3571 - New Epstein Files Star Trump, Musk, Gates, Lutnick and more w/ Brace Belden

Summary

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The Majority Report with Sam Seder

Episode 3571 – New Epstein Files Star Trump, Musk, Gates, Lutnick and more w/ Brace Belden
Date: February 2, 2026
Guests: Brace Belden (Co-host, True Anon Podcast)
Main Theme: Analyzing the newly released Epstein files, implicating major figures like Trump, Musk, Gates, Lutnick, and others, and decoding the broader implications of these revelations for politics, media, and power.

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Episode Overview

This episode of The Majority Report is dedicated to dissecting the latest trove of Jeffrey Epstein files—a release containing emails, schedules, and tips tying powerful individuals (including Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Howard Lutnick, and Larry Summers) directly or indirectly to Epstein. Sam Seder is joined by Brace Belden from the True Anon Podcast to sift through fact, rumor, and context, and to discuss how these new documents reframe past narratives about elite involvement with Epstein, including the interplay between fact and conspiracy, particularly on the American right.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Genesis and Complexity of the Epstein Narrative

[31:08 – 39:00]

• Brace Belden explains the origin of the True Anon podcast, noting its roots in skepticism about conspiracy culture and the expectation that the Epstein story would fade after his death. Instead, it only deepened (31:08).
• The hosts discuss how liberal and mainstream messaging has discouraged “conspiratorial” thinking, yet the sheer scale of Epstein’s network is indisputable.
• Emma Vigeland suggests that “Pizzagate” and QAnon functioned as psyops, intentionally muddying the waters to make real stories about elite misconduct seem implausible—a key point echoed by Brace and Sam.

“How much of the idea that Donald Trump is coming in, according to QAnon, to clean up the very thing that he is about as much of a part of as really anybody short of Epstein… was out there as a way of just sort of like making any stories about this stuff seem ludicrous?” — Sam Seder (41:19)

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2. QAnon, Steve Bannon, and the Right’s Weaponization of Conspiracy

[33:00 – 41:19]

• The role of Steve Bannon and other right-wing operatives in amplifying, manipulating, and perhaps intentionally redirecting stories of elite child abuse, while the Trump camp was itself thoroughly entangled with Epstein.
• Brace Belden: “It was pushed by certain people in Trump world a lot. I’m thinking about Jack Posobiec and, and Steve Bannon, of course. The Steve Bannon thing I think is really interesting…” (34:16)
• The conversation links Bannon’s ties to Epstein not just as rumor but as part of documented communication and possible operational overlap.

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3. How QAnon Helped Defang the Epstein Scandal

[39:00 – 44:59]

• Sam and Brace discuss how QAnon spread enough hyperbolic misinformation to inoculate major news outlets against real reporting—anything about Epstein seems automatically unserious or tainted by association.
• The files are a mix of “wildly lurid” but unsubstantiated tips, actual emails, and direct evidence of deep involvement from the wealthy and powerful (41:19).

“It serves to sort of make everything seem pretty absurd… it makes it hard for I think the layperson to parse through what's real and what's not because they've been given so much information that… some of it's true, some of it's fake, but it's all kind of like blurred together…” — Brace Belden (41:19)

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4. New File Revelations: Musk, Gates, Lutnick, Summers and More

[44:59 – 66:12]

• Elon Musk: Epstein’s emails reveal repeated attempts by Epstein to connect with Musk and his brother, including arranging introductions of women to Musk’s brother and mutual trips (45:00–46:13). Musk lied about the extent of their interactions.
• Trump: Multiple documents, accusations, and sworn testimonies name Trump—including unreported and underreported sworn testimony—while Trump publicly distances himself and tries to stop document releases (46:13–50:28).
  • Notable: Differences addressed between anonymous tips and sworn testaments, with both appearing in files but only some substantiated (51:10–51:38).
• Howard Lutnick: Previously denied close ties to Epstein, but newly released emails show Lutnick emailing Epstein about trips to his private island—even after claiming he’d never associated with him outside a single, uncomfortable encounter (57:25–59:41).
  • Lutnick’s documented lies and denials illustrate the pattern of powerful men getting away with misleading the public.
• Larry Summers: Not previously implicated for financial or criminal activity, but new emails show him engaging with Epstein on possibly sensitive information relating to international banking (66:12–69:00).

Memorable Quote:

“Having an email that's like, awesome. See, when can I come to the, when can I come to the island? When can I bring my 12 year old to the island?… these people are lying and they're caught lying, but I think that unfortunately nothing really happens to them.” — Brace Belden (59:15)

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5. The Intelligence Angle: Epstein as “Connector” and Spycraft for Hire

[69:00 – 76:33]

• Ghislaine Maxwell’s familial ties to intelligence (MI6, Mossad, KGB) and Epstein’s international intrigue—as arms dealer, financial fixer, and “connective tissue” between intelligence figures in the US, UK, and Israel.
• Emma Vigeland: Raises a released FBI source email asserting Trump was “compromised by Israel” and Alan Dershowitz was an actual Mossad agent, who allegedly told prosecutors to lay off Epstein because he “belonged to intelligence” (70:21–71:54).
• Brace notes that Ehud Barak (former Israeli PM, ex-Mossad) was essentially a business partner of Epstein, underscoring how the real story is less about party affiliation or celebrity and more about pan-elite power.

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6. Epstein and the Art of Blackmail: Bill Gates Example

[76:33 – 81:30]

• Epstein memorialized a conversation with Gates about a venereal disease and surreptitious antibiotics for Gates’ (now ex-)wife, apparently as both a record and potential blackmail mechanism (76:33–78:33).
• The hosts analyze whether these “notes to self” are practiced leverages or just more evidence of Epstein’s paranoia, manipulation, and depth of knowledge about the weaknesses of the world’s most influential people (78:33–81:30).

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7. Will These Revelations Matter? The Culture of Elite Impunity

[61:48–64:07 & 85:55–88:13]

• The consensus is that, despite some public outcry, none of this will likely lead to meaningful legal or professional repercussions for most implicated figures—especially Trump, Musk, and Lutnick.
• Scandal fatigue and heightened partisanship mean the MAGA base is unlikely to care; for others, it's evidence of elite impunity.
• Discussion of what Democrats might do in the House if they retake control—congressional hearings could further expose, but would also test Democratic willingness to implicate their own (85:55–88:13).

“If this isn't one track of Democratic oversight… they're going to be able to do hearings on all of this… it's really just a function of how much do you want to embarrass Larry Summers, how much you want to embarrass the Clintons…” — Sam Seder (85:55)

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8. Hollywood vs. Real Power: “Pizzagate” and the Limits of Scapegoating

[92:11–96:08]

• Epstein’s records show minimal Hollywood celebrity involvement beyond Woody Allen and select individuals—contrary to “Pizzagate” right-wing narratives, which focused on Tom Hanks, Oprah, and others (92:11–93:39).
• Brace shares that sources saw Epstein repeatedly on the sets of Woody Allen’s films, sometimes with young girls present—reality considerably grimmer and more mundane than anonymous internet theories.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On the fog of conspiracy:

  “Kuhnen was so fucking… was so crazy that I think it kind of like infected… the way a lot of rightwing people think. They're willing to believe literally anything… but also it serves to make everything seem pretty absurd…” — Brace Belden (41:19)

• On elite double standards:

  “Now I feel like things have changed so much… you could be on the plane with Jeffrey Epstein… and nothing really happens to them.” — Brace Belden (59:15)

• On the real story:

  “He was somebody who served at the nexus of these very powerful people in the diplomatic world, in the financial world and in the military or military intelligence world.” — Brace Belden (75:10)

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Detailed Timeline & Timestamps

• 05:35 – 13:06: Special election in Texas and left-wing populism’s viability; Democratic win in a blood-red district suggests shifting Latino vote and GOP gerrymandering vulnerabilities.
• 31:08 – 39:00: The Epstein narrative, the founding of True Anon, and how the media has responded.
• 39:00 – 44:59: The harmful effect of QAnon’s intentional blurring of true and false; how it protected real conspirators.
• 44:59 – 46:13: New Musk emails; the strangeness of high-profile introductions post-Epstein conviction.
• 51:10 – 52:19: Trump abuses, anonymous tips versus sworn testimony, and media priorities.
• 57:25 – 59:15: Howard Lutnick’s exposed lies and emails requesting time with Epstein.
• 66:12 – 69:00: Larry Summers and the Vatican Bank’s opaque dealings.
• 70:21 – 71:54: Emails alleging Trump’s compromise by Israel and Dershowitz’s role as a Mossad asset.
• 76:33 – 79:24: Bill Gates, blackmail, and “memorializing” incriminating conversations.
• 85:55 – 88:13: Will Democrats pursue public hearings and oversight on Epstein’s ties?
• 92:11 – 96:08: The reality behind “Pizzagate”: lack of Hollywood presence; Woody Allen’s egregious connections.

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Flow & Tone

The episode blends irreverent skepticism, dark humor, and genuine concern for the chilling implications of elite impunity. The hosts toggle between granular document analysis and big-picture theorizing, regularly underlining the need for skepticism, context, and an understanding of power that transcends party and personality.

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Summary Takeaways

• The new Epstein files further confirm that his network of intimate, financial, and operational ties extended throughout the highest echelons of business, politics, and technology with little to no shame or caution, even after his first conviction.
• “Conspiracy” branding—especially through QAnon—was weaponized to neutralize real investigation and to confuse the public.
• The mainstream media, Democrats, and Republicans alike have all shown a reluctance to pursue the deeper narrative, often for self-preservation.
• Elite impunity remains the norm; despite piles of documentary evidence, substantial repercussions are unlikely—unless political winds shift dramatically.
• Popular focus on celebrities has served as a red herring for the far more consequential relationships between Epstein and those with actual power to move money, politics, and information on a global scale.

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For more, check out True Anon and The Majority Report’s continuing coverage as the document dump is combed through in the coming weeks and months.

Transcript

[Sam Seder]

Oh hi folks. You know we report on news and urgent news reports here. But the only emergency that my cat recognizes is when we are out of Smalls food. My cat of course has zero interest in politics except for how to lobby me to get more of those of those freeze dried snacks from Smalls that I get now too. This podcast is sponsored by Smalls. Is the news making you want to cuddle up with your cat? Well, Smalls Fresh food cat food is protein packed recipes made with preservative free 100% human grade ingredients that you'd find in your fridge and it's delivered right to your door for a limited time. You can get 60% off your first order plus free shipping when you head to smalls.com majority that's why cats.com named Smalls their best overall cat food. Starting with Smalls is easy. Just share info about your cat's diet, health and food preferences and then Smalls puts together a personalized meal plan for your cat. No more picking between random brands at the store. Smalls has the right food to satisfy any of any cats cravings. Still not a believer in Smalls? Forbes ranked Smalls the best overall cat food while Buzzfeed said my cats went completely ballistic for this stuff. After switching to smalls, 88% of cat owners reported overall health improvements. That's a big deal. My cats love my cats. My cat loves small loves, loves the bird broth pack and I've been thinking about doing the fish pack because I got some of the whatever you call them, snacks, but they're like in the tubes. The paste. Yeah, and he went crazy for the fish paste.

[Matt Lech]

Cats go insane for that.

[Sam Seder]

So I'm thinking about doing the fish broth and see how he does with the fish style food. You know like when you, when the cat's eating something and loving it, you stick with it. So I didn't move from the chicken, but now I could be fish oriented. Anyways, the teams at Smalls is so confident your cat's going to love their product that you can try it risk free. That means they'll refund you if your cat won't eat their food. This stuff is awesome and you feel good because your cat is eating healthy food. Stop guessing which meals upset their stomach for a limited time because you're a majority report listener. You get 60% off your first order plus free shipping when you head to smalls.com majority one last time. That's 60% off your first order plus Free shipping when you head to smalls dot com majority and they also have like, you know, like a variety pack so you can try out which flavor they love the most. You should check that out. And now it's time for the show the Majority Report with Sam Cedar. It is Monday, February 2, 2026. My name is Sam Seder. This is the five time award winning Majority Report. We are broadcasting live steps from the industrially ravaged Gowanus Canal in the heartland of America, downtown Brooklyn, usa. On the program today, Brace Belden, co host of the True Anon podcast to talk to us about this new trove of Epstein files starring Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Howard Lutnick, Bill Gates, Larry Summers and more. Star studded cavalcade of degenerates. Meanwhile, government partially shut down. Mike Johnson will attempt to pass the Senate bill tomorrow in the House, but it's getting tricky. Meanwhile, classified whistleblower complaint about Tulsi Gabbard has been stymied by Tulsi Gabbard. Interesting. Federal judge orders five year old Liam Ramos and father released finding that administrative warrants are insufficient under the fourth Amendment. Meanwhile, that same Texas detention center is on lockdown because of a massive measles outbreak there. Shocking Democratic win in Texas Senate race as a Bernie bro outperforms by 34 points in a special election. State Department sending $6.5 billion in weapons aid to Israel, bypassing Congress. Kennedy Center. Excuse me. The Trump Kennedy center to close for two years for renovation. Coincidentally, just when it becomes apparent no one is willing to play there. Pardon our dust. Wall Street Journal report. Trump got hundreds of millions of dollars payoff by Abu Dhabi royalty in the days leading up to the election via his crypto meme coin. And tomorrow 330,000 Haitians will lose temporary protected status. And the assault on Springfield, Ohio is probably just days off all this and more on today's Majority Report. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, Emma Viglen.

[Emma Vigeland]

Hello. Monday.

[Sam Seder]

Feeling better?

[Emma Vigeland]

Feeling better. Yes, Yes, I was fighting off the sickness Thursday, Friday kind of hit me in full force, but yes, feeling a lot better.

[Sam Seder]

Fighting off the sickness.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, well, I mean, there's a lot of sicknesses out there, but a sickness.

[Sam Seder]

When you say the sickness though, it.

[Emma Vigeland]

Sounds like this for being pedantic and it's, well, 10.

[Sam Seder]

She's talking about the Disturbed song.

[Matt Lech]

Okay, down with it.

[Sam Seder]

All right, well, I'm glad you didn't get the sickness because that would have been really bad.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, I got a sickness.

[Sam Seder]

Will soon receive their own med bed card. So much news. It was another one of those weekends we, you know, we tried to sort of like get back into our old format where we have a book interview on Mondays and then Tuesdays is news day. And it seems like as soon as we decided to do that, Fridays became like the massive news dump day. The first time I got ambitious here and booked authors for like a month out. Yes, two in a row. We may have to revisit that. Obviously a very busy Friday and weekend news. I mean people are barely talking about the partial government shutdown. I think it's probably because there's. They're playing around with the budgets or in part because some of the agencies that are underfunded have already been so decimated that we don't anticipate them functioning half the time anyways. We will get to that. There's going to be some, there's some votes that are taking place in the House today that are going to give a sense of what the strategy the Republicans are going to pursue in an attempt to pass the Senate bill, which you'll recall essentially funds everything except for puts DHS on a two week continuing resolution, in which case the Senate would have to come back and vote on that doing that again and the House would sign off on it. We'll see if the, if the Republicans can get a bill to the floor to support the Senate version. Unclear what Democrats at this point would vote across the aisle to push this. We'll see.

[Emma Vigeland]

Although Steny Hoyer And Jim Clyburn, two of the 80 year olds that are in the House are saying, please cave Democrats, rest of you please. We're the ones who have no future, but we want to dictate yours.

[Sam Seder]

Well, they may have a future. I suspect it has to do with lobbying with people who want the government open.

[Emma Vigeland]

You're in your 80s. Well, I forgot Clyburn's running for reelection as like an 85 year old man. So things are going great.

[Matt Lech]

Great to have such good leadership.

[Sam Seder]

I mean that's around the age where you want more sort of domestic help. And essentially, I mean that's what we know with Dianne Feinstein was doing.

[Brace Belden]

Right.

[Sam Seder]

Like you don't want to let go when you start to get your mid-80s. Like if you got people working for you, going to go and get your groceries, I mean it's too much change.

[Emma Vigeland]

And that's what's important here.

[Sam Seder]

All right, but let's get to this other story. You know, very difficult to extrapolate from special elections. However, this special election that took place in Texas last night, it was a Texas state Senate seat. These state Senate districts are actually in Texas larger than the congressional districts because there's just so many people there. This is a district where Donald Trump won the district by 17 points in 2024. That's obviously, you know, on year elections tons of Republicans come out. So and yesterday a Democrat, Taylor Remitt. And, and this is, you know, these are one of those seats where the Democrats aren't, you know, the Democrats aren't like lining up for the DCCC or you know, or you know, big Democratic donors not lining up to fund a race in this situation because there's very little chances of somebody winning. And this guy Remitt does not come from like the typical side of the Democratic Party that you would presume winning a blood red district in Texas.

[Emma Vigeland]

He's a union guy. He ran as more of a left, left wing style populist.

[Matt Lech]

Also anti voucher, very like vocally anti voucher pro public school.

[Sam Seder]

Vocally anti voucher pro public school. About housing, let me quote from his website. Housing isn't a luxury, it's a right. Taylor will fight to make housing affordable for the people who actually live and work in Texas, not the developers and hedge funds pricing them out. He support, he supports statewide rent stabilization, tenant protections and deep investment in public and nonprofit housing that working families can actually afford. I know we've been told by the tens of millions of dollars behind the abundance movement that we should not be focusing on demand side subsidies for housing in any way, but he is. Statewide rent stabilization, tenant protections and deep investment in public and nonprofit housing. Taylor believes renters deserve dignity, transparency and power. And he'll stop, he'll work to stop corporate landlords from turning Texas neighborhoods into profit machines. He also, as a union president and machinist, he believes in the backbone of Texas isn't the boardroom, it's the workshop floor. He supports reclassifying gig workers to guarantee benefits and will fight for apprenticeship pipelines. He will lead efforts to repeal anti union laws and expand collective bargaining, etc. So this is the Texas State Senate, 9th District, I think runoff. And he wins by approximately 15 points. So you can do the numbers there. You're talking, it's like a 32.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, I saw 31 written down. 31 point swing.

[Sam Seder]

32 point, 31, 32 point swing relative to what it was in this off year. I mean on year election now, 100,000 people voted, 95,000 or so and.

[Brace Belden]

Probably.

[Sam Seder]

Will turn out to be about 100,000 of 95% were reporting at that point. 100,000 people voting. Just to give you a sense in 2022 voting numbers were 275, I think we said, or 250. Around a quarter million for the 277.

[Matt Lech]

Yep.

[Sam Seder]

So obviously, you know, this is, it's not the same amount of people, but that's still considered a high turnout election. This is not like, you know, 17,000 to 12,000.

[Emma Vigeland]

And also, you know, I was reading a Texas Tribune article about it. How he did it was flipping a lot of Latino voters. And that is going to be the most important. Like, you know, Tallarico is, I think, the better candidate in that, in that race. Crockett was on record for the Senate saying that Latino Trump voters have a, quote, slave mentality. So I think that's not a great candidate to do to create the path that Democrats need to win the Senate potentially in the fall. Because if there has ever been a path, I mean, Beto o' Rourke came close. But if you see these Latino Trump voters swing the other way, stay home, or there's mass mobilization of these voters in response to ICE and the brutality of this administration, there genuinely is a path for a Democrat.

[Sam Seder]

Well, and the direct issue is, of course, the Texas Republican Party gerrymandered.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

And they gerrymandered believing that they had this massive support from Latinos.

[Matt Lech]

We realigned.

[Sam Seder]

Total realignment. And what this result indicates, aside from the fact that it's pretty amazing in any context to have a 30 point swing over the course of 15 months, what it indicates is that those seats which were gerrymandered to be Republican, relied on the assumption that Latino voters had now permanently switched to the Republican Party and were going to vote for these people. And so they diluted existing Republican districts, still maintaining a majority and added and strengthened other districts to make a Republican majority. But the problem is that there's only so many voters and there is speculation, of course, we can't know, but if these numbers can be extrapolated to the state of Texas, the gerrymander, instead of picking up four seats for Republicans, would garner three seats for the Democrats. So we'll see. Tough to make these predictions, but the other important thing is, is that Donald Trump is. This is, this is the. Oh, yeah. Okay, let's. Well, but let's play his tweet first. I want to see his tweet where he was endorsing this is a truth social media. This is Donald Trump on just a couple days ago. Lee Wamsagans. Yeah, real name Republican running for the state Senate in the suburbs of Fort Worth, Texas, will be a great candidate and has my complete and total endorsement a cte thank you for your attention to this matter. President Donald J. Trump There was several millions of dollars that came in from Republican organizations both in terms of what womped gas was able to raise and outside expenditures. About a half a million was really the only chunk of money that came in an outside expenditure for REM at the Democrat and so outspent 34 to 15 to 1. I'm not exactly sure what it was but significantly here's Donald Trump with his other truth social. I am asking all America first patriots in Texas ninth state Senate. This is pretty. Now listen, this could be read in a bunch of different ways. Is he really asking all American first.

[Emma Vigeland]

Patriots come to the principal's office now.

[Sam Seder]

Texas 9th State Senate district to please make a plan to get out and vote on election day for a phenomenal candidate. Lee Wamsagans is she's highly successful entrepreneurs make America grand. My very good friend Dan Patrick needs a strong conservative Republican to keep Texas red. The radical left Democrats are spending a fortune to beat a true MAGA warrior that.

[Matt Lech]

There'S one more we can skip.

[Sam Seder]

You can? Yeah. Okay. Today is the day to all voters in Texas night Senate get out and vote for a phenomenal candidate Lee Wamsengassen and keep Texas red. Polls close. It's. I mean this guy really made an effort and let's see if he's disappointed with the result. He's asked here just today or yesterday. Democrat won the special election in an area that you had won by 17 points.

[Brace Belden]

What is your reaction to that?

[Sam Seder]

I don't know. I didn't hear about it. Somebody ran where In Texas special election for legislators 9th state Senate SE. I'm not involved in that. That's a local Texas race. You mean I won by 17 and this person lost? Things like that happen.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

I don't care whether or not it's transferable. You know, I'm not on the ballot. So you don't know whether or not it's transferable.

[Matt Lech]

But.

[Sam Seder]

You put the Democrats in, you'll end up with open borders again. You'll end up with crime all over the place. We have no crime anymore. I mean think of it. The country has the lowest crime it's had in 125 years in recorded history. The year 1900. That's a long time ago. So it's very good. No, I don't know anything about it. I didn't know. I mean I know there's a race going there. It's too bad. What kind of say has nothing to do with it. I. I didn't know about it but I know enough not to be accused of having Alzheimer's or maybe he has cte. So. No, I have. I know. I know what day it is and so. But I didn't do anything with Donald. Did you eat these cookies? Nothing to do with me. Cookies. I know cookies exist so I'm not. I don't have a medical problem, but did I eat them? No. Obviously he doesn't want to or he.

[Emma Vigeland]

Didn'T truth those out. We've been speculating a lot about who's really behind some of his truth thing posting.

[Sam Seder]

I don't think that he wrote those without a doubt because they're not rambling fun or about him but I think about the ballroom. But he. I am quite sure he signed off on it. And I am quite sure because there's no way that if he didn't sign off on it, someone be in big, big trouble right now.

[Emma Vigeland]

This is why he signed off on it.

[Sam Seder]

Who is this Lee Wamson Gans. She's a little.

[Emma Vigeland]

A little old.

[Sam Seder]

Okay, I'll sign off. I'll sign off. Complete and total endorsement.

[Emma Vigeland]

New York 9, Texas 10.

[Sam Seder]

She looks really smart. Yeah. So I'm sure he signed off and I'm sure he was aware of it but I doubt he wrote the actual truth. Social here is the Democrat. Taylor Remt has not elected a Democrat in 25 years. 25 years. Everybody. From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for being involved in helping with this campaign tonight. This win goes to everyday working people. We will see you out there. So that's pretty good. Both encouraging from a perspective of what it could mean for the midterms and also encouraging because we have another example of a union left oriented populist winning now in any blood red state, not.

[Matt Lech]

Just Manhattan now, huh?

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. It wasn't just the commie corridor. Yeah, and we'll see how Graham Platner does. But we got some fundraising totals. Looks pretty good.

[Matt Lech]

It's that Fort Worth Commie corridor that got this guy elected.

[Sam Seder]

Exactly.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. It's almost like it's motivated reasoning when the Democrats tell us that this kind of politics doesn't actually work in other parts.

[Brace Belden]

All of like Larry Summers friends and.

[Matt Lech]

That those people tell us this can't work. Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

More like Tex Marks. Yeah, take.

[Brace Belden]

Take that.

[Sam Seder]

Do you think, I mean just as just an aside but do you think Neera Tanden scrolls through the Epstein files looking for people to appoint to the board of center for American progress crazy.

[Emma Vigeland]

Which is funny. She accused me of working for Steve Bannon or sounding like Steve Bannon because I criticize the Democrats, and turns out Steve Bannon's much closer to the nearest hand in circle than to ours.

[Sam Seder]

Maybe we'll ask Brace Belden that question in a moment. But the only other thing to think about too is that every time there's an indication that Republicans are going to get destroyed in the midterm elections, these rats are feeling even more cornered. And so they're going to move even quicker with their agenda and they're going to go even harder at attempting to figure out ways of somehow derailing this midterm election. We'll talk more about that, obviously, in the later in the show and in the coming days and weeks and months. In a moment, Brace Belden, co host of the True Anon Podcast, to talk about this massive trove of stuff in the Epstein Files this episode brought to you by Wild Grain Wild Grain is the first baked from frozen subscription box for artisanal breads, seasonal pastries and fresh pastas. Plus, all items conveniently bake in 25 minutes or less. Unlike store bought options, Wild Grain uses simple ingredients that you can pronounce in a slow fermentation process that can be easier on your belly and richer nutrients and antioxidants. There's no preservatives, no shortcuts. Wild Grain boxes are fully customizable. In addition to their variety box, they have a gluten free box. They have a vegan box and a new protein box. Honestly, I was a little skeptical about this. I got an order from Wild Grain. I got like sourdough bread that I think Brian somehow ended up walking away with. But also I didn't steal it. You gave it to me. I gave it to you somehow. But apple cider donuts, croissants, other like an Italian sort of like not quite focaccia, but type. And you put it in the oven and it's just literally in minutes. Honestly, your whole house smells like you're baking fresh bread. The stuff comes out. It is amazing. It is amazing because you don't anticipate like it's just, it's like making homemade bread except for you don't have any of the mess.

[Emma Vigeland]

And in the winter, oh my goodness, it's crazy.

[Sam Seder]

And it's all, all the stuff bakes under 25 minutes. You can literally just drop it in. It's great. And for the croissants, you know, I was able to give my kid, you know, mostly on weekends because during the week he doesn't, he doesn't eat breakfast but making them croissants and he's just like, these are good.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

Nothing like having artisan bakery in your freezer to chase away the winter chill. Now is the best time to stay in and enjoy comforting homemade meals with wild grain. I highly recommend giving Wild Grain a try right now. Wild Grain offering our audience $30 off your first box and you ready for this. Plus free croissant for life when you go to wildgrain.com Majority start your subscription today. That's $30 off your first box and free croissants for life. When you visit wildgrain.com Majority you can use the promo code Majority at checkout. We'll put all the information in the podcast and YouTube description. And also sponsoring the program Shopify. Starting something new isn't just hard, it's terrifying. You got a ton of work that goes into the thing. You're not sure it's going to work out and very difficult to make a leap of faith. Trust me, I understand it. When we started this podcast, I was terrified. I wouldn't even take a year long subscriptions for like the first three years because I was like, I don't know if I can. It may fall apart tomorrow. And then the next thing was like, you need a merch store. I don't want a merch store. It's going to be too much trouble. I don't know how it's going to go, blah blah, blah. Finally we got overwhelmed but and we decided we're going to do it. And that's why it really helps to have Shopify on your side to help. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10% of all e commerce in the US from household names to brands just getting started. The beauty of Shopify, it's completely turnkey. And the other beauty of it is super easy to manage. It keeps records for both irl. Like if you go like in our instance, if we do a live show, all of it combines with what we sold online but also you can integrate it with YouTube. So right now, below where I'm talking right now, you can buy stuff through our Shopify store but also Instagram and all the other, I assume TikTok. I don't go there anymore. We'll see about upscrolled. But the point being is that it integrates across all social media platforms and in real life they've got hundreds of ready use templates. Shopify helps you build a beautiful online store to match your brand style and it's like a marketing team behind you. You can create email and social media campaigns wherever your customers are scrolling or strolling and Shopify is your commerce expert. With world class expertise in everything from managing inventory to international shipping to processing returns and beyond, Shopify is always around to share advice with their award winning 24. 7 customer support. Tackle all those important tasks in one place from inventory to payments to analytics and more. No need to save multiple websites or try and figure out what platform is hosting the tool that you need. Everything is all in one place, making it easier. And did I mention that the iconic Shop Pay button that's used by millions of businesses around the world? It's why Shopify has the best converting checkout on the planet. It also helps boost conversions, meaning less carts going abandoned and more sales for you. It's time to turn those what ifs into with Shopify today. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com Majority Go to shopify.com Majority shopify.com Majority we'll put the link in the podcast and YouTube descriptions now. Quick break. We come back Brace Belden, co host of the True Anon Podcast. We are back. Sam Cedar, Emma Viglin on the Majority Report. It is a real pleasure to welcome to the program. Brace Belden, co host of True Anon the True Anon Podcast. I think I feel comfortable saying we're all fans and have watched the show or listened to the show. So it's a real pleasure to have you here. Thanks for joining us. You guys started your show basically around the the Epstein files, what like six now? 70 years ago maybe? What is so enticing about the Epstein story?

[Brace Belden]

There's a couple. Well, they're not caveats, but there's a few things I need to get out of the way first.

[Sam Seder]

Sure.

[Brace Belden]

The show is called True Anon and we named it that because it was sort of a send up because you know, this was during we started the show in 2019. It was all like the pizza gate, the QAnon stuff. And my firm advice to anyone out there who's ever going to name anything, no puns, no, don't do it and no time.

[Sam Seder]

This show was supposed to be sort of a joke.

[Brace Belden]

I know, but Majority Report? You're not thinking Minority Report, you know, which I maybe a lot of people do.

[Sam Seder]

No, it's not after the Minority Report, but a lot of people call it that. But nevertheless, go ahead.

[Brace Belden]

But it works. It works with, without puns in mind. True. Anon. I think has become increasingly difficult when I meet people to explain to them the genesis of the name. And so sometimes I just, hell, maybe I'll start saying I do the Majority Report. But, but we started the show sort of as a, I don't know what, me and my, my friend Liz, the co host of the show, were just talking about the Epstein stuff a lot and then he got arrested and then, then died in jail. And we did not really intend for it to be a long term thing, but it sort of just became one. We talked a lot about Epstein in the beginning. We covered a lot over the years, but we talk about a lot more than that. However, we definitely got our. I have read a lot of stuff over the years and talked to a lot of different people and boy, I could not have predicted that it would turn into what it's turning into right now.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, I would say that I didn't think I was interested in it until obviously his death in prison. And of course then you start to like, you know, there's a lot of liberal messaging that kind of teaches you not to be that conspiratorial or think about things in this manner when you're. And that facade, I guess, has broken a lot for me, especially when you see these emails and you see the extent of how connected he was. But like, I'm back to the beginning of your show, like QAnon and that whole phenomenon, I'm curious of, if you look back on that in a very different manner here, given the revelations that we've had, like the extent of Steve Bannon's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, makes me think about that time period very differently. I think about how obviously Trump went on the offensive against Hillary Clinton and brought Bill Clinton's accusers of sexual assault to the second debate and that they were both kind of embroiled in the Epstein scandal. And it's like Trump went on the offense on that and tied the Democrats to that with the pizza gate conspiracy and all of that. But now you're seeing that Trump was even maybe more connected than Clinton himself. So the question is, is like, was Pizzagate a psychological operation basically that the Republicans engaged in?

[Brace Belden]

You know, it's interesting. I, I have kind of had suspicions about the Pizzagate QAnon stuff from the beginning because it was pushed by certain people in Trump world a lot. I'm thinking about Jack Posobiek and, and Steve Bannon, of course. The Steve Bannon thing I think is really interesting. It's hard to know how Much of his like bullshit mythos to buy and how much is him kind of like putting up a front of how like he's this Machiavellian character, but to, to see how much he was kind of pushing that angle of stuff or that sphere of stuff, sometimes a little subtly and then sometimes much less subtly and then to have these, these revelation after revelation or document after document come out of him coordinating with Jeffrey Epstein not only about Jeffrey Epstein's like reputation rehabilitation, but also about things that are going on in Trump world in the government and things are going on with Steve Bannon, sort of like international dealings. At one point it seems like him and Epstein are coordinating meetings with Sebastian Kurz, the Prime Minister of Austria. You know, there's a, there's a sort of, a lot of rumor trading and information trading about what's happening in the Trump White House or within like sort of Trump land in general too. You know, it, it is hard. And then I haven't actually looked into this part yet from the new Epstein documents, but it is kind of crazy in this sort of like, I don't know what kind of way, maybe even in a new way to see that, that Epstein himself was meeting with, with the guy who founded 4chan at one point in like 2014. I gotta be honest with you guys, I have never used 4chan. I don't, I don't. I hope I never will. I'm Christ, I'm 36.

[Emma Vigeland]

But, but that's where QAnon came out of 4chan. I mean this is where I want to emphasize this, like the fact that Republicans were quite aware and the Trump administrator or Trump campaign was quite aware that this was a conspiracy theory that was brewing. They co opted it effectively for years and years to be just about Democrats and used it to their advantage in. And now we see that of course he was just as embroiled in it. So it's, they were quite successful, it seems like in deflecting and I don't know, I mean, I just wonder how far back it goes.

[Brace Belden]

No, I'm with you on that. And it is interesting about the Bill Clinton stuff, right in that Bill Clinton had, and we sort of have a shape of his involvement with Epstein. You know, it took place over like what, like six or seven, eight years? A little bit when Clinton was in the White House and then definitely some afterwards. Trump and Epstein had from all appearances a pretty similar relationship where they hung out. You know, Epstein flew on the Lolita, or excuse me, Trump rather flew on the Lolita express, seemingly, you know, there's pictures of Bill Clinton meeting some of Epstein's young ladies during the trip to Africa. There's now, you know, it looks like quite a lot of evidence that Trump had met and certainly was aware of Epstein's recruiting from Mar? A Lago. The funny thing about this, though, is that, like, Trump is able to and also like, you know, Juanita Broderick, I think the one we were talking about who was brought to the State of the Union was the State of the Union or whatever was brought.

[Sam Seder]

Yeah, the debate.

[Brace Belden]

Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, obviously Trump has also been accused of sexual assault by multiple people at this point. You know, there's, there's a lot of mirrors in, in their relationship with, with Jeffrey Epstein. But I think the big difference is, is this was really popular on the right and this was, I mean, talking about Jack Posobe, you know, a little less so Steve Bannon. I mean, this was something that was hammered over and over and over and over again that Jeffrey Epstein was like a uniquely Democrat sort of, I don't know what problem. And I mean, it's, it's. And he was friends with quite a few Democratic politicians and donors, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, but I think especially from the Bannon stuff and like the Ehud Barak stuff, although he is, I guess, on the liberal side of Israeli politics, you know, compared to, compared to Netanyahu or I guess in the Israeli context, you know, he doesn't really have. I would say Epstein is relatively nonpartisan in many ways. And, and certainly, I mean, his relationship with Bannon shows he is really willing to be friends with anyone and he sort of cheers on Bannon's European exploits and seeks to help him whenever he can.

[Sam Seder]

I. Maybe we should. Well, I guess the only other question to talk about this and then I want to go back and get into this sort of trove and where that takes us. But how much of the idea of, you know, that, I mean, sort of teasing out Emma's potential theory that this was a psyop? I mean, in the sense.

[Emma Vigeland]

Q.

[Sam Seder]

Well, in the sense that like, you know, we know that one of like, sort of long term, I think sort of conservative tactics is to attack people at your own weakness and attack their strength, et cetera, et cetera. And how much of the idea that Donald Trump is coming in, according to QAnon, to clean up the very thing that he is about as much of a part of as really anybody short of Epstein. How much of it? Also, I think the fact that QAnon and this gets to Emma's point about conspiracy. The fact that QAnon was harping on this in many respects sort of acts as, you know, classic rat af, which is you have, you do a limited hangout essentially with a untrustworthy narrator that everybody agrees is untrustworthy, and then what is released, that whole story becomes fan fantastic, you know, fanciful and too fantastic and fabulous and we're not gonna believe it, but now we're looking at this and it's like, I don't know if there was a network of child trafficking, you know, throughout, but it sort of, sort of looks like it. And certainly like I don't like who's missing from the list of people who are powerful over the past 20 years from that list, you know, outside of like maybe some celebrity stars, but in terms of politics, like everybody seems to be there, you know, short of like Robert Rubin. I gu. And but so what is your sense of that? Like how much of what. You know, I don't know how much of this was out there as a way of just sort of like making any stories about this stuff seem ludicrous?

[Brace Belden]

Well, I think it doesn't help in that Kuhnen, I mean, Kuna was so fucking. Excuse me, I don't know if I'm allowed to swear so. Was so crazy that I think it kind of like infected not only the way like a lot of right wing people think about stuff where they're willing to believe literally anything. I mean, I think there's a lot of conspiratorial thinking going around, but like, I mean some of the stuff that I've talked to Republicans about, I mean, it's just, it defies belief that you could believe in these things and still go about your day to day life. But also it serves to sort of make everything seem pretty absurd and there's so much kind of like fake stuff out there about the Epstein stuff. And it's in so many kind of unreliable people who especially like Posobiek or any of these people who are sort of like, given that that binder by Pam Bondi at the beginning of the, the second Trump administration, that kind of. That have added so many layers of just bullshit to all of this that it makes it hard for I think the layperson to parse through what's real and what's not because they've been giving so much information that. And so some of it's true, some of it's fake, but it's all kind of like blurred together on social media where like really lurid stuff. And like, I'm talking about some of the stuff that's like, in the FBI tips that, that. That were just put out in this new stuff. And then some of that is like. Which is. Which is like, clearly not true is mixed in with stuff that like, does seem to be true. And you know what, what, what it's. I think what I've sort of been interested in is I never thought that, like, Epstein was trafficking girls over email, although it looks like within the case of Jess Staley that that might have been the case. And there are sort of, sort of some oblique references, certainly in the. The message notepads taken from his house in Palm beach in the original investigation. There definitely seems to be some references, especially the phone calls from Jean Luc Bernal. But what's more is Epstein sort of place in the. In the international business world. I think what. We're almost beyond any of the traffic and stuff, really what. That's what we're learning from these new tranches. He was so enmeshed in these worlds. And, you know, I just want to take an example. And that's just because I was looking at this right before we. We went on. Right here is Elon Musk, right? You know, in 2012, it looks like he's. He's. According to emails and God knows what other messaging was used. And of course, you know, there's phone calls and things like that obviously are not recorded here. But he's having lunch with Elon Musk and Boris Nikolaik, which was like Bill Gates sort of secondhand man who introduced him to Jeffrey Epstein. And within a month, he's hanging out with them again and Nicholas Pritzker, and they're introducing Kimbal Musk, Elon's brother, in the mix. And then a month later, Jeffrey Epstein appears to arrange a relationship between Kimbal Musk, Elon's brother, who's on the board of Tesla, and all these things at least kind of like a little bit of a loser brother to a woman that Kimball must. Gets in a relationship with. Shortly after that, Elon's asking about partying in St. Barth, say, and. And. And Epstein Island. And it does, I have to say, appear that Jeffrey Epstein and Elon Musk, two of the worst emailers of all time. Elon does not really seem to understand what Jeffrey Epstein is offering. And I.

[Emma Vigeland]

Language.

[Sam Seder]

He's.

[Brace Belden]

He's. Because at one point Epstein's like, I don't know if your wife's gonna like the ratio. He's like, my wife doesn't Mind the ratio. And. But it doesn't appear that that Elon did go to the island in 2012, 2013, where those emails are from, although I think that they might have party on St. Barth's, I don't know. But then shortly after that, Elon Musk is arranging a private tour of SpaceX in Southern California for not only Jeffrey Epstein, but three other women that Jeffrey Epstein brings. And then according to some schedules that are in there, and this, this I can't say for sure, but Elon had just moved to Bel Air, and Epstein's schedule for the day shows that he's going to Bel Air with the girls and Elon afterwards. And so that's just like. And then later, both the girl and Kimball are emailing Elon for, For, excuse me. Or emailing Jeffrey Epstein for advice in their relationship. And so like, that's just like a small nugget of how enmeshed he was with his people. Remember, this is, this is years after he got out of jail for his conviction. There's been a million New York Post articles. If you are a wealthy guy, your secretary should be like, actually, maybe don't hang out with the convicted pedophile guy. That is not stopping a single person, it looks like, from hanging out with him.

[Sam Seder]

Well, and I want to get into that, like, sort of, you know, we saw an exchange with him and Larry Summers in the Last Trove that was also sort of very similar. Like, you know, like, you would talk to like, your, you know, he was a senior when I was, you know, a freshman in high school. And so I asked, you know, it's like a scene out of like, Fast Times at Ridgemont High where the guy's like, you know, you always play this song from Led Zeppelin. And. But, but before we get there, let's talk about specifically, like, what's in this trove so far about Trump. Because it is hard for me to discern from just like, looking on Twitter because I'm not there enough to sort of like, pick out, like, is this real? Because then I go to the, you know, the Times, and most of the stories in the, the media, like, they seem to not want to get near this stuff too. In the same way that, like, this is sort of Qanoni and very little seems to be reported there. Like, I am almost to the point where, you know, as I go through the news, think they put those pictures of victims in and they didn't redact the names of those victims just as a way so that that would be the headlines as Opposed to other things that are in there that are. Obviously, it's material. It's obviously. I mean, I'm sure it has, it has value in terms of, like, keeping people quiet. But, you know, once your name is out there and once your pictures are out there, you sort of like, what's, you know, it's all.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, they're worried about worse. I mean, they think they might get killed by these people. And they have reason to believe that.

[Sam Seder]

Yeah, fair, fair. But I also think there was certain value in terms of media. Like, it's much safer for the New York Times to report this. DOJ is completely inept and they're bungling versus, hey, there is a sworn testimony. I mean, Ruben Gallego tweeted out, this is sworn testimony from accuser of Donald Trump of, like, heinous things. And I'm looking around, like, in the Times, and it's as if it's not there. I just. What's your take on that?

[Brace Belden]

Well, so I actually, I have not looked at the new Trump stuff. I mean, there's millions of documents, and I was also out of town when they dropped in Minneapolis. When they dropped.

[Sam Seder]

We're not accepting any excuses.

[Brace Belden]

I'm sorry.

[Sam Seder]

I'll get right to it.

[Brace Belden]

But there's a pattern that has definitely been established with Trump's relationship to this stuff. Now, Trump has actually himself been significantly more cautious about directly bringing up Epstein and especially about the release of any documents. And, like, you know, I'm sure you guys covered this, but, like, you know, him, him pressuring people to, to not sign on this, the discharge petition to, to get these released. JD Vance was out there saying, oh, you know, we need to release the documents. During the, during the, during the election, Trump was much more cautious and had to be sort of walked into it by reporters on the two occasions that he talked about it. He has since lied multiple times about his involvement. Obviously, he's still, I don't know if he's still suing Rupert Murdoch over the Wall Street Journal printing that letter from the birthday book. I don't know if he dropped that suit now that the letter has been released by Congress, but he's denying, denying, denying, denying. And then it comes out more that it certainly people were aware, and it seems like he himself were aware that Epstein was recruiting very young teenage girl, at least one very young teenage girl employee from Mar? A Lago. And Trump really didn't do anything about it. That Trump might have been at the house at Epstein's mansion in Florida while there were teenage girls there you know, it seems like, you know, I don't know if Trump was involved more directly in anything, but at the very least he was turning a blind eye to it. Which in I feel like in normal times or normal presidency would be huge. I mean, that would be a huge story.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, it's presumed to be Virginia Giuffre, right. I mean, she was trafficked from Mar A Lago. She died in Australia, I believe was the first kind of public victim to come out in this manner. But I mean, there is, in the files that were released, there are a bunch of different accusations. There are complaints that are from anonymous tips where it's difficult to discern, but we should say with all of those caveats, one of the complaints included someone saying that Trump got oral sex from a 13 year old and then hit her when she bit him. And then that was deleted from the DOJ website.

[Sam Seder]

Well, we should be clear. There's a difference between accusations and tips and sworn testimony. Obviously one is subject to perjury, the other. And also in terms of like what would be anticipated released. Because if it is just a tip line, that is highly inappropriate to. But, but if it's sworn testimony, it's a different, it's more appropriate to release that type of thing.

[Brace Belden]

But is that right? I was sort of surprised. I mean, the whole thing is actually totally unprecedented, to be honest. Like, I actually cannot think of another time in history when, you know, Jeffrey Epstein obviously was convicted or he made a plea deal actually in, in 2008, he was not convicted this second time. I mean, obviously Ghislaine Maxwell was and some of these files are from her case. But like, it's kind of fucking crazy that they released just like everything from these files or not everything, we don't know, but they released it.

[Sam Seder]

If the estate also had to waive like any type of. Because it seems to me the estate would have, would have been able to say, like, you're not allowed to do that. I have no.

[Brace Belden]

I mean, that's the thing is I have no idea how this is even logistically possible. But I mean, obviously they've, they've. I mean, there's been some reporting that they've had like hundreds of people working overtime to censor stuff. And so you can see some stuff is actually redacted and then they'll release the same email with it unredacted. So it's been released, like you were saying, the New York Times report, as it has been released in this sort of haphazard manner. But like I, you know, them Putting up the tip line stuff and then taking it down, it's like that was mystifying to me because A, yeah, I think it's, it's kind of crazy to put tip line stuff up there in the first place, but B, taking it down just makes you look so much worse.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes. And also one of the tips in there included this detail about these Alexander brothers who are currently on trial for trafficking, sex trafficking, and have been accused by dozens of women of rape. And that tip line, it's a separate tip, but that would have been years and years ago. And I feel like it adds credibility to some of the statements here because they're only, it's only public in 2024, 2025 that these guys were running sex trafficking, rape ring and they were accused years and years ago. So my point is we don't know which tips are true and which aren't. It's unprecedented for them to be released in this manner. But there is a level of consistency in terms of the actual problem is.

[Sam Seder]

You released that tip and if I'm the defense attorney for those guys, mistrial done like, you know, the fact that, that, that, that other information could have been made public by the doj, that actually helps the defense in that particular case.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes. I mean just, I'm specifically talking about just like the, the files in and of themselves and there's a consistent pattern. I don't know.

[Sam Seder]

So the tape stuff. Go ahead.

[Brace Belden]

Oh, sorry, I don't mean to interrupt, but I do think it's interesting that they, the doj and I think even with written within into the law has said that anything related to an ongoing investigation or to like persons of interest is not going to be released. Now, we don't know there. I don't think they're even, I think that they have to. Legally I should have the law in front of me, but whatever. I remember this. I think legally they have to give reasons for not releasing documents. I don't know if they have to say how many they're releasing or like what in general that those contain. But we don't know if these are all the documents. Certainly they released what they said was all of them and then turns out there's millions more and some of these, in fact almost all, not all of them, but a lot of the ones that I've seen. I can think of no reason why they would never release these in the previous dump of documents. I mean, it's just, it's, it's. Some of them are just like continuations of other ones and and yeah, I think that, like, I do. I am skeptical that they would release anything that would really damage Trump considering, like, in a, in a legal way, considering this, which is that, that Pam Bondi. And it seems like DOJ's directive. And Trump has been very active in, in, in management of the doj, has, has their number one priority has been to do damage control for Trump and, like, and to make sure that, like, this stuff does not get to him. And so there was, there was some reporting on Trump being alerted or, like, a report being prepared for him about his mentions in the files when they were originally being looked at. And I am skeptical that the DOJ would release documents that could be legally actionable. Really. I mean, there's definitely some stuff in here that seems legally actionable against other people, but against Trump, I doubt it. I mean, that's. That Pam Bondi is. She is not known for her legal acumen or for her, I guess, acumen in general. She's known for her loyalty, and I think that that's coming primary with this stuff.

[Sam Seder]

And we should also say, like, there is a real sort of, like, mechanical competence issue about stuff like this. You have people in the U.S. attorney's office in New York City who could go into the, could walk across the street and go into private practice making millions, who are now doing document review, which is basically like the first job that you get when you go to any law firm and they're in there and they're. And it is miserable. And the idea of, like, people at one point just going like, I don't give a shit about this, and just sort of like, putting stuff in a pile. That's a very real possibility. And particularly if they know, well, if it has to do with Trump, I can get in big trouble. But this stuff about Bill Gates or Larry Summers or even Lutnick. Let's talk about Howard Lutnick, because I find this fascinating. We played a clip this, let's play this clip. Just a clip of that clip. I don't know, it was like a couple of months ago about Howard Lutnick, talking about when he met. The one time he met Jeffrey Epstein, who, who lived next door to him, and he was just this New York.

[Emma Vigeland]

Post reporter was like, buttering him up, played him like a fiddle, and he got a little too comfortable.

[Sam Seder]

Well, no, that's what we thought at the time. But this, the revelations now sort of put that into a different light. Go ahead.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

I say to him, massage table in the middle of your house. How often you have a Massage. And he says every day. And then he, like, gets, like, weirdly close to me.

[Brace Belden]

Oh.

[Sam Seder]

And he says, and the right kind of massage. Now my wife is standing here. So she looks at me and I look at her, and we say, I'm sorry, we have to go. And we left. And in the six or eight steps it takes to get from his house to. To my house, my wife and I decided that I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again. Okay. So as long as my wife is there, too, right? And at the time, we were like, oh, Lutnick went way out of bounds because he really left Trump out to pass here. But now we see in this revelation. This is Mike Baker from the New York Times that Lutnick. That include an email from Lutnick about bringing his family and others to visit Epstein at his private island, Little St. James.

[Emma Vigeland]

So he said that was 2005. Right. And then 2012 was when he.

[Matt Lech]

This email was from the 2005 is before 2012.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes.

[Sam Seder]

Yes. Okay. All right. Thank you for the. That's a math problem. And Lutnick reached on the phone, said he could not comment because he had no. Not seen the documents and claimed that he spent zero time with Epstein and then hung up. I mean, so he spent even less.

[Brace Belden]

Time than he admitted before.

[Emma Vigeland]

Go to the fifth slide, too, because it can it. Here we go. But it does suggest. So he's denying. Even though he emailed him about wanting to go to the island, he's denying that it ever happened. But there is an. A message from Epstein's assistant forwarded Lutnick a message from Epstein. Seen. Nice seeing you. So there's very little plausible deniability there for. For Lutnick.

[Brace Belden]

I'll tell you, when he was telling. Telling that story. It's not. Listen, and this is. I'm gonna get a little more advice to the audience. If you're Jewish out there, we can't be talking like this right now. We can't be doing the Jew voice doing your New York Post interview. We have to be doing. We have to be talking a little more like this right now because. Because we've been. We've our reputation up. And so it's just, guys, let's. But. But I don't know why he thought these people are stupid. If I was like, oh, yeah, I was. I was hanging out with Jeffrey Epstein a little bit. I'm not. Maybe you do the New York Post damage control thing. You'd be like, I was on. You know what? I was on antidepressants back then. And I thought, you know, sometimes you kill people when you're on those. You know, I just was like, maybe I'll just be not depressed and hang out with this guy. And, and it. Having an email, that's like, awesome. See, when can I come to the, when can I come to the island? When can I bring my 12 year old to the island? And then, then the nice seeing you thing, it's like these people are lying and they're caught lying, but I think that unfortunately nothing really happens to them. And so if you remember, Trump turn one, Alex Acosta had to resign from being Labor Secretary because he oversaw this plea deal. There are, I mean, which is obviously a very egregious instance of, of, of, of this kind of stuff happening. But now I feel like things have changed so much that you could be on the plane with Jeffrey Epstein. I mean, Peter Mandelson was like one of his best friends. It was proven. He was the fucking, he was the fucking ambassador to, from the UK to the US until like five months ago. You know, it's, it's like, it is just. He resigned from the Labor Party yesterday. I mean, it is just. It is, it is. I think a lot of these, the, the bar for actually getting into trouble and for trouble actually mattering, I think has been either lowered or raised.

[Sam Seder]

Well, it's impossible to get fired from the Trump administration in this iteration.

[Brace Belden]

Yes.

[Sam Seder]

For scandal. It's impossible. We've pruned it. I mean, there's no, there is no scandal. They understand that. All it does is give Trump more leverage over these people and commands their loyalty more. I don't think it was a coincidence that on Friday Lutnick is sitting in, you know, next to Trump in the Cabinet thing going, this country is so much better because of your great powers and policy. I mean, literally, do you think it's.

[Emma Vigeland]

A coincidence that this came out too? No, no. I mean, because if Trump saw that post interview and goes, you're going to throw me under the bus. This is the directive. I mean, that, all of that stuff like about, I mean, Elon, Elon. Why did all that stuff come about, out about Elon and Lutnick? These were two guys close to Trump that threw him under the bus about the Epstein files. Is that not true?

[Sam Seder]

It's crazy.

[Brace Belden]

And Elon, Elon's thing is, Elon is. It's the same thing with Lutnick. Elon directly lied, including in SpaceX, directly lied multiple times when he denied the allegation, which was like, was Sort of reported on by, by anonymous sources. I believe to Business Insider that Jeffrey Epstein had received a private tour is SpaceX. Elon says, I don't know what you're talking about. This never happened. You know, he sort of makes mention of like having met Epstein a couple times, but of course he was really grossed out by him. It is 100. I mean this is, I don't know how else you can interpret these emails. There's no alternative explanation, but they just are lying. Because not only that, I think a lot of the MAGA base, there's some people who are like mad about this. But I think in the long run this is not going to be something and I could be wrong. Let's. Maybe I am, maybe I, or maybe I will be. But, but I don't think that this is going to actually like if you love Elon Musk in 2026, your brain is. There's something, I mean, it's like, I don't even know why would this bother you?

[Sam Seder]

You know, now people are locked in. I mean, I think at the end of the day this doesn't, this doesn't really impact that 30, 35% that will always support Donald Trump. It does not matter whatsoever as far as they're concerned. This is like the perfect honeypot and it's going to, he's going to be able to roll up everything and change.

[Brace Belden]

Trump was, Trump knew it was happening, but he's a white hat and he was, he was actually catching them so that he would be president. Of course he could later release it and then Reid Hoffman goes down.

[Sam Seder]

But I think, I think, I think what it is going to do is it may, there may be a couple of people, I mean honestly, like literally a couple, but maybe one of them is just a congressperson or something like this. I mean it's going to impact few. But I think the other, the real stuff that's going to come out about this is really more like Neera Tanden has a lot more, you know, a lot more troubles on her plate today than she did a week ago and more a week ago than she did six months ago in terms of like, you know, the water she swims in. Let's talk about also this. Larry Summers is in an email this time not asking for advice as to like what color sweater he should wear when he goes out with some 19 year old or something, but it's about like the Pope. And. Yes. Have you not seen this one? Because this is, I was asking, I wanted to ask you about this because I Don't know. He writes. In 2013, the most important change in the Vatican may not be Pope Benedict's sudden retirement, but the change in leadership at the Institute for Works of Religion, the Vatican's bank. Because of the Vatican status as a sovereign country, it's exempt from transparency rules not only of Italy, but of the European Union. This status allows its elite clients to evade any scrutiny in their money transfers. Last May, Vatican bank president Etorigati Tedeschi was fired after Italian authorities opened an investigation into a far flung bribery scheme which he was allegedly involved there. Then 47 dossiers, including compromising about internal enemies of his in the Vatican were found in the search of his home. They had instructions on how they were used. This case, if something happened to him. I mean, on and on. It sounds like maybe the Vatican's bank was involved in some type of money laundering scam.

[Brace Belden]

Well, you know that.

[Sam Seder]

That's from Epstein to Larry Summers. Yes.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

Okay. Yes. Set it up the other way. Oh, sorry. Yes. Forgive me. And. And so this is like. It's unclear, like why Epstein's even bringing this up to Larry Summers as if like, if it's like some backdoor tip or if it's just sort of like trying to give Epstein information so that Epstein is in a position to get. I mean, Summers is in a situation to give Epstein. But it's also like in and of itself is an interesting story that I'm not sure we heard about.

[Brace Belden]

Yeah, yeah, it is. I mean. Institute for Works and Religion. It's Institute for Works and Religion. Right. What's it. What's it for?

[Sam Seder]

Works of religion.

[Brace Belden]

Works of Religion. Excuse me. Which is. Which is money? Actually not. That's a. Interesting one. But. But they were the main shareholder holders, of course, in Banco Ambrosiano, who's I believe President Roberto Calvini. Was it Roberto. Roberto Calvi. How am I forgetting this? Roberto Calvi caused a lot of trouble in Italy in the 1980s, but it was sort of a nexus between the mafia, between elements of CIA Stay behind organizations and terrorist organizations. Black terror, they would call it, like fascist terrorist organizations. And of course, the Catholic church in the 1980s. The Catholic banking stuff is really interesting because you're right, it is a sovereign country. And also their income is. Comes them in strange ways. And there's very little. There's very little transparency there and not a lot of people willing to talk. And it also, it is. I mean, it is located in Italy, obviously in the Vatican. Vatican. Although I don't know if the bank is in the Vatican Bank. It's Vatican's. Not very big. But it's crazy. Like they're. They really. I mean, all the stuff with the Gulf, we did not know about that prior to this stuff. I mean, you know, Epstein, one of his best friends, is the chairman of DP World. You know, you have his involvement with people in, well, the. The diplomatic establishment, but then like, yeah, you have him like the international diplomatic establishment, but like, you have. You have him seen as somebody to confide this stuff to and like, as somebody who, if you give him this information, he knows who to give the information to or how to connect you with people that you can utilize whatever information that you have. So, like, you actually really do see Epstein's strength as a connector come through here in a lot of the emails.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, it's interesting because I was doing a little revisiting. I rewatched the Peacock documentary on Ghislaine Maxwell, if people want to watch that. Has a lot of really good information in there. One of them being that her father, Robert Maxwell, was both heavily involved in the KGB and heavily involved in Israeli intelligence. He got a state funeral in Israel. And then you see how he was really involved in arms trading. And then Epstein comes along and he fills a very similar role in the Maxwell circle with his daughter Ghislaine. And he was involved in arms trading, too, and obviously clearly some weird financial dealings, but also intelligence. And then of course, the sex trafficking was his trade, too. And then you have this 2020 confidential FBI source email that comes out in this, which says the FBI source claimed in one of these files, one that Trump was, quote, compromised by Israel. The other is, is that Alan Dershowitz was the one apparent who they claim Dershowitz was working for Mossad, and that Dershowitz was the one to tell Alex Acosta that Epstein belonged to intelligence and to leave it alone. Now, this is an. I think that the confidential FBI source or the informant, whoever is working for them, that's a step above, of course, this tip line.

[Brace Belden]

Yeah.

[Emma Vigeland]

So I'm curious about your take on that, because we've talked about this around the office a lot. But, you know, he's. It's not like he worked directly for Mossad. He worked on the behalf of other government interests as well. He's almost like a spy for hire at the highest level for a variety of different governments. But obviously the Israeli connection is significant.

[Brace Belden]

Well, so I saw, and I have not confirmed this myself, but I saw a couple people claim that that confidential source was none other than Chuck Johnson, who is, I believe, currently incarcerated.

[Sam Seder]

I think he's about to get out. But yes, claim that, that Chuck Johnson was the source of that.

[Brace Belden]

It would, it would line up a little bit with it being Johnson. And especially because Johnson loves betraying his friends. And of course he was very good friends with Alan Dershowitz, which is. Can you imagine being.

[Sam Seder]

He worked for him or something, didn't he?

[Brace Belden]

Certainly did, yeah. And I think retained a pretty good relationship with him afterwards. Actually just saw a video of somebody talking to Johnson's parents on the street outside the courthouse in Texas, where his dad claims he was also good friends with Benjamin Netanyahu as well, which is. Can you. What a, what a trio. Dursh Johnson and, and Ben. Oh my God. But, but I can kind of see, see it being Johnson.

[Sam Seder]

I, does that make it more or less credible?

[Emma Vigeland]

I, I mean, also the email from Epstein saying I'm not Mossad. Winky face.

[Brace Belden]

I mean, a little bit the, the, the, the basic fact stands is that like, Epstein's like straight up business partner was Ehud Barack. Now Ehud Barack is, I don't know if, if I had a one word description for him, I would be Mossad, but probably, yes, would be Israeli Prime Minister, which is not one word, but it's a series of words that give one idea, which is the same thing. And, but he obviously, like many Israeli leaders, came up via the idf. He was military intelligence. I believe he was head of intelligence for a while. And a lot of the things that he and Jeffrey Epstein work on are intelligence related matters. And I'm not talking about just like, just spy stuff, although they do talk about Israel investing in spyware. In fact, it just came. I believe Ryan Grimm found this because there's some, there's some audio that, that Epstein, I guess, recorded of his calls with Ehud Barack, which is very interesting. Where he actually, I believe in 2014, tells Barack about Palantir and he like, informs him about what it is, which is not even to get into Jeffrey's relationship with one Peter Thiel, who is only escaping this because he is very famously gay, because he very famously, his ex boyfriend did die by mysteriously falling out of a window of a, I'm sure, sumptuously lavishly appointed apartment in, I believe, Miami. And we're gonna have to say, you know what? I'm basing this on nothing, Brickle. And, and so it's gotta be. But, but they are. I mean, Epstein's business partner was the former head of Israeli intelligence. You know, Epstein at one point in the emails to Bannon implies that Ehud Barak's political comeback in Israel when Barack made a somewhat aborted attempt to be Prime Minister again, was Epstein was involved in that? Or at least he implies that he was involved in that. He's like, this is what I've been doing. He says to Steve Bannon doesn't say exactly that, but in so many words, you know, it is. This is a guy. I mean, a friend sent me some stuff last night. I guess he's arranging meetings with Bill Burns. I believe Peter Thiel too. I mean, this is. This is a guy who is. I mean, these are not Bill Burns.

[Sam Seder]

Former CIA director from. When was this? Bush years.

[Brace Belden]

No, it was. I think he was Obama's. Right?

[Sam Seder]

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Matt Lech]

William Burns.

[Sam Seder]

Oh, he was a Biden CIA director. Biden, of course.

[Brace Belden]

Course. No, he was. He was Deputy Secretary of State under. Under Biden. Excuse me, under Obama. Duh. But. And then pass up for. For Hillary and John Kerry. No, but, but he. Yeah, it's. It. You know, Epstein is really serving as a guy that you go to when you want to get things done and especially when you want to get things done internationally with money and with women. That's who sent me the text last night with. But. But, you know, that is. I mean, I don't know, whatever you want to call that. That's what he was doing. You know, I mean, there's. It's, it's. There's no ambivalence. There's no, like, you know, wiggle room about it. I mean, he was somebody who served at the nexus of these very powerful people in the diplomatic world, in the financial world and in the. In the military or military intelligence world. And the Barack thing, I think, is really just so. I mean, when we know more about that too, because ehu. Barack's emails got hacked. And so we can see sort of not just the conversations that Epstein was involved with, but conversations he was having around that stuff, which actually gives us a much better view. Epstein's emails. And people need to remember too, that like, not everything Jeffrey Epstein did is going to be in his emails. And so people will be like. And a lot of times he's talking to Barack and these guys email like nuts. But he's talking to Barack or he's talking to Bannon and something sensitive comes up and he'll say, not for email. Yeah, call me. Not for email. And there's a reason for that, you know, I mean, that's, that's not because he was trying to explain complicated things. He Definitely nothing stopped him from very poorly and grammatically uniquely trying to explain complicated subjects to people over emails or text messages. He did it all the time. It's clearly about sensitive things that he wouldn't email or text about.

[Sam Seder]

What I also found interesting too, was there was. He was outlining the whole Bill Gates story and where Bill Gates allegedly, you know, he was procuring prostitute or Bill Gates had gotten, according to what Epstein wrote to himself. Yes, I want to make this clear. Bill Gates had gotten a venereal disease from prostitute, and he wanted to know how he could slip antibiotics into his wife's drink or something like that to get antibiotics, surreptitiously give his wife antibiotics so he wouldn't have to reveal to her that he had given her a std. Now, we should say this is.

[Emma Vigeland]

This is.

[Sam Seder]

This is Epstein memorializing the conversation that he had with Gates or allegedly memorializing the conversation he had with Gates. Now, to do this as a practice is a very strange. I mean, it's like, this is the thing that if you are, like, famously, Comey did this when he went in to meet with Trump. As soon as he got out, he wrote up the thing. I mean, this is what you do if you are in a, you know, sensitive positions, and you want to make sure that within the course of your work, you don't get in trouble. And so you send yourself an email. And that in any type of legal proceeding, functions as evidence. It's not, you know, perfect evidence, but it's. It falls on the side of trying to prove something that you contemporaneously emailed to somebody else or to yourself. Like, what's going on here? Like, what. What is Jeffrey Epstein. Is it like. Like, what is the purpose of this for him to remind himself about the conversation he had with Bill Gates? So for in the future, he can use, like, he knows how Bill Gates works or. Or what is going on.

[Emma Vigeland]

It's like a draft to Bill. I mean, he's writing it to Gates.

[Sam Seder]

No, no, he's writing this to him.

[Emma Vigeland]

I know, but it's direct. Go to the beginning. It's Dear Bill. So he's writing it to himself. It's like a draft almost letter.

[Brace Belden]

You know, when you're really pissed off at somebody and you want to write him a text message and you're like, hold on, I'm too hot right now. Yes, right the motherfucker. I'll write it in the notes app.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Brace Belden]

And then tomorrow I'll. I'll just delete it and write all good man yeah, right. I do. You know it's. There is some serious reporting about Epstein maybe trying to blackmail Bill Gates over his relationship with a young bridge player. Bill and Melinda split after some of the Epstein. Epstein stuff came out. I think she has used that a little bit cynically because clearly she knew about that stuff. But it only became a big deal when.

[Emma Vigeland]

Okay, brace. Kill it. Cool it with the anti feminism here.

[Brace Belden]

Call her Mel around. Around my house. Oh we love Mel G. But, but I do think I. I do kind of wonder if she found out about the cheating via this. I feel like several, several of our nation's most treasured ancient wives fell found out that their husbands were stepping out on them via Jeffrey Epstein document dumps. I mean Larry Summers wife obviously must have as well.

[Emma Vigeland]

But Epstein was giant minority owner Steve Tish.

[Brace Belden]

Yeah, exactly. Jeff must protect him. But, but, but you know it's. I do think that Epstein was up to something weird with Bill Gates. I mean that is, that is without a doubt his like Bill Gates guy, Boris Nicklick was like is has his name appears in more Epstein emails than I've seen anybody else's. They were really involved in. They were trying to get built a fund a fund that they were doing with maybe Kimball Musk, Elon Musk.

[Emma Vigeland]

And well, this is him trying to shake him down in this email to a degree or like drafting it here where he says like you know, I'm very. Where he talks about this 30 to 40% he said in that regard I suggest. Yeah, basically, you know, he was saying if you were so cruel to me and if you were a better friend in that I suggest I buy you the house so that you have your heart set on. In addition to five years severance will buy you out of the investment contract we had agreed 30 to 40% of $100 million partnership for $30 million in today's dollars terms and conditions to be agreed. That is what I would have done if I had been in your shoes. What I did receive however was an unfriendly strongly worded email telling me how employable I am and that I should not look to you for any significant financial help in the future. And that is when he lists that accusation and talks about the STD and Melinda. But, but, but is that not him saying pay me $30 million?

[Sam Seder]

It does. It sure sounds like you're like standing up in the middle of a restaurant going like hey, I'm not going to tell anyone about the time that you told me about your STDs.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes.

[Sam Seder]

Yeah, I'm going to keep that completely to myself. Even though you wanted to secretly give antibiotics to your wife who is in the bathroom right now.

[Brace Belden]

And when the yeast infection action shows up and she blames herself. Bill, are you gonna sit there tight lipped? Yeah, it is, it is, it is. It is crazy. Basically. I don't know. I need to look at more of the emails too because there seems to be. I was like really enmeshed in this this morning at one point. Boris Nikolic is setting up this fund. It's like a technology life sciences fund with what's his, what's his name? It's the guy who owns VK like the Russian like social media website. But he's like, he's an Israeli Russian billionaire and he doesn't own it outright but he owns I think a majority share in it. What is it Yuri something, is it not Pavel Durov? No, no, it's not paddle. It's the guy who like who bought it's not the guy who started it. Gary Milner, that's the guy's name. But he's like, he's a very big Eastern European descended now is Israeli businessman but I think he has still has a ton of. Obviously still has a ton of business interests Eastern Europe and some in, in, in many in the US as well I think in the technology sector. But at one point Boris Nikolic is getting advice on how to start this fund from Epstein and Epstein makes some sort of oblique comments on how to make. Or not I gotta stop saying oblique. He makes some somewhat difficult to parse but clearly directed at Bill Gates. Comments on how to get more money from Gates for this fund. And this fund did start it looks like, you know there's a 2016 article in South China Morning Post that I don't have in front of me but it about their, their investing in some San Francisco based DNA. All I think this is like the CRISPR kind of shit. I don't know. I gotta, I gotta read it. That Microsoft was maybe gonna get involved with as well. So like this did happen.

[Sam Seder]

We got an immerser who is saying that the reporting on the thing we just read was actually Elon Musk drafting a, an email for Boris to send to Gates.

[Brace Belden]

Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Sam Seder]

He's make sense. So, so you know Elon Musk. I'm not. Excuse me, Musk. Okay. Epstein was drafting this for Boris to send to Gates and in which case you're seeing Epstein essentially and he probably does this all the time. He gets friends with the principal and with the sort of like, agent, as it were. And that way he's playing both sides always.

[Brace Belden]

Yeah, I mean, that's, There's. There's so many people. Epstein. For anyone who's actually read the emails, Epstein's writing is so bad. At one point in his email signature, I don't know why he took this out. He's like, sorry for the typos sent for my iPhone. Like, that's in his email signature. And every. In everyone or is whatever messaging. I guess email.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Brace Belden]

But a lot of people ask him for proofreading on very. I mean, Alan Dershowitz asked for the book, people asked for the.

[Matt Lech]

For.

[Brace Belden]

For various emails or love advice emails. But. But he is definitely advising Boris. I don't know if that's the same email. It might be. I think it is. There is an email that Boris sends him. I am referring to something like a business plan that Boris sends him that he wants him to look over. But there's another email attached to that that I can't remember if it's. It's supposed to be to Gates, but that doesn't surprise me. I mean, it's. He seems like he's scheming with Nikola behind Gates's back. And it's just, I, I think the only, the only answer is we need a crazy congressional hearing thing about this. I really think that, like, that's, that's what you got to do. Because at this point, if you were involved in this shit, but you didn't touch any girls, it's in your best interest to get up in front of Congress and have the most degrading spectacle of all time happen. Happen in D.C. i don't know why.

[Sam Seder]

I mean, if, if, if this isn't one track of, of Democratic oversight. I mean, they're going to get the House. Assuming there's an election in this fall and it actually is, like, goes off and is reported. You know, assuming we have a relatively normal election this fall, the Democrats are going to control the House. They're going to be able to do hearings on all of this. One wonders. And, you know, it really is just a function of, like, how much do you want to embarrass Larry Summers, how much you want to embarrass the Clintons, how much you want to embarrass. And it really is going to be a function of what the power dynamics are in the context of the House. But the idea that you would leave this on the table, I don't think they will.

[Emma Vigeland]

Robert Garcia, like, you know, Ro Khanna is getting A lot of public credit about this, and he has really pushed it, and teaming up with Massie was good, but the groundwork, that birthday book, all of that stuff, the initial that was Garcia on oversight. So I'm, yeah, yeah, I think that they are like, they have a ton of powder here and like, they, this is not necessary. It's an issue that all of these Democrats that If you're under 70 and you're not in the Clinton wing, like, seriously, there's nothing material here except, of course, maybe pissing off intelligence, whatever.

[Brace Belden]

Stacy Plaskett.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. Okay. Well, yeah, I mean, I think you can get broad consensus among Democrats to get behind this if they take back the House.

[Brace Belden]

I think that will happen, too. I mean, I say Stacey Plaska because she's, she's one of the people that have to be on both sides of any kind of hearing because she was, she was the one that was getting.

[Sam Seder]

She'S not a voting member, though, is she?

[Brace Belden]

I don't know how delegates work. I don't know how territories work.

[Sam Seder]

I don't think she's a voting gang member. She's from the Virgin.

[Brace Belden]

Yeah.

[Matt Lech]

Ask questions.

[Sam Seder]

Yeah, I think that's it. I, I, I mean, I think I.

[Brace Belden]

I, I, I think I guess you're right. Yeah. Because the Virgins, you just wow.

[Sam Seder]

And you get paid.

[Brace Belden]

I guess it's, you know, it's not the worst gig in the world. You're not the one.

[Sam Seder]

You don't have to come up with your own questions.

[Brace Belden]

Well, then, never mind. So I, I, but it's, yeah, it is interesting. I mean, I think that the one advantage that the Democrats have now is that they're not in the executive, where they would probably have a lot of older people who probably would have known Epstein in whereas Trump is in the executive and has so many old people that were good friends with Jeffrey Epstein. And so they can kind of press this advantage. And it also, I mean, I don't know about internal dynamics whatsoever. It also might help you, I mean, there is a sort of tension between older and younger, you know, members of the Democratic Party, as I'm sure there is a Republican as well in some regards. And you can kind of use this also to your advantage. But yeah, it is. And the tech people, they should not have switched allegiances. They should not. Because if they were still donating, I don't know if this would be as big a deal. But it, you know, most of, most of the tech guys in were mentioned in this obviously, are go read accepting are now Republicans and So it really, the field is pretty wide open for the Democrats to take advantage of this. But the thing is they're just really bad at doing politics. And so I think that might be the problem that they have.

[Sam Seder]

Well, Brace, thank you so much for this. This stuff is just overwhelming. I imagine you're going to be spending a lot of time reading emails over the next couple of days. Look forward to. To you guys.

[Brace Belden]

There's 3 million. It's going to be over the next few months. Three billion documents.

[Sam Seder]

You know, you. 24 hours a day, in a day. There's no reason.

[Brace Belden]

What am I reading? Damn. Infinite.

[Sam Seder]

There's no reason to drag. Drag your. I mean. And theoretically. Right. There's more to come.

[Brace Belden]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Emma Vigeland]

Didn't Todd Blanche say. No.

[Sam Seder]

What is, what is the way. What is the way in which you do read these? I mean, because there's a couple. There's that J mail. I've seen some other. Like, what. What do you find the best way to comb through these?

[Brace Belden]

Well, so with this new bunch, they finally added the legally required search function. And so I downloaded a few of like the, the actual like zip files that have them all in it. But dude, last time there was only zip files. And it's like they're in completely random order. And so you're just opening like 50 PDFs and then hoping some of them are germane and just. It sucks.

[Sam Seder]

It's.

[Brace Belden]

So, so do you.

[Sam Seder]

But will you. Will you like, for the most part, like, just read chronologically or.

[Brace Belden]

They're not chronologically put in there. So there will be one thing from. They're just there. It's literally ran like there will be an email on one and then like 50 random other things and then the answer to that email on the next one or maybe three emails later in the chain on the next one. And so like now there is a search function on the DOJ website. I don't know if it's perfect because I haven't read 3 million documents, so I don't know if there's anything missing. But it.

[Sam Seder]

I.

[Brace Belden]

That has been much more useful for me for looking up specific people and various funny words and things like that. But that. That's been better. So I. And then the JMail thing is good. I just don't think it's been updated yet with the new stuff.

[Sam Seder]

Interesting. And would you. Do you like, you put in random names? Like.

[Brace Belden]

No, I'll think of like, for the episode we're doing tomorrow, there's like a few. Some of it became weirdly focused around Epstein's trip to TED at Long beach, the TED conference in 2012 and a few things that came out around that. And so some of the stuff we talked about with Elon's going to be in there and etc. Etc. Etc. But it's so sprawling that the way I, I try to do it is pick a specific either time period or group of people and then try to figure like out how to kind of research around that because otherwise you're just going bam, bam. You know, it's just like it gets too crazy.

[Sam Seder]

Let me ask you one other question. Are there like is it. Is it. It seems like there's not showbiz people in there. I mean I, I'm there maybe.

[Brace Belden]

No, but. But I Tish.

[Sam Seder]

Huh. Steve Tish is a Holly.

[Brace Belden]

He's not in show.

[Emma Vigeland]

He's a big Hollywood producer.

[Sam Seder]

Yeah.

[Brace Belden]

He's a. I mean if those count.

[Sam Seder]

He.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah focus on that and not the New York Giants part.

[Sam Seder]

But I mean I, I'm just like I, I'm just curious. I mean it's interesting to me because Epstein's not looking necessary and maybe there are names in there that I just, I, I, you know that haven't that people.

[Emma Vigeland]

But I would imagine Chris Tucker was on his plane.

[Sam Seder]

It doesn't feel like he's that into celebrity per se.

[Emma Vigeland]

Woody Allen.

[Brace Belden]

Woody. Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

I guess all over. I guess all over. Seem to have been actual good friends with him but it doesn't seem like he's looking for celebrity as much as like that's maybe incidental. That may be at certain instances like like an arrow in his quiver. But he doesn't see. He seems to like I want stuff who can material connections. Somebody in Hollywood. Like it's a dead end but under.

[Emma Vigeland]

That's the end of Pizzagate though. Remember they were saying it was all Hollywood people and Tom Hanks and Oprah. I mean but. But just to give people a sense of how this is was probably a GOP psyop. I mean.

[Brace Belden]

No, I'm with you because yeah it turns out that like it is really it is like Woody Allen and like maybe a few other people. But there's a, I mean this has been reported on for, for years but like Peggy Siegel sort of the, the a. A foul mouth publicist or like kind of. I don't know what you would call her but I guess publicist does try to get Epstein like invited to movie stuff after his, his release from jail in Florida. It's unclear if he goes to a lot but he, she Sends him sort of updates on Hollywood, but it doesn't seem like he makes many lasting connections. I will say this, I know people who worked on Woody Allen's movies, his last movies that he did for the ones he did for Amazon. And I have multiple people telling me he was, that Jeffrey Epstein was on set every single year. And in fact, at one point in, I think it's called Wonder Wheel, the movie that he did on Coney Island. I mean, I, I, someone I know actually was doing the, these, these sign ins for people for extras. And two girls who were not, two very young Russian speaking girls who are accented girls who were not on the extras list were asked to be in a scene in a diner that, and obviously this creates some legal problems because you can't have children working on set without any paper. I mean, obvious, you know, you can imagine. And he was told that, no, these are friends of Woody's. It's gonna happen, doesn't matter. He's talking to the security guard that accompanied the girls who is also Justin Timberlake security guard. He moonlighted as moonlit as Justin Timberlake security guard. And the guy tells him that they're Jeffrey Epstein's friends, that he brought Epstein's hometown, Coney Island. Coney Island. Little nostalgic for him, but, but actually it ended up with some people quitting one of the productions because this was again, like, no, most of these people had no idea who Jeffrey Epstein was, like who were working on it. But by like the third movie, they figured out who Jeffrey Epstein was and some people quit when he, when Woody refused to have him removed from set.

[Sam Seder]

Wow.

[Emma Vigeland]

Woody refused?

[Brace Belden]

What? He refused. Woody Oxo paid off. I can't remember what museum, but one of the movies was filmed in a museum that Epstein was banned from being on the property of. And I have been told by somebody who witnessed this happen that, that Woody Allen paid off the, the woman who was sort of like acting as the go between between the museum and the film's production that night in order for Epstein to be able to stay on set and watch things.

[Sam Seder]

I mean, I guess, I guess Woody Allen was like, what's it gonna do to my reputation?

[Brace Belden]

You know what I mean?

[Sam Seder]

In for a penny, in for a pound.

[Brace Belden]

Exactly.

[Sam Seder]

What's my stepdaughter gonna leave me?

[Brace Belden]

Yeah.

[Emma Vigeland]

And for a pedal.

[Sam Seder]

Grace Belden, co host of the True Anon podcast, will of course link to that podcast. Thanks so much for your time today. Really appreciate it.

[Brace Belden]

Thank you for having me.

[Emma Vigeland]

Thanks, Brace.

[Sam Seder]

All right, folks, we're going to take A quick break. Head into the fun half of the program. Although that was like a relatively fun. For the subject matter. For the subject matter. And just like, you know, these days.

[Matt Lech]

Brace is a first ballot hall of fame podcast guest.

[Sam Seder]

There you go.

[Emma Vigeland]

He made it fun.

[Sam Seder]

We've got a lot more to cover. Cover. Of course, we will find out if the Democrats and Chuck Schumer manages to successfully fund, at least temporarily, the dhs. If they remember. Chuck Schumer is on operation make sure no one knows Democrats exist by doing nothing and assuming that nobody notices.

[Emma Vigeland]

I wasn't here on Friday. I had a prime. A rant primed for that. But I just. You guys discussed the fact that Schumer is completely giving away all the leverage here. And also.

[Sam Seder]

What?

[Emma Vigeland]

I mean, no bills. I'm sure you did.

[Brace Belden]

Okay, but did you.

[Emma Vigeland]

The part that bothered me the most. I'm not sure if you touched on it. The fact that he's giving them two weeks.

[Matt Lech]

Weeks.

[Emma Vigeland]

It benefits the Republicans so disproportionately. Because the outrage about the killings of Renee Goode and Preddy are gonna be more in the rearview mirror.

[Sam Seder]

No, it is a cool down period. And if they need another two week period. But what you're discounting is that he swore and he. Did you hear this?

[Emma Vigeland]

Oh, no, I didn't.

[Sam Seder]

Okay, this is what you're discounting. Matt, will you just. If you would. How do we not have this hanging on the office?

[Matt Lech]

This is on his Instagram. Sorry.

[Emma Vigeland]

Oh, his Instagram popping over there in between thirst traps. He's caving to the Republicans.

[Sam Seder]

I don't think he's caving to the Republicans. Listen to how angry he is. And that's why he's only giving two weeks. Only two weeks. Stephen Miller are fucking liars.

[Brace Belden]

Any administration that.

[Sam Seder]

Did you see? Did you see? Can we play? Can we play back?

[Brace Belden]

What?

[Sam Seder]

Emma just like went real. She like reeled back when she heard that. That's how strong Stephen Miller. Liars. Any administrator, absolute leadership. Honestly, I get a chill running up my spine when I hear him swear like that.

[Emma Vigeland]

Right, right.

[Sam Seder]

Because I know he's mad.

[Emma Vigeland]

Right.

[Sam Seder]

He's really mad.

[Emma Vigeland]

Right.

[Matt Lech]

No side deals.

[Sam Seder]

No side deals. And of course, where did he do that? The social media. What you didn't see in the video.

[Brace Belden]

Also is there's about five edits in.

[Sam Seder]

A 30 second video because he can't finish a 30. They had to do a jump cut between five sofa and king. They had to take that twice to get the full chuck. We say Sofa King, Folks, it's your Support that makes this show possible. Incidentally, we'll talk more about this. Yes, it is your support that makes the show possible. You can become a [e-mail] when you do, you not only get the free show free of commercials, but then you get the fun half and you get to I am us in the fun half. In fact, it was somebody who I am does and they're going to be mad that I don't remember who it was. I am just about that point about the. That being the Boris letter to that Epstein was drafting a. This is what you should say to Bill Gates to from one of his advisors. Anyways, join themjorityreport.com you can support the show, help this show survive and thrive in this era where like literally I feel like my head is gonna explode like on a daily basis.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Sam Seder]

Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller are fucking lying. Oh my God.

[Emma Vigeland]

Oh my God.

[Sam Seder]

How will Republicans ever recover? People are reeling from that. Did that get banned on Instagram because it was too tough?

[Matt Lech]

Yeah, he's banned. He got a seven day ban from Instagram.

[Sam Seder]

He was suspended. Like I'll be on YouTube. I saw the thing that got Hassan suspended from Twitch. That is just absolute bs.

[Matt Lech]

They, they, they bumped it down from seven to three days.

[Sam Seder]

Oh, I wonder why. They saw he made a hundred thousand.

[Matt Lech]

Dollars in super chats.

[Emma Vigeland]

Oh, I wonder why. I mean YouTube. Yes. This is the thing.

[Sam Seder]

Is that what happened? Yeah, over a hundred thousand like concurrent viewers. Hey guys, he may move over to YouTube. Do you think we should maybe, I don't know, three days. Actually, now that we're thinking about it.

[Emma Vigeland]

That was, that was a really interesting moment. I mean Hasan throwing his weight around there because if he were to move over to YouTube, he's their top political streamer on Twitch, right?

[Matt Lech]

He was for at least some points probably some psycho fascist.

[Emma Vigeland]

Okay, well, I mean in terms of people that are good.

[Matt Lech]

Yeah. In terms of people without brain worms. Yeah.

[Emma Vigeland]

I love to see it. Love to see it.

[Sam Seder]

Also, don't forget just coffee.co op. It is a co op in Madison, Wisconsin and they sell a great coffee. They take care of their suppliers, their farmers and it's a co op. And if you use the coupon code, majority get 10% off. You can get 10% off the majority report blend or all of their other blends and single origin coffees. Matt, what's happening in the Matleck media universe?

[Matt Lech]

Yeah, Left Reckoning a new Sunday show talk about things including the Crockett Talarico Race updates. Also, there was a protest against Ezra Klein, and that's probably not the best executed protest, but there's been a lot of people saying that Ezra's good on Israel, Palestine, and that is a lie. And we get into his post October 7 comments on Israel, Palestine, including the idea that the right of return, which is reaffirmed every year by the United nations, is a lie that is told to people. And the world doesn't work that way. So we get into why we should listen to a guy who took Paul Ryan seriously about how the world works.

[Emma Vigeland]

It works that way for Israelis.

[Matt Lech]

The world isn't working. And maybe some of these. This sort of like, maybe the world doesn't work that way. Maybe we should have reassessed some of those things and maybe we should start now instead of taking it at face value. You know, what things are realistic and what things, what utopian things need to get billions of dollars in American taxpayer money for weapons every year.

[Sam Seder]

Quick break. Fun half, three months from now, six months from now, nine months from now. And I don't think it's going to be the same as it looks like in six months from now. And I don't know if it's necessarily going to be better six months from now than it is three months from now, but I think around 18 months out, we're gonna look back and go like, wow.

[Brace Belden]

What?

[Sam Seder]

What is that going on? It's nuts. Wait a second. Hold on. Hold on for a second. Emma, welcome to the program. What is up, everyone? Fun pack.

[Brace Belden]

No. Mickey, you did it.

[Sam Seder]

Fun path.

[Emma Vigeland]

Let's go, Brandon.

[Brace Belden]

Let's go, Brandon.

[Sam Seder]

Bradley, you want to say hello? Sorry to disappoint everyone. I'm just a random guy. It's all the boys today.

[Emma Vigeland]

Fundamentally false. No. I'm sorry.

[Brace Belden]

Women.

[Sam Seder]

Stop talking for a second and let me finish.

[Emma Vigeland]

Where is this coming from, dude?

[Sam Seder]

But. Dude, you want to smoke this? 7A.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes.

[Sam Seder]

Hi. Me is me. Yes. Is this me?

[Brace Belden]

Is it me?

[Sam Seder]

It is you? Is this me? How long is it me? I think it is you. Who is you. No sound. Every single freaking day. What's on your mind?

[Emma Vigeland]

Sports.

[Brace Belden]

We can discuss free markets and we can discuss capitalism.

[Sam Seder]

I'm going to go Skyline Libertarians. They're so stupid, though. Common sense says of course.

[Emma Vigeland]

Gobbledygook.

[Sam Seder]

We nailed him.

[Emma Vigeland]

So what's 79, 21.

[Sam Seder]

Challenge. Man, I'm positively quivering. I believe 96. I want to say 857, 210, 501, 1/2, 3, 8, 9, 11.

[Emma Vigeland]

For instance, $3,400 $1900.

[Sam Seder]

5. Have 4. $3 trillion sold. It's a zero sum game, actually.

[Emma Vigeland]

You're making me think less.

[Sam Seder]

But let me say this. You can call it satire.

[Brace Belden]

Sam goes satire on top of it all.

[Sam Seder]

My favorite part about you is just.

[Emma Vigeland]

Like every day, all day, like everything you do.

[Sam Seder]

Without a doubt. Hey, buddy, we see you. All right, folks, folks, folks, folks.

[Emma Vigeland]

It's just the week being weeded out. Obviously.

[Sam Seder]

Yeah. Sun's out, guns out. I. I don't know.

[Emma Vigeland]

But you should know.

[Sam Seder]

People just don't like to entertain ideas anymore. I have a question. Who cares?

[Matt Lech]

Our chat is enabled, folks.

[Sam Seder]

I love it.

[Emma Vigeland]

I do love that. What?

[Sam Seder]

Gotta jump. Gotta be quick. I gotta jump. I'm losing it, bro. Two o', clock, we're already late and the guy's being a dick. So screw him. Sent to a gulag.

[Emma Vigeland]

Outrageous.

[Sam Seder]

Like, what is wrong with you?

[Matt Lech]

Love you. Bye.

[Brace Belden]

Love you.

[Matt Lech]

Bye.

[Sam Seder]

Bye.