The New York Times has published a Epstein bombshell. Now much of the reporting here we knew about, but we do get a behind the scenes look into how the Trump administration was basically freaking out over the Epstein files behind the scenes. uh But more importantly, [00:00:19] how Trump's senior advisors gathered in the Situation Room multiple times to basically figure out what their game plan was in responding to the absolute rage. Members of their own base were lodging against them because it was abundantly clear that there was a cover [00:00:37] up of the Epstein files. This story is pretty incredible. But remember, someone or maybe multiple people within the Trump administration clearly leaked this. Someone who was in the situation room clearly leaked this to the New York Times. And you should ask yourselves [00:00:56] why. All right, with that in mind, here are the details. So at one point during one of the earlier meetings in the Situation Room, apparently Vice President JD Vance had suggested that, hey, you know what, maybe we just get out in front of this. Maybe we do engage in [00:01:11] transparency. And he suggested that Tucker Carlson interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell. So that she can state that Trump has never been part of any wrongdoing tied to Jeffrey Epstein. And he really wanted the administration to release the files according to this New York [00:01:29] Times report. And so Vance argued that even the unsubstantiated claims about Trump should go out because he felt that they were going to surface anyway. So why not get out in front of it and show that there's really nothing to be concerned about when it comes to Trump because [00:01:48] administration is the one who released this in good faith, right? That's the play that he had in mind. Now his idea was rejected, as you can imagine. Blanche uh also laid out what he saw as uh their best options. So option number one apparently was to petition federal [00:02:08] district courts in Florida and New York to unseal the grand jury testimonies. The secret transcripts of prosecutors presentations of witnesses and evidence in their efforts to obtain indictments in the past Epstein related cases. As those were almost certain to contain no significant [00:02:29] new information, everyone agreed that this option was a good idea. And not only because a release was unlikely to damage the president. So get a load of this, this is why they thought this was their best option. Under the federal rules of criminal procedure, the bar for any [00:02:48] release is exceptionally high. If the courts refuse to unseal them, as Blanche predicted, they could shift the blame for withholding the Epstein material away from the Trump administration and onto the judges. And all the better if the judges had been appointed by Democratic [00:03:07] presidents. You get what I mean here? They're like, hey, why don't we do this? Why don't we advertise that we're pushing for these documents to be released from these court proceedings, knowing that it is very unlikely that judges will agree to releasing these documents. And [00:03:27] then we can say it's out of our hands, it's out of our hands. Now Blanche's suggestion would make it look like the White House wanted these materials to be released knowing that it was unlikely to happen. Amazing. So option two, by the way, involved having the Justice Department question Ghislaine Maxwell and publicly release the transcript. Now we know that Todd [00:03:47] Blanche met with Ghislaine Maxwell privately, and uh that meeting for the most part is shrouded in secrecy. Nonetheless, Vance floated the idea of Maxwell getting questioned during a congressional hearing instead. Blanche thought it would be too hard to get her to sign on to doing that, [00:04:04] uh that she would expect uh something in return, quid pro quo. And so at that point, White House counsel Warrington jumps in and uh says, look, we've got some options in terms of what we can offer her. The way the story was reported, Warrington wasn't suggesting he was in favor [00:04:24] of either option, but he was saying, look, we could either uh get her a pardon or have her sentence reduced. That yielded uh strong disapproval from members of Trump's cabinet. They thought that's not going to look good if we give her a pardon or if we shorten her sentence. So [00:04:41] the consensus was to go along with the first option of calling for the release of the grand jury material knowing that it was unlikely that the judges would agree to releasing it in the first place. And Trump went along with that, although uh reluctantly so, as is reported in the Times. They also get into binder gate and that part of the reporting is pretty incredible. [00:05:02] in the meantime, as you know, You have Trump's cabinet meeting in the situation room trying to figure out like, what are we going to do? What are we going to do? People are freaking out over the Epstein files. You have former Attorney General, Pam Bondi, then Attorney [00:05:17] General, of course, engaging in that stunt with the binders. And it does appear as though that stunt was done without the approval of the administration because they learned about it as it was happening and they panicked. Because they didn't know what was in the binders and [00:05:37] they were worried that the binders would contain documents that, uh how shall I say this, wouldn't be so favorable to Trump's reputation and image. Let's just put it that way. So uh Keir Starmer, by the way, happened to be visiting the White House that day and there was again a lot of [00:05:55] fear that something really nasty about Trump is about to come out. Now over at the Justice Department, officials were reviewing the Epstein material which included as many as 6 million pages of files. Most of Trump's advisors had rejected out of hand the idea of releasing [00:06:12] the FBI's raw interview notes. They wanted to avoid putting out anything that could damage the president. And by the way, that appeared to be the number one priority throughout this very lengthy piece. It seems as though what they wanted to prioritize what they were worried [00:06:29] about was Trump's image more than anything else. And so Blanche determines that they can't put out the files and wanted to convey that message in a public memo. And so this was a huge problem for FBI Director Cash Patel and former Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino. According [00:06:48] to the reporting here, Dan Bongino in particular was very fiery in pushing for the immediate release of the surveillance footage. from the prison where Epstein was allegedly found dead. Now Bongino hated the Justice Department's nothing to see here memo being drawn up for [00:07:07] public release. He told Patel, this would in no way align with their promises of transparency after taking over the FBI. And he objected to putting the FBI seal on the letterhead, but he was overruled. So let's just pause for a second. This story, you have to ask yourselves, [00:07:29] okay, this was obviously leaked to the Times. Whoever the leaker was, was in on these deliberations. Who looks good in this piece? Whose reputation might be saved in this piece? And honestly, [00:07:45] it's undeniable, Dan Bongino. Dan Bongino is the one who comes out looking like the good one in this reporting. Now mind you, Dan Bongino could have blown the whistle. That would have been the difficult thing to do, he didn't do it. So if he is the leaker, think about how [00:08:02] rascally that is. Think about the cowardice of going along with the cover up while you're in the administration. And then potentially, we don't know for sure, leaking this to the New York Times in an effort to rehabilitate your reputation because Homeboys podcast ain't [00:08:19] doing well, okay? Anyway, let's get back to both Patel and Bongino. So apparently Cash Patel privately said that he was sharing many of Bongino's concerns. But remember, he's a good boy. Cash Patel's a very good boy for Daddy Trump. So he provided his support uh [00:08:39] in an internal email that he sent on July 2nd. And I should note, obviously, I'm sure there were freedom of information requests and things like that for this reporting. But in the email, he wrote the following. Thanks for the edits. And I still believe this is [00:08:55] the correct vehicle forward Patel wrote, meaning he wanted the cover up. So he wrote that to a small group of colleagues including Todd Blanch. I'm happy to add any additional sentences to complete the shortfall or to compete the shortfall. But I do think we address specifically [00:09:15] why more can't be released as it relates to specific topics, i.e. court order, uh child. sexual abuse material, victim protections, etc. Okay, but what was even more telling of these [00:09:30] deliberations that were taking place, especially as it pertains to that memo. Inside the White House, Trump had no interest in releasing anything. And senior officials including Susie Wiles and Blair were initially unconvinced about the reach of the Epstein crisis. They told [00:09:50] colleagues that Republican voters didn't care. And they had early data from Trump's chief pollster, Tony Fabricio, to demonstrate it. You might be asking yourselves, Tony Fabricio, who was that guy? He sounds familiar. I feel like he was in the news recently. He was, [00:10:08] he was in the news recently. It's worth noting that Tony Fabricio was a consultant for various Israeli politicians, including Benjamin Netanyahu. And then right now he is serving as Naftali Bennett's pollster. Naftali Bennett is a challenger to Netanyahu in upcoming elections for Prime [00:10:29] Minister. So these are people who are in bed with Israel. Israel has been implicated in the release of the Epstein files that we've been able to see. Israel has an interest in not releasing the files, so just something to keep in mind. All right, so you have Suzy [00:10:46] Wiles who worked on Benjamin Netanyahu's 2020 reelection campaign, downplaying the severity of the backlash from the right wing in regard to the Epstein-Files cover up. And then you have uh this pollster who's consulted for various Israeli politicians, uh trying to reinforce [00:11:10] that notion with some poll that I don't. I don't know if that poll was credible. I know for a fact it's not credible. Obviously there was a lot of backlash from the right in regard to this cover up. So uh something to keep in mind. Now going back to Bongino, the Times [00:11:26] reports that Bongino told anyone who would listen that this was a grave miscalculation. Quote, it's not an online story, he told White House advisors. You don't understand. So uh they did end up releasing that memo. This was uh July of last year, along with that doctored [00:11:46] footage from the prison Epstein was being held in, and that led to a lot of backlash. Remember, there was a minute missing from that surveillance footage that Pam Bondi released. And the day that that memo was released, Bongino showed up to a daily Justice Department meeting with [00:12:02] the FBI staff and the Attorney General, Pam Bondi. And uh he- decided to draw his ire toward Bondi pretty aggressively. This was something that we had heard about earlier. Now we have a little more clarity about what was allegedly said. So apparently he said to her, you effed [00:12:21] this thing up from the start. He didn't censor himself, he said the word. The way you've been talking about this, that dumb effing charade with the Epstein files, uh the they're on my desk nonsense, all the promises to the folks out there. And he, uh allegedly considered [00:12:40] resigning and then leaking the files. I don't believe that for a second, but allegedly that's what he was thinking about doing, but was talked out of it. Privately, he seethed. In conversations with Confidants, he lamented what the job had cost him millions of dollars in podcast revenue, [00:12:58] family time, his audience. He was getting torn apart over a strategy he had opposed from the start. Again, this is my speculation, I think he's the leaker. My speculation, because he's the only one who really comes out looking good here, and JD Vance to some extent. Now, back [00:13:16] to Bondi, this one other excerpt from the reporting uh really stood out to me. So apparently Charlie Kirk had held a Turning Point USA event that turned into an Epstein- grievance fest with one speaker after another bashing Pam Bondi over her handling of the situation. And apparently [00:13:37] Trump took time out of his day to call Kirk to scold him. Homeboy really didn't want the Epstein files released. And the fact that the number one priority among his administration or administration officials was uh ensuring that his reputation wouldn't be harmed, that [00:13:56] anything unsavory in the Epstein files about him wouldn't be released, I think tells you a lot about what's going on here. Might even explain why Trump is willing to do anything and everything Israel wants in the Middle East, even though it is destroying his legacy. [00:14:16] It has fractured his base. It is destroying the global economy, certainly the US economy. Why would he do all that? Unless maybe the Israelis have something on him. I don't know, again, speculation. But it is what it is and you can make of that what you will. uh