judiciary Committee and, asked by Rep. Deborah Ross whether Ghislaine Maxwell had received special treatment in prison, answered that she did not know Maxwell was being transferred and that Maxwell "was not transferred to a lower-level facility," later repeating twice that it was a "same level" prison. The Bureau of Prisons, which falls under Bondi's department, classifies FCI Tallahassee — where Maxwell had been held — as low security and FPC Bryan, where the Justice Department moved her in August 2025 after she met with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, as a minimum-security prison camp.

ICE detained pregnant Massachusetts woman in bedless holding cell, denied care until hospitalization forced her release

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Djeniffer Benvinda Ribeiro Semedo, a 22-year-old Cape Verdean national who was 24 weeks pregnant, at Brockton District Court on February 11, 2026 on an outstanding default warrant and held her at its Burlington field office in a bedless holding room, where she slept on a concrete bench. Her abdominal pain, nausea, and decreased fetal movement went unaddressed over roughly three days until she was transferred to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center on February 13, where ICE agents continued to restrict her family's access to her.

U.S. House passes SAVE America Act (H.R. 22) requiring documentary proof of citizenship for federal voter registration

On February 11, 2026, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, H.R. 22 of the 119th Congress, on a near-party-line vote. The bill would require every American to produce documentary proof of U.S. citizenship — typically a birth certificate or passport — in order to register to vote or update voter registration information for federal elections. According to the Brennan Center for Justice and the ACLU, more than 21 million eligible American voters do not currently have ready access to the required documents. The bill is now in the Senate.

Former San Leandro councilmember Bryan Azevedo pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from the Duong family for housing-company votes

On February 11, 2026, former San Leandro City Council member Bryan Azevedo pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and making false statements to federal investigators, admitting he accepted a paid 2023 Vietnam trip and set up an LLC in his wife's name to receive kickbacks from David Trung Duong and Andy Hung Duong in exchange for advocating city contracts and purchases for their company, Evolutionary Homes. Azevedo, who resigned from the council the day before his plea, is cooperating with prosecutors in the related federal bribery case against former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, in which the Duongs are also charged.

UT Knoxville Chancellor fired assistant professor Tamar Shirinian for Facebook post criticizing Charlie Kirk

On February 11, 2026, University of Tennessee Knoxville Chancellor Donde Plowman terminated anthropology assistant professor Tamar Shirinian, citing "misconduct" over Facebook comments she made about Charlie Kirk following his assassination in September 2025. Shirinian had written on a friend's private Facebook page that Kirk's children were "better off living in a world without a disgusting psychopath like him." Despite Shirinian's subsequent apology, Chancellor Plowman signed the termination letter in February after a months-long administrative investigation launched by UT System President Randy Boyd.

National Park Service removed the Pride flag from Stonewall National Monument, the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ rights movement

On February 10, 2026, the National Park Service quietly removed the Pride flag — which had flown for years at the Stonewall National Monument in Manhattan and includes colors representing the transgender community — citing a Department of the Interior directive limiting NPS flagpoles to the U.S. flag and other "congressionally or departmentally authorized" flags. A coalition of LGBTQ+ nonprofits sued a week later, arguing NPS's own policy exempts flags that provide historical context — the same exception that allows Confederate flags at sites like Gettysburg — and the Trump administration settled on April 13, 2026, agreeing to restore the flag permanently within seven days.

Coast Guard sole-sourced $957 million Arctic icebreaker contract to Davie Defense without competitive bidding

On February 10, 2026, the U.S. Coast Guard awarded a sole-source, single-offer contract worth $957 million to Davie Defense Inc. for five Arctic Security Cutters, citing a public-interest exception rather than competing the work. The award completed an 11-ship, roughly $3.3 billion program that followed President Trump's personal push for a larger icebreaker fleet than the Coast Guard had itself requested; the program's first two contracts, awarded to Bollinger Shipyards and Rauma Marine Constructions on December 26, 2025, are recorded separately.

DOJ sought grand jury indictment of six lawmakers over anti-illegal-orders video; grand jury rejected the case

On February 10, 2026, attorneys from the office of Jeanine Pirro, the Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, presented a criminal case to a federal grand jury seeking to indict six Democratic members of Congress — Sens. Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin and Reps. Jason Crow, Maggie Goodlander, Chris Deluzio, and Chrissy Houlahan — over a November 2025 social media video reminding military and intelligence personnel of their duty to refuse illegal orders. The grand jury declined to find probable cause, rejecting the indictment; no career federal prosecutors were involved in bringing the case. The attempt followed President Trump's public accusations that the lawmakers had committed "seditious" acts "punishable by death," and came about two months after an FBI counterterrorism inquiry into the same six lawmakers over the same video.

Trump purchased up to $5 million in Axon Enterprise stock 14 days before ICE posted a $220M Taser contract tailored to Axon's specifications

On February 10, 2026, President Donald Trump purchased between $1 million and $5 million in Axon Enterprise stock, according to federal financial disclosure forms filed with the Office of Government Ethics in May 2026. Fourteen days later, on February 24, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement published a solicitation for a five-year, $220 million contract for roughly 17,800 conductive energy weapons whose technical specifications — including a 45-foot effective range and 10 individually deployable probes — procurement experts said effectively matched only Axon's TASER 10 model. Axon's stock rose more than 34% in the seven days following the ICE notice; no contract has been awarded.

University of North Texas administrators removed artist's ICE-critical exhibit to avoid Texas legislature backlash

University of North Texas President Harrison Keller and then-Provost Michael McPherson had artist Victor "Marka27" Quiñonez's ICE-critical exhibition "Ni De Aquí, Ni De Allá" removed from the CVAD Gallery in Denton, Texas, around February 9-11, 2026, days after it opened February 3. Leaked text messages show McPherson said removing the show would make it "easier to manage any barking from our friends in Austin," a reference to the Texas legislature, even though UNT's own art policy bars viewpoint-based censorship.

JTF Southern Spear killed two aboard suspected narcotics vessel in eastern Pacific; 38th strike, ~131 campaign deaths

On Monday, Feb. 9, 2026, U.S. Southern Command announced a "lethal kinetic strike" on a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean it described as "operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations" and transiting known narco-trafficking routes, killing two of the three people aboard. SOUTHCOM said the strike was carried out at the direction of its commander, Gen. Francis L. Donovan, by Joint Task Force Southern Spear, and that it notified the U.S. Coast Guard to activate search-and-rescue for the lone survivor. As in every prior strike in the campaign, the Pentagon presented no public evidence the vessel carried narcotics, made no attempt to interdict or arrest, and did not identify those killed.

CBP removed civil rights history, including a James Meredith desegregation story, from its website during Black History Month

U.S. Customs and Border Protection deleted several historical "Did you know?" stories from its public website between February 2 and February 9, 2026, during the 100th anniversary of Black History Month. The removed content included an account of Border Patrol agents protecting James Meredith during the 1962 desegregation of the University of Mississippi, along with biographies of Black explorer Matthew Henson and other Black and female CBP figures, all of which had been posted by CBP since March 2014. A CBP spokesperson told Unraveled the agency was "looking into" the removals but did not explain them.

ODNI general counsel warned whistleblower's attorney against briefing Congress on classified Gabbard complaint

On February 9, 2026, the general counsel's office for Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard sent a letter warning attorney Andrew Bakaj — who represents an anonymous intelligence-community whistleblower alleging Gabbard withheld top-secret material for political reasons — against directly briefing members of Congress on the classified complaint, citing the risk that Bakaj or his client could face criminal charges for mishandling classified information. The complaint had not reached the "Gang of Eight" congressional leaders until roughly eight months after it was filed, prompting Senate Intelligence Committee Democrats to demand answers about the delay.

DOJ moved to dismiss Steve Bannon's Jan. 6 contempt-of-Congress conviction, seeking to erase it rather than pardon him

On February 9, 2026, the Justice Department — through U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's filing, publicly backed by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche — asked both the federal district court and the Supreme Court to dismiss Steve Bannon's 2022 contempt-of-Congress conviction with prejudice, stating only that "dismissal of this criminal case is in the interests of justice." Bannon had already served his four-month sentence for defying a Jan. 6 committee subpoena; the filing sought to erase the conviction itself rather than secure a pardon.

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."

Trump excluded Govs. Polis and Moore from bipartisan White House governors' meeting and dinner over their criticism

On February 6, 2026, President Trump restricted that month's White House working meeting of the National Governors Association to Republican governors only, and personally blocked Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore from the traditionally bipartisan black-tie dinner held alongside it. Other Democratic governors who have also criticized Trump, including California's Gavin Newsom and Illinois' JB Pritzker, remained invited to the dinner. NGA leadership said it would not treat the restricted meeting as an official NGA event, calling it a break from decades of bipartisan tradition.

Pentagon cuts ties with Harvard, ending military training and fellowships

On February 6, 2026, the Department of War (Pentagon) announced it would sever academic ties with Harvard University, ending Pentagon-funded graduate-level professional military education, fellowships, and certificate programs connected to the school beginning in the 2026–27 academic year. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Harvard "no longer meets the needs of the War Department," faulting officers who returned "looking too much like Harvard — heads full of globalist and radical ideologies," and a Pentagon account posted on X that "Harvard is woke; The War Department is not." The Pentagon described the cut as the first in a broader review of elite universities, with officers already enrolled allowed to finish their coursework.

FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force visited former Extinction Rebellion NYC member's upstate New York home under NSPM-7 directive

On February 6, 2026, two special agents from the FBI's New York Joint Terrorism Task Force visited the upstate New York home of a former Extinction Rebellion NYC member to question him about the group, following a phone contact the prior month. The visit came after President Trump's National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 directed federal Joint Terrorism Task Forces to investigate groups and individuals linked to "anti-fascism," "anti-capitalism," and similar political activity. The FBI's New York field office would not confirm or deny an investigation, citing standing Justice Department policy.

Judge's ruling revealed ICE unlawfully re-deported 3 Ms. L-settlement-protected families to Honduras and elsewhere, defying a federal court order

A ruling by U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego, issued February 5, 2026, revealed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had unlawfully re-deported three families protected from removal under the 2018 Ms. L v. ICE family-separation settlement, in violation of a June 2025 stay of removal issued in the case. One mother and her three children, including a 6-year-old U.S. citizen, were coerced into deportation to Honduras in July 2025 after ICE officers removed her ankle monitor and detained the family for three days despite her refusal to sign a voluntary-departure document; two other families were removed in a similar pattern. Sabraw rejected the government's claim the families left voluntarily, found the removals relied on "lies, deception and coercion," and ordered the government to return all three families to the U.S. at its own expense.

ICE deported Army veteran Godfrey Wade to Jamaica while his removal-order appeal was still pending

On February 5, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported Godfrey Wade, a 65-year-old honorably discharged Army veteran and lawful permanent resident of the United States since 1975, to Jamaica while his appeal of a 2014 in-absentia removal order remained pending before the Board of Immigration Appeals. ICE detained Wade after a September 13, 2025 traffic stop in Conyers, Georgia, under a removal order he did not learn existed until his green-card renewal was denied in December 2024 — notices of the 2014 hearing and order had been mailed to an address that returned them undeliverable. An immigration judge denied Wade's motion to reopen the case in under two minutes without addressing the returned-notice evidence, and DHS has defended the removal, calling Wade "a criminal illegal alien" who "received full due process."

JTF Southern Spear killed two aboard suspected narcotics vessel in eastern Pacific; 37th strike, ~129 campaign deaths

On Feb. 5, 2026, at the direction of U.S. Southern Command commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a "lethal kinetic strike" on a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean that SOUTHCOM alleged — without presenting evidence and without interdiction, arrest, or judicial process — was operated by a designated terrorist organization. Two people were killed and no U.S. forces were harmed. The strike is part of the open-ended Operation Southern Spear campaign of lethal strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats.

ICE agent Gregory Morgan pointed handgun at civilian motorists on Minneapolis highway during Metro Surge

On Feb. 5, 2026, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officer Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. pulled his unmarked SUV alongside a civilian vehicle on a Minneapolis highway during Operation Metro Surge and pointed a handgun at the driver and passenger, who had no way of knowing he was a federal officer. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty charged Morgan on April 16, 2026 with two counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon — the first criminal charges against a federal officer for on-duty conduct during the Minnesota immigration surge — and a nationwide warrant was issued for his arrest.