Stories

Browse major news stories and see what officials have said.

Aug 25, 2026· Updated

ICE Arrests a 5-Year-Old on His Way to a Soccer Game and Sends Him to the Country’s Only Family Detention Camp — a Federal Judge Appoints Outside Monitors, and ICE Blocks a Congressman From Visiting the Boy

On August 16, 2026, federal immigration agents stopped Victor Martinez Nieto in Austin, Texas, as he drove his five-year-old son, Liam Tadeo, to a soccer game. Video of the stop shows the crying child holding his handcuffed father's hand. Both were taken to the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley — the only family detention facility in the United States, run under contract by the private prison company CoreCivic. Liam was supposed to start kindergarten that week. It was the second time in 2026 that a five-year-old named Liam was taken to Dilley. In January, ICE agents detained Liam Conejo Ramos on his walk home from preschool in Columbia Heights, Minnesota; a federal judge ordered him and his father released at the end of that month. The August arrest landed in the middle of a widening fight over the facility. The Texas Tribune reported on August 12 that federal data showed many children at Dilley had been held 100 days or longer, far past the 20-day limit set by the Flores settlement, and that in the first year after the camp reopened in March 2025 the administration held roughly 3,000 children there, more than half of them beyond 20 days. On August 18, Chief U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee appointed a special master, Andrea Sheridan Ordin, and an independent monitor, Dr. Paul Wise, with authority to inspect facilities, review records and interview detainees — citing minors confined for 50, 91 and even 323 days. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), who had led 111 House Democrats in a late-July letter demanding DHS shut Dilley down and terminate the CoreCivic contract, tried to visit Liam Tadeo and was turned away: ICE said the boy's father had not given permission, though Castro's office said it had obtained the mother's. Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, demanded the release of Liam and of at least 112 children then held at the camp. DHS and CoreCivic have said Dilley meets federal detention standards and undergoes regular audits.

“ICE arrested 5-year-old Liam and refused to safely return him to his mother.”
Gregorio Casar (D-TX) · Aug 25, 2026

Trump’s Pardon Attorney Ed Martin Leaves the Justice Department to Fight "Legal Battles" for the Midterms — the Same Day House Judiciary Democrats Report That the Clemency Operation He Ran Erased $1.7 Billion Owed to Crime Victims

On Friday, August 21, 2026, President Trump announced on Truth Social that Ed Martin — his U.S. pardon attorney, former head of the Justice Department's "Weaponization Working Group," and former interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia — is leaving the administration to work on election litigation for the November midterms and the 2028 presidential race. Attorney General Todd Blanche called Martin a "patriot who loves this nation"; Martin posted "Proud to serve. Fight Fight Fight." Martin had been one of the most contested figures in the second Trump Justice Department. He replaced career pardon attorney Liz Oyer, who was fired in 2025 and said the office had been politicized. He was named a special attorney on mortgage-fraud investigations into Sen. Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James — sending James a letter urging her to resign "as an act of good faith" and posing for photographs outside her Brooklyn home — and the case against James was later dismissed when a judge found the prosecutor who brought it had been illegally appointed. Martin was removed as head of the Weaponization Working Group earlier in 2026 while keeping the pardon attorney title. The same day, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, released a 25-page committee staff report titled "Pardons, Inc.: How Trump and His Clemency-for-Cash Racket Let White-Collar Criminals and International Drug Dealers Walk Free and Dodge Billions in Restitution Owed to Their Victims." The report finds that Trump's clemency grants have wiped out nearly $1.7 billion in restitution, fines and forfeitures owed to victims and taxpayers — up from the committee Democrats' $1.3 billion estimate a year earlier — and argues the White House replaced the DOJ's traditional review criteria with a pay-to-play process running on political contributions, Trump family business ties and MAGA-connected intermediaries. Cases cataloged in the report include Nikola founder Trevor Milton, pardoned after $1.8 million in donations to Trump-aligned committees and released from roughly $700 million in restitution; health care executive Paul Walczak, pardoned weeks after his mother attended a $1 million Mar-a-Lago fundraiser, escaping $4.5 million in stolen payroll taxes; Jason Galanis, who avoided some $84 million in restitution after testifying for Republicans during impeachment proceedings; and Ozy Media's Carlos Watson, whose $37 million in victim restitution was forgiven. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.

“Ed Martin has been with me from the very beginning, and done an incredible job as an Attorney, Director of the Weaponization Working Group, and the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia.”
Donald Trump (R-FL) · Aug 21, 2026

A Career Civil Rights Lawyer Says the Administration's Campus Antisemitism Investigations Were "Predetermined, Without Regard to the Evidence" — and Jamie Raskin Opens an Investigation Calling Them a "Pre-Baked Frame-Up"

On August 18, 2026, lawyers for Haley Van Erem — a career attorney who spent nearly a decade in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division before being detailed to the multi-agency antisemitism task force — filed a 28-page whistleblower disclosure with the inspectors general at DOJ and HHS and with the Office of Special Counsel. The disclosure alleges that the Title VI investigations of Harvard, Brown, Columbia and Cornell were marked by "extraordinary procedural irregularities, predetermined outcomes without factual or legal support," that "the outcomes of the investigations were predetermined, without regard to the evidence," and that the whole exercise was a "politically mandated effort" to extract money through settlement demands and funding freezes. It says hundreds of millions of dollars were suspended before the investigations were finished, that Columbia investigators flagged false statements and constitutionally protected activity being cited as Title VI violations, that a Harvard-assigned attorney warned the proposed settlement demands were unrelated to remedying antisemitism and likely violated the First Amendment, and that the task force also targeted Muslim professors. Van Erem left the department in May 2025, she says, because she was "unwilling to be made vulnerable to further participation in politically motivated investigations unsupported by facts and contrary to law." Columbia agreed to pay $200 million over three years and Brown agreed to spend $50 million on Rhode Island workforce development, both without findings of wrongdoing. The same day the disclosure surfaced, Rep. Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on House Judiciary, wrote to Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon demanding documents and a transcribed interview before September 1. A Justice Department spokesperson said Van Erem "did not work on university investigations" and that the department "stands behind the integrity of these investigations."

“Before an actual investigation took place and regardless of what you actually found, the whole project was designed to harass professors and administrators at major universities, to curtail their freedom of speech and academic freedom, and to strip targeted institutions of hundreds of millions of dollars in grants that they had already been awarded on the merits of their applications.”
Jamie Raskin (D-MD) · Aug 18, 2026

Aug 18, 2026· Updated

On the Day the Iran Peace Memorandum Expires, Trump Threatens to "Bomb the Shit Out Of" Oman — the Ally Mediating the Strait of Hormuz Talks — and Kaine Says He Will File a War Powers Resolution

The 60-day negotiating window created by the Islamabad memorandum of understanding that Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed on June 17, 2026 ran out on August 16-17, 2026 without a final agreement. Asked on August 17 by Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst about talks between Oman and Iran on a plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, President Trump said: "If Oman gets in the way, we'll bomb the shit out of them." Oman is a US free-trade partner and has spent the war acting as an intermediary between Washington and Tehran. Trump said later the same day that Oman had not "behaved very well" but that the US would "handle them very easily," said Washington would not seek an extension of the memorandum, told Iran to "put up the white flag of surrender," and repeated that the US now controls the Strait of Hormuz "with the blockade." Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) announced within hours that he will introduce a war powers resolution barring military action against Oman when the Senate returns from its August recess in September. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) responded that Democrats "may just need to file war powers resolutions for the 192 other countries," and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) asked publicly when Republicans would "concede the man has lost his mind." No congressional Republican publicly criticized the Oman threat on the day it was made. Jared Kushner, who met Hamas leaders in Egypt the day before as part of the administration's regional diplomacy, said Iran was "not showing any interest in doing something that makes sense for us."

“The Naval Blockade remains in full force and effect. The Hormuz Strait is open and operating. All water mines have been removed or detonated.”
Donald Trump (R-FL) · Aug 18, 2026

Aug 18, 2026· Updated

Sixteen Senators Tell Rubio the Administration Has Never Once Used the Levinson Act on the Five Americans Sitting in Russian Prisons — "All to Be Used as a Pawn in a Larger Conflict"

On August 12, 2026 sixteen Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio about five U.S. nationals held in Russian custody: Andre Khachatoorian of California, David Barnes of Texas, Olga Jezler of New York, Alexsandr Antonov of California, and Charles "Chuck" Zimmerman, a Roanoke Valley native. The letter's central complaint is procedural and specific: the administration has not designated any of them "wrongfully detained" under the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act, the 2020 statute that unlocks the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs and the interagency machinery built to get Americans home. Only Stephen Hubbard carries that designation. The letter landed days after Robert Gilman was released following more than four years in Russian detention — proof, the senators argued, that direct engagement works — and it asks Rubio to negotiate for the remaining detainees separately from the broader talks on Russia's war against Ukraine, rather than letting their cases ride on the diplomacy. Several have been in custody for years: Khachatoorian since 2021, Barnes since 2022, Jezler since 2022, Antonov since 2025. The State Department's answer was that it "continuously reviews the circumstances surrounding the detention for indicators that it is a wrongful detention" in every case, and that consular assistance continues regardless of whether a determination has been made. Rubio himself has not responded publicly. The signers are all Democrats, which is the story's main limitation as an oversight matter — no Senate Republican has joined the letter.

“The continued detention of Americans in Russia underscores the need for sustained engagement and a renewed urgency to obtain their release, including in independent and direct negotiations with the Russian government separate from the broader ongoing negotiations on Russia's war against Ukraine.”
Chuck Schumer (D-NY) · Aug 18, 2026

Congressional Black Caucus Asks Attorney General Blanche and FBI Director Patel for a Federal Review of Nolan Wells's Death, as Mississippi's Governor Blames Civil Rights Activists

Nolan Wells, an 18-year-old Black college athlete from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, went missing on July 4, 2026, after taking a boat to Horn Island — a barrier island off the Mississippi Gulf Coast — with a group of white friends for an Independence Day gathering. His body was recovered from the island's shoreline days later. State authorities have said he may have accidentally drowned; his family disputes that account, and a second, family-commissioned autopsy produced findings the family says the first did not. On August 12, 2026, Congressional Black Caucus Chair Rep. Yvette D. Clarke (D-N.Y.) and caucus members sent a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel asking the Justice Department to determine whether an independent federal review — including a possible civil rights investigation — is warranted, and demanding a written response within seven days. The letter said that "more than 30 days after his disappearance and death, significant questions remain unanswered about the events of July 4, 2026." The Justice Department confirmed receiving the letter and said the appropriate personnel were "reviewing it carefully." The caucus made its case publicly on August 13 at the National Association of Black Journalists convention, where Wells's parents appeared alongside Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.), attorney Ben Crump, and the Rev. Al Sharpton. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the state's only Black member of Congress, had already called for FBI involvement in late July, citing the state's history and inconsistencies between the two autopsies. Ocean Springs is not in Thompson's district. Mississippi's Republican statewide officials have pushed back on the pressure campaign. Gov. Tate Reeves blamed Crump and Sharpton for threats made against witnesses in the case, saying they were "stoking division for personal gain," and Attorney General Lynn Fitch defended the handling of the investigation by state and local law enforcement. Federal authorities separately arrested three people over alleged violent threats connected to the case, and the family's attorney has said a grand jury review could come within 30 days.

“We're demanding a full federal investigation as to what has actually happened to Nolan Wells. All of our children's and our families' lives matter, and we must fight back.”
Lucy McBath (D-GA) · Aug 13, 2026

Trump Was Smuggled Off Air Force One in a Catering Truck to Escape an Iranian Threat in Turkey — and Congress Learned About It From the Press a Month Later

Leaving the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, in July 2026, President Trump boarded Air Force One and then, at the direction of the Secret Service, quietly got back off. He was driven across the tarmac inside an airport catering truck — the kind normally used to load meals and supplies — and put aboard a smaller Air Force C-32A, which flew him out separately. The original 747 departed as a decoy, still carrying Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, other White House staff and the traveling press corps. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth flew with Trump on the smaller jet. The trigger, according to officials, was intelligence about an Iranian cell with a shoulder-fired missile capable of downing the aircraft. None of it was disclosed at the time. The episode became public only on August 10, 2026, through reporting by The Washington Post and The New York Times, roughly a month after it happened. Trump confirmed it the next day, saying he was simply following the Secret Service — "I just follow what they'd like to do" — and downplaying the danger to the people left on the decoy: "I think actually the plane that I flew on was at greater risk. Because that would be the plane, I think, that they would be more likely to go for." White House communications director Steven Cheung defended the operation, saying the administration uses "every tool at our disposal." The bipartisan Gang of Eight — the congressional leaders and intelligence committee heads who receive the government's most sensitive briefings — was not told. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer demanded an immediate classified briefing, calling it "unacceptable that Congress was kept in the dark." House Intelligence ranking member Jim Himes said flatly, "We were not briefed," and Sen. Mark Warner, his Senate counterpart, was not briefed either, according to his office. Sen. Richard Blumenthal called the episode "unprecedented" and "surreal," and Sen. Chris Coons faulted Trump for leaving his own Cabinet and the press aboard the decoy. Republican congressional leaders largely declined to comment.

“I understand putting a priority on the president's security, but frankly, this was just a despicable incident of disrespect for the press and for members of his own Cabinet.”
Chris Coons (D-DE) · Aug 13, 2026

ICE Moves to Buy Up to $20 Million of Electric Shock Gloves, Drawing Denunciations From a Dozen Congressional Democrats

On Monday, August 10, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security posted a procurement notice signaling that Immigration and Customs Enforcement intends to buy thousands of "Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter" devices — marketed as the G.L.O.V.E., or CTG-5 — from Compliant Technologies LLC of Lexington, Kentucky, on a no-bid basis. The gloves function as ordinary patrol gloves until an officer presses a switch, at which point they deliver a painful electric shock on contact. Reporting by Axios and CBS News on August 12 put the value of the planned purchase at $10 million to $20 million, with deliveries to be completed by the end of March. ICE and DHS have described the device as a "conductive distraction and de-escalation device." A DHS spokesperson said ICE "is constantly assessing the needs of our officers in the field to ensure they have the tools and equipment necessary to safely arrest and remove criminal illegal aliens from our country," and the agency said its officers "regularly receive ongoing use of force training." Within 48 hours at least a dozen congressional Democrats — four senators and eight House members — publicly condemned the plan, most of them on social media. Several tied the purchase directly to the roughly $70 billion in ICE and Customs and Border Protection funding Congress approved in June over Democratic objections, and several used the occasion to renew calls to abolish the agency. Reps. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) and Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) had introduced the Melt ICE Act in January to dismantle DHS. No congressional Republican was on record defending or criticizing the purchase in the first days of coverage.

“This is just not the government people want. A government so sadistic and cruel that it delights in using your hard-earned tax dollars to buy gloves that shock people upon contact.”
Chris Murphy (D-CT) · Aug 13, 2026

Warren and Garcia Demand Trump Name the Managers Behind 21,000 Stock Trades and Explain Purchases That Preceded His Own Policy Announcements

On August 12, 2026, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) sent President Trump a 17-page letter — first reported by CNBC on August 13 — demanding he identify the money managers he says control his investment accounts and explain dozens of stock trades that lined up with official government actions or market-moving presidential statements. The letter covers more than 21,000 trades reported in 2025 and roughly 3,500 more in the first quarter of 2026 alone, an average of about 50 trades every day markets were open. Warren and Garcia asked Trump to list "all third-party institutions and managers that direct your trades," explain how they were selected, what mandate they were given, and what investment processes they follow. They flagged 15 instances they characterized as Trump buying into a company shortly before an official announcement favorable to it — including purchases of Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices on January 6, a week before the administration loosened chip export controls affecting sales to China, and a February 10 purchase of between $1 million and $5 million in Axon Enterprises, the Taser manufacturer, two weeks before ICE announced a $220 million Taser contract. The New York Times has reported there is no indication Trump holds a true blind trust; the lawmakers pressed that point, noting Trump personally signed a financial disclosure certifying his awareness of thousands of individual stock transactions. The White House dismissed the inquiry. Eric Trump said the president's holdings are held in fully discretionary accounts run by independent third-party institutions using automated, model-based portfolios, and the Trump Organization called the letter "just another baseless political stunt." Warren and Garcia set an August 28 deadline for a response.

“the same, tired narrative that Democrats have pushed against President Trump, his family, and his administration for a decade”
Anna Kelly (R) · Aug 13, 2026

ethics

conflicts-of-interest

stock-trading

5 statements

Aug 12, 2026

Two More Deaths Tied to Newark's Delaney Hall ICE Jail; Senate Republicans Block Booker's Bid to Close It as ICE Stops Reporting Deaths That Happen After Release

Delaney Hall, the 1,000-bed private ICE detention facility in Newark operated by GEO Group, recorded two more detainee deaths in the space of two weeks in the summer of 2026 — the second and third connected to the facility in less than a year. Edwin Jovanny Lopez Cornejo, a 41-year-old Salvadoran national from Plainfield, died in ICE custody at Delaney Hall on the first weekend of August. His family said he had been denied medication. New Jersey's Democratic officials — Gov. Mikie Sherrill, Sen. Cory Booker, Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, and Rep. Analilia Mejia — demanded answers and renewed calls to close the facility. On August 6, Booker went to the Senate floor to seek unanimous consent for a measure forcing Delaney Hall's closure. Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) objected, blocking it, and argued that the Democrats' diagnosis of the detention system was "ideological." A third death surfaced separately, and only because a member of Congress disclosed it. Jose Chajon-Raxon, a Guatemalan man arrested by ICE on July 18, was treated for "seizure-like activity" a day later, taken to a hospital, and released from ICE custody on July 22 before dying. ICE had recently dropped a Biden-era rule requiring it to review and report detainee deaths occurring within 30 days after release, and DHS did not disclose the death until confirming it on August 12 after Rep. Rob Menendez (D-N.J.) revealed it. DHS said that "per ICE policy, when an individual is no longer in ICE custody then ICE will no longer be responsible for monitoring or reviewing deaths." Menendez and Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) called the policy change a deliberate accountability loophole. All nine Democrats in New Jersey's House delegation signed a letter to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Acting ICE Director David J. Venturella demanding answers. Delaney Hall was already the subject of an existing oversight fight: in May 2026, Sen. Andy Kim was pepper-sprayed outside the facility and Sherrill was denied entry during a detainee hunger strike. More than 50 immigrants have died in ICE custody since the start of the administration.

“The pattern of abuse is plain as day. The fact that ICE is creating a loophole to avoid having to investigate or take accountability for this loss is disgusting.”
LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) · Aug 12, 2026

Apr 14, 2026· Updated

Pam Bondi Refuses Congressional Deposition on Epstein Files

Former Attorney General Pam Bondi failed to appear for her April 14, 2026 deposition before the House Oversight Committee, defying a bipartisan subpoena to testify on the DOJ's handling of the Epstein files. The DOJ argued the subpoena is moot because Bondi was fired on April 2 and no longer holds the office. Lawmakers from both parties disagree — the subpoena named Bondi personally, not by title. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) is pursuing contempt charges, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) pressed Chairman Comer to enforce the subpoena, and Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) moved to hold Bondi in contempt. Comer told reporters "we'll talk about it."

“We'll talk about it.”
James Comer (R-KY) · Apr 14, 2026

epstein

subpoena

congressional-oversight

9 statements

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