Todd Blanche (2:14)

Persisted with the same grift. Excuse me, gift, grit.

Ben (2:20)

It has been a long day. Trust me, you're not a grifter, honey. It's all good. Just a reminder, folks, make sure, you hit subscribe. We're on our way to 6 million subscribers. You may think you're subscribed to this YouTube channel, but double check, you know, we're under attack by the Trump regime and by state regime media, which calls itself. So just double check that you're subscribed. Also you have Donald Trump and MAGA Mike panicking as their hearing. And we've been reporting that other MAGA Republicans are set to quit, resign, some just leaving politics entirely as a result of the destruction, the implosion of this MAGA movement. Right. Of course. On Friday, we reported how Elise Stefanik, the MAGA Republican from New York, not only quit the governor's race there, but she quit politics altogether. She's been shamed and humiliated. And so many of these MAGA Republicans are on this retirement watch list. Expect them to announce resignations, I think in the coming days or perhaps even weeks. We're focused on that right now. And folks, also, the American people are absolutely livid at the Trump regime's handling of the economy. From that same CBS poll, only 5% of Americans view the economy right now as an A, whereas the vast majority of Americans, about 70% give the economy either a C or an F, 25% view it as a D, 24% view it as an F. So basically we're talking about more than half the country or about half the country views the economy as being absolutely horrible because it is absolutely horrible at this time. And very few people actually view this economy as good. I guess unless you're like a multimillionaire or a billionaire is the only way you'll think this is good. But look, as I mentioned, Donald Trump has his minions out there again today. They're out there saying everything is A plus. Like here is the MAGA Republican Senator Mark Wayne Mullen saying in the Senate, the Republicans, we did a solid A plus job. Solid A plus job. This is what he says here. Let's play this clip.

Kevin Hassett (4:25)

Come that I would say we give us a solid A plus because we have broke just about every record that previous senator Senate has been able to do. And that's been underneath the leadership of John Thune, of John Brasso working step and step with the White House every single day, Every single day.

Ben (4:43)

Again, Trump sending his minions out as they're involved in this cover up of a child sex trafficking ring. They violated the Epstein Transparency Act. You saw the reports we've done earlier today on the Midas Touch Network where they're deleting files that have already been produced. So They've only produced about 5% of the overall files that the DOJ has. They were required to produce 100% and just redact the names of victims, actual victims, and redact their faces or photos or videos where the actual victims are. Now, the Trump regime is saying the perpetrators, the rich men who were working with Epstein, that they're the real victims. The Trump regime has redacted basically everything, and they've turned over only 5% of the records. There were a few slip ups where there was like, a photo or two of Donald Trump, then they deleted those. So when we went back to the DOJ website, they deleted those from the file. So Kristen Welker asks the Todd Blanche, so why was this photo of Donald Trump that was produced, why was it taken down from the DOJ website? Why did you remove it and watch Todd Blanche just give you a bunch of word salad? Because they're covering up the photos that have Donald Trump in it. That's why. Here, play this clip produced.

Kristen Welker (5:58)

Mr. Blanche, I want to follow up with you on what you just said. You were referencing the 15 files released Friday. They disappeared from DOJ's website yesterday, including this photo of what looks like a. With a drawer open containing photos of Donald Trump. Just to be very clear, to put a fine point on it, why were these files taken down? You're saying it was at the direction of a judge?

Todd Blanche (6:24)

Well, you. You can see in that photo there's photographs of women. And so we learned after releasing that photograph that there were concerns about those, about those women. And the fact that we had put that photo up, so we pulled that photo down, it has nothing to do with President Trump. There are dozens of photos of President Trump already released to the public. Seeing him with Mr. Epstein, he has said that in the 90s and early 2000s, he socialized with him. So the absurdity of us pulling down a photo, a single photo, because President Trump was in it is laughable. And the fact that everybody's trying to act like that's the case is a reflection of their true motivation. But the reality is anybody, any victim, any victim's lawyers, any victim rights group can reach out to us and say, hey, Department of Justice, there's a document, there's a photo, there's something within the Epstein files that identifies me, and we will then, of course, pull that off and investigate it.

Kristen Welker (7:20)

Are you saying that one or more of the women in one of the photos or several of the photos is a victim or a survivor of Jeffrey Epstein and that's why you took those files down and will they be put back up?

Todd Blanche (7:36)

No, that's not, that's not what I'm saying. We, of course, if we knew that, if we had, if we believe that that photograph contained a survivor, we wouldn't have put it up in the first place without redacting the face.

Ben (7:48)

And then Kristen Welker asks Todd Blanchard, just to remind you who Todd Blanche is. Donald Trump's former criminal defense lawyer. Right. This guy is Trump's former lawyer in the case where Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts. Right. He's now the number two at the Department of Justice. So he's basically the guy who runs the day to day at the doj. The Bureau of Prisons reports to him. And this was the guy who interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell in Tallahassee when she was in a maximum security facility. Because she's a convicted child sex trafficker. Right. That's where convicted. Silence. Convicted child sex traffickers belong in maximum security facilities where they should be rotting. Right. But nope, after Todd Blanche met with her and she lied and said all these things about Trump which we all know are lies because those 18,000 Bloo Bloomberg emails or that the House Oversight committee got those 18,000 emails as well, they all got those emails and it showed she lied about everything. Right. And by the way, the Trump regime in their production, didn't even produce the duplicates that were in their possession of those 18,000 emails that were already discussed that the House Oversight Committee produced and that the Bloomberg has been talking about. Anyway, here's what Todd Blanch says when he's asked, why was Ghislaine Maxwell moved just days after you interviewed her? Play this clip.

Kristen Welker (9:02)

Warren, we're almost out of time. I do want to ask you about Ghislaine Maxwell, who was of course convicted in 2021 for her role in helping Jeffrey Epstein traffic his victims. In July, you interviewed her in Florida where she was serving a 20 year sentence in federal prison. Just a week later, Maxwell was moved to a more permissive prison camp in Texas. Why was she moved just days after you interviewed her, Mr. Blanche?

Todd Blanche (9:32)

So that's a Bureau of Prison Security issue that, that I will not talk about.

Kristen Welker (9:36)

Did you have anything to do with it? Did you have anything to do with it?

Todd Blanche (9:42)

Let me finish. First of all, I am responsible for the Bureau of Prisons. So every decision that they make lands on my desk to the extent it needs to. But just let me, let me talk about the security issue. At the time that I met Ms. Maxwell, there was a tremendous amount of scrutiny and publicity towards her and the institution she was in. She was suffering numerous and numerous threats against her Life. So the BoP is not only responsible for putting people in jail and making sure they stay in jail, but also for their safety.

Ben (10:13)

And now, folks, a lot going on, not just on the domestic front, but a lot going on in foreign policy as well. Trump's trying to create distractions while all of this is going on. So we're learning now that the US has boarded a third oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. According to Bloomberg. Now, yesterday they boarded the second, which was actually one that was not subject to sanctions. It had a Panamanian flag on it, and it was. And it was heading to China. China had purchased 2 billion barrels of oil and the United States just basically seized it. What the United States is trying to do is they're trying to provoke a response right now from, from Venezuela in order to then have the pretext for a war and say, look, everybody, Venezuela attacked us, so we have to go to war with Venezuela right now. I think it's so important that in today's day and age, with all the Trump regime deception and everything that's taking place, we have a healthy media diet. It's why I get all of my news. When I prepare these videos in the morning, I'm often asked, ben, where do you get your news from? Well, I use something called Ground News and I use their Vantage plan. I stay up to date using Ground News. It's my number one source of news. It's a subscriber funded app and news site. Every day they pull in thousands of articles from around the world. They organize them by story and then show you what's the right reporting, what's the center reporting, what's the left reporting. It's been a game changer for me. And look, as active, responsible citizens, we must get our news from reliable sources. And Trump's America being informed about facts and media bias, it's the most important thing we can all do. That's why I love Ground News. For every article, they also tell you, did a media conglomerate publish it or was it an independent media outlet? And then they list the degree of factuality, which is interesting because a lot of these media conglomerates I see have a little bit of mixed to lower factuality than independent media, which has higher factuality. But you get all of that with your Ground News Vantage subscription plan. I especially like their Blind Spot feed, which highlights stories that are disproportionately covered by one side of the political spectrum. I mean, you take a Look at this story that was reported earlier today. For example, Kremlin Russia says chances of peace not improved by European and Ukrainian changes to US Proposals. What's interesting is that this is being reported mostly by the center, but you notice over here, right wing is actually reporting on this and it's being reported slightly by the left and which I'll talk about in just a moment why I think that's the case. So join us by going to ground news slash MTN, get 40% off the ground News Vantage plan that I use every morning. They are subscriber funded. So by subscribing you're not only getting a tool we all need today, you're also supporting our work here on this YouTube channel. That's gr o u n d news slash MTN. And we've pinned a link for you to purchase your subscription below. That's ground news slash MTN. Get 40% off that vantage plan. Thanks. Brand new. So I think that this is probably, if you've been getting your news from kind of left wing media sources, you know that Trump's proposals to Russia are utterly fake. You know, you've known that for months now. I mean, we at the Midas Touch Network, I've been showing you what Putin's been saying, what the Kremlin's been saying, what Ushakov's been saying, what Dmitriev has been saying, what Lavrov's been saying, all the people around Putin. So now, so this is the part where like Trump's fraud kind of blows up in his face and then people are like, oh, I see, so you lied to me and they just move on to the next one. That's what's going on with this Trump regime. Kristen Welker, by the way, going back to Todd Bland, she said why didn't the justice the Friday deadline, like you had an obligation to produce these records by Friday. How come you didn't meet that Friday deadline? Here, play this clip.

Kristen Welker (14:03)

Why didn't the Justice Department meet that Friday deadline?

Todd Blanche (14:10)

Good morning. So it's very simple and very and very clear. The statute also requires us to protect victims. And so the reason why we are still reviewing documents and still continuing our process is simply that to protect victims.

Ben (14:25)

Then going back to some economic news, Kristen Welker asks Kevin Hassett, Donald Trump's national economic advisor. So if the Supreme Court rules against the Trump regime, are you going to give refunds to the companies in America that have had to pay the tariffs? Because it's American companies that pay the tariffs. And let me show you what happens when, when Kevin Hassett is asked these questions on the morning shows here. Let's play this clip.

Kevin Hassett (14:52)

We really expect the Supreme Court is going to find with us, and I also think that if they didn't find with us that it's going to be pretty unlikely that they're going to call for widespread refunds because it would be an administrative problem to get those refunds out to there. But basically, whoever paid the tariff, like actually cut the check to buy the thing, would be the person who would be getting the refund if there were one.

Kristen Welker (15:16)

Doesn't the administration claim it was the country that paid that? You're saying the company.

Kevin Hassett (15:22)

It would be like, I'm not talking about the incidents. Right. So the incidents of the tariff. So in the end, who pays the tariff depends on elasticity. So supply and demand. And we know that China cut the price.

Ben (15:34)

Yeah. So you see what happens where you basically, and by the way, I thought it was a good question, doesn't the administration claim that it's the country, that it's the foreign country that pays it? No, of course it is the American companies that paid. It's what, it's what's causing inflation. It's why inflation is rising right now. Inflation was heading down under the former President Biden's policies, and now it's rising in because of all of this utter madness. And it just, it's all, it's just a constant barrage of lies from these people. It's lie after lie after lie. So I'll just show you this one right here where Kristen Welker asks Todd Blanche again, number two at the doj. You know this guy, Eric Siebert, who was your pick? He was the, he's a Republican. Siebert. Right. He's the Trump administration, the Trump regime's pick to be the top United States attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. But then Trump told Siebert and then she said, you've got to prosecute New York Attorney General Letitia James and you've gotta prosecute James Comey. And Seabert's like, nah, I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that at all. Like, there's no evidence to support those prosecutions. I'm your, I'm, I'm your pick. I'm a Republican. I'm not gonna do that. There's no law that supports prosecuting Letitia James and Comey. And then they pushed him out and he resigned. But watch how Todd Blanche describes it all here.

Kristen Welker (16:45)

Play this clip just very quickly. Career prosecutor Eric Siebert was fired after refusing to prosecute these cases against James Comey. He was replaced by Lindsey Halligan, of course, the president's former personal lawyer, who doesn't have prosecutorial experience, who was found to be unconstitutionally appointed and the cases were thrown out, as you say. To be clear, is the Justice Department taking directions about who to prosecute from President Trump?

Todd Blanche (17:15)

No, of course we're not. And also, Mr. Siebert wasn't fired because he refused to bring cases. He resigned. Okay. And so. And this narrative out there that somehow he. It was because of James Comey. It was because of Letitia James. No, that's not true at all. And Ms. Halligan went in there and did a great job. She's still doing a great job as our U.S. attorney in the EDVA. And you had a local judge rule that she was not validly appointed. We filed an appeal in that case. I expect that eventually, when appellate court courts looks at this issue, we'll. We'll win that issue.

Kristen Welker (17:47)

All right, Deputy Attorney General, there you have it, folks.

Ben (17:51)

That's what's happening this morning. We'll keep you posted every step of the way. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million. We appreciate you want to stay plugged in. Become a subscriber to our substack@midasplus.com you'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, ad free episodes of our podcast and more exclusive content only available@midasplus.com.