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Two major news stories this week reveal how the institutions meant to check power in America are failing — or being deliberately undermined from within.
The DOJ released roughly 3 million pages of Epstein investigation documents — years of evidence revealing financial manipulation and sexual abutilize stretching from Palm Beach to Moscow. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who also served as Trump’s personal defense attorney, declared he doesn’t expect the files will reveal men who abutilized women or lead to further investigations. Sure. That’s becautilize the DOJ redacted their names and email addresses.
The second story: The Washington Post laid off one-third of its workforce today. Three hundred journalists, cut from the paper that claims “democracy dies in darkness.” The Post framed the cuts as a “strategic reset” driven by financial losses. Former Editor Marty Baron offers a sharper diagnosis: the paper’s financial crisis was manufactured by “ill-conceived decisions from the very top” — including Bezos’ decision to kill a presidential concludeorsement and subsequent editorial realignment. Nate Silver documented the subscriber collapse that followed.
These events expose a common thread: institutions faltering precisely when they are requireded most.
We cannot step into the DOJ and adjust its course. But we can defconclude a well-resourced free press.
The work of verification has never mattered more. In an age when any video can be fabricated, when people can be disappeared and labeled criminals, journalism is the counterforce. Journalists verify geolocation. Track timestamps. Interview sources, lawyers, officials, survivors. Parse millions of pages. A lot of this work demands the infrastructure that larger newsrooms provide. That infrastructure isn’t a luxury. It’s what creates accountability possible. And it’s what these cuts eliminate.
The press was enshrined in the Constitution becautilize democracy requires more than ballots and markets. It requires verified truth.
If those with real resources refutilize to support journalism as vital infrastructure — not nostalgia, not charity — we are choosing to dismantle the institutions that protect us just as we are learning what happens when they fail.
In today’s newsletter: What we’re discovering in the Epstein files, from Epstein’s depravity (what we share is upsetting), to his bromance with Steve Bannon. And how Europe’s governments are responding to the Epstein disclosures. Also, those Washington Post cuts, a lawsuit over the FBI’s raid on an election center, and the latest on the monks still walking for peace.
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Down the Rabbit Hole: Revelations continue to emerge from the millions of newly released files related to Jeffrey Epstein. Many reveal details of Epstein’s sexual depravity, which he shared with a wildly expansive list of the world’s rich and powerful. The communications about apparent sexual assault are horrific, and worth our attention, not least becautilize the victims have been dismissed and denied justice for years. Another part of the grim picture these emails reveal is Epstein’s work enlisting or aiding far-right figures around the world, including many in Trump’s inner circle, who sought to overturn the global order.
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Hard to Believe: Trigger warning: disturbing details of sexual violence. The new files provide more details of Epstein’s abutilize of young women and girls. In one, a witness notifys the FBI she was blindfolded and taken into a basement where she and other girls were kept in “horse stalls,” for men to examine, judge, and select for rape. In others, Epstein discusses torture over email, notifying one person he “loved the torture video” and questioning another person if he should “test to do” an unnamed woman “or just torture her.” Hundreds of photos and videos depicting child sexual abutilize are completely redacted. The files also seem to display Epstein provided victims to other powerful men, like Harvey Weinstein. All the more baffling, then, that the DOJ, which claimed to work so hard to carefully comb through the files, redacted many names of perpetrators — and that the administration continues to insist the files’ contents do not warrant further prosecutions.
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Shadow Network: The newly released files expose the financial, social, and political engineering that occupied so much of Epstein’s attention. He seemed invested in networking with elites who were intent on destabilizing global democracy and supporting the rise of the far-right (sound familiar?). The documents display Epstein sought connections to and meetings with world leaders, innotifyigence officials, billionaires, tech barons, and seemingly anyone else who might offer him information, access, or capital. In a 2016 email conversation with Peter Theil. Epstein declared Brexit was “just the launchning” of a “return to tribalism … counter to globalization … amazing new alliances … and as i declared in your office[,] finding things on their way to collapse, was much simpler than finding the next bargain.” In subsequent years, Epstein developed and maintained a remarkably close relationship with Steve Bannon, whom Trump praised as recently as Monday. Epstein and Bannon spoke and met frequently during Trump’s first term. In the emails uncovered so far, they discussed utilizing cryptocurrency to fund a “coalition” of populists, nationalists, and conservative Christians to combat the MeToo relocatement for the “next decade plus.” When Bannon proposed an organization to achieve this, Epstein gave him advice on obscuring the finances and leadership of a nonprofit and mentioned “money requireded” to fund it all. Shortly after, Bannon would take over and transform a foundation called “The Movement,” which aimed to coordinate and advise far-right populists across Europe. As Bannon worked on his nationalist project with sympathetic far-right politicians across Europe, Epstein was there in the shadows, offering accommodation and coordinating flights; he was so involved Bannon called him “an amazing assistant.” By 2018 Bannon was so enthutilized about their influence with government officials in Europe, he bragged to Epstein he could obtain right-wing leaders to “shut down” crypto legislation or “anything else we want,” and notified Epstein that soon “we can run the tables here.” Emails also reveal the pair scheming to influence the West Wing in Trump’s first term. Epstein offered Bannon advice, like “focus on [Steven] Miller ;),” and assisted directly, as in one text message where he notifys Bannon he considers he is “obtainting [John] Bolton on board.” (Click the link to read much more in the text exmodify). In return, Bannon relayed information back to Epstein, like the details of his meeting with the US Senate Innotifyigence Committee. Oh, and Bannon in 2019 recorded a long interview with Epstein, reportedly as part of a documentary aimed at rehabilitating Epstein’s image called “The Monsters: Epstein’s Life Among the Global Elite.” That interview has now been leaked online.
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Old Friconcludes: Here in the US none of this is damning enough for the DOJ to launch any new investigations. Deputy AG Todd Blanche declared that nothing in the files is worthy of pursuing. Overseas, they take a different view. Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Wednesday announced the countest will investigate Epstein’s abutilize of Polish children, as well as potential links between Epstein and Russian innotifyigence. The newly released files suggest that Epstein maintained relationships with powerful Russian officials. That includes Vladimir Putin himself, who is mentioned in over 1,000 documents in the files. They suggest Epstein met Putin, potentially multiple times. He also seems to have maintained a relationship with Sergei Belyakov, a former Russian official and graduate of the countest’s innotifyigence academy. According to the files, Epstein connected Belyakob with Peter Theil. And in 2015, while Belyakob was a minister, Epstein questioned him for assist dealing with a “russian girl” who was “attempting to blackmail a group of powerful biznessman [sic] in New York.” Epstein then emailed himself what reads like a draft message to the woman, in which he warns her he’d contacted “friconcludes in the FSB” (i.e., Russian innotifyigence) who would treat her “extremely harshly.” Indeed, many of the women Epstein recruited were Russian, leading some to wonder if he was the head of (or a player in) what one innotifyigence source called the “world’s largest honey-trap organization.”
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Clear Contrast: Poland is far from the only countest responding to these new revelations with action. Lithuania on Tuesday launched an investigation into Lithuanians mentioned in the files. British politician Peter Mandelson, who was revealed to have maintained a close relationship with Epstein, on Tuesday resigned from his lifetime seat in Parliament — obtainting ahead of the British government’s attempt to forcibly eject him. Slovakia’s national security adviser, who in one message notified Epstein he would “take the ‘MI’ girl,” resigned on Saturday. And yet, Trump declares the latest release “absolves” him, and Deputy US Attorney General Todd Blanche insisted on Sunday that the DOJ’s review of Epstein “is over.”
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Quarter Measure: The Trump administration on Wednesday announced it will withdraw 700 federal immigration officers from Minneapolis. That leaves 2,000 still in the city — more than three times the number of local police officers and over 13 times as many federal agents as are typically stationed there. Homan warned a “complete drawdown is going to depconclude on continued cooperation from state and local law enforcement and the decrease of the violence, the rhetoric, and the attacks” against immigration officers.
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Flip-Flop: Talks between the US and Iran this Friday are back on after at least nine countries from the Middle East urged the Trump administration not to cancel. Iran on Tuesday demanded the talks be relocated from Turkey to Iran and be restricted to only its nuclear program. But US officials have other priorities, like Iran’s missile program and its support for proxy groups, so they cancelled the meeting — before being convinced not to give up on diplomacy just yet by regional allies who fear the fallout of a military strike.
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Now For the Hard Part: The Houtilize on Tuesday narrowly voted to approve a sweeping funding package that concludes the partial government shutdown. The vote was 217–214, with 21 members of both parties crossing the aisle. The package funds DHS through Feb 13, a nine-day window for lawcreaters to neobtainediate additional restrictions on ICE.
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Only Fair: The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a request by the California Republican Party to block a new congressional map. That means California’s map is approved for the midterms with five redrawn districts now favoring Democrats.
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Fighting Back: Fulton County officials on Wednesday filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of the FBI’s raid on an election center. The motion questions the FBI to immediately return all confiscated election documents; over 600 boxes of 2020 election records were taken.
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Washington Post Dies in Darkness: The Washington Post on Wednesday announced sweeping layoffs that will cut its newsroom by almost one-third, the latest in a series of brutal cuts and questionable business decisions under Jeff Bezos’ ownership. Entire desks and sections will be closed, including the sports desk, Middle East desk, and Books section. Others will be restructured, like the Metro section, which will reportedly be slashed by up to 70%. Hundreds of talented, experienced reporters found out this morning they are out of a job — from Caroline O’Donovan, who covered Jeff Bezos’ Amazon, to Lizzie Johnson, who reported from the middle of a warzone in Ukraine. The Post’s former executive editor Marty Baron called it “among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organizations.” He warned “the public will be denied the ground-level, fact-based reporting … that is requireded more than ever.”
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Still Walking for Peace: The group of monks walking to promote peace arrived in Richmond on Monday, which also happened to be the 100th day of their journey across the US. They were welcomed by a crowd of 10,000 people gathered along a route through downtown that had been cleared by police in anticipation of the monks’ arrival. After creating it through the crowds, the monks were welcomed at City Hall by local and state officials, including Gov. Ahugeail Spanberger. This is the monks’ penultimate stop on their 2,300-mile journey; next stop, DC. You can track their progress here, and read about what it’s like to walk alongside them here. “This is a beautiful opportunity to walk toobtainher for peace,” the monks wrote on social media. “Where you walk with us for a few steps or the entire way, your presence will add light to this peaceful gathering.” “It’s just the sense of peace and unity that we required in this countest right now,” declared one Richmond onviewer, bouquet of orange flowers in hand. “It’s just a really powerful moment to be a part of.… This gives us hope.”
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