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Important Friday Night News Update

Aaron Parnas Sep 11

Happy Friday, everyone. Before we get to all of the news, and there is a lot of it, I wanted to take a minute and talk to you directly.

This work isn’t always easy. The news we cover is rarely fun. But we are making a difference. We are fighting for the release of the Epstein files, and we are continuing that fight for the survivors. We are educating people, especially young people, who don’t get their news anywhere else. And here is the big news: we are breaking through across the political spectrum. People are leaving Fox and coming to us instead. We are building something real, and we are building it together.

So subscribe. Share this. Amplify this work. Not tomorrow. Not someday. Today. The fight for truth, for ethics, for accountability cannot wait.

Tonight, the Epstein investigation just got a lot bigger. French prosecutors have identified 13 new potential victims, newly released texts show FBI Director Kash Patel waging a strange campaign against a random anonymous X account, and Epstein survivors were physically removed from the GOP’s own midterm convention in Dallas minutes after pressing a candidate on the files, even as Republican insiders admit Trump has checked out on the midterms entirely.

Overseas, the Houthis have completed a stunning takeover of Yemen’s western Red Sea coast, helping push diesel to a record $6.05 a gallon here at home. Saudi Arabia is now begging Trump to intervene militarily, he’s refused, and Iran’s foreign minister is publicly taunting the U.S. Treasury Secretary over the fallout.

And on the 25th anniversary of 9/11, the day became a window into where the country is right now: a tense handshake between Giuliani and Mamdani at ground zero, Trump and Hegseth using the Pentagon podium to talk about Iran, a 9/11 widow calling out Saudi Arabia by name, and a social media firestorm over whether the president fell asleep during the ceremony.

All of that, plus a contractor finally admitting the Reflecting Pool disaster was their own screwup, a salmonella outbreak, a $5,000 dividend check with a catch, and more, below.

Epstein Investigation Rapidly Expands:

• France widens its Epstein trafficking probe. Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau announced investigators have identified 13 new potential victims of Jeffrey Epstein, bringing the total number of possible victims trafficked by recruiters in France to 26. The investigation opened in February after the Justice Department released more than three million pages of Epstein files, some of which documented his nearly two decade run as a part time Paris resident living in a sumptuous apartment on Avenue Foch, one of the city’s grandest boulevards, where he cultivated relationships with some of France’s most influential cultural and political figures. Beccuau said in a radio interview that authorities have obtained new names of potential recruiters but declined to give further details. French investigators have already scrutinized figures in the French modeling industry who worked with or befriended Epstein, including agent Jean-Luc Brunel, who was found hanged in his prison cell in 2022 while facing rape charges. Epstein himself died in prison in 2019, a death ruled a suicide. The announcement follows the death this summer of modeling scout Daniel Siad, who was accused of repeatedly recruiting young women for Epstein and was found dead in his home before French authorities could question him.

• Patel’s texts show him pushing the FBI to fight an anonymous critic. Newly released internal FBI communications show director Kash Patel personally directed his top public affairs official, Assistant Director Benjamin Williamson, in February to publicly hit back at an anonymous X account that had mocked his handling of the Epstein investigation. The account had posted on February 4 that Patel’s “rating just went to all-time highs. Congratulations Kash,” and Patel forwarded it the next day demanding Williamson’s team “find them, and post our record year results back at them all, continously.”

• Williamson resisted, telling Patel the account, which he described internally as an “Epstein didn’t kill himself” bot, wasn’t worth responding to and that doing so “would look bad on you.” The exchange also revealed Patel had badly misjudged the post’s reach, believing it had 227,000 replies when Williamson clarified that number was actually X’s total view count and the post had only around 400 replies. Patel pushed back anyway, saying it wasn’t really about the account but about making sure people seeing the post also saw his crime statistics. The FBI declined to comment when reached.

• Epstein survivors and their journalist host got thrown out of the GOP convention. Independent journalist Tara Palmeri and three Epstein survivors she brought as guests, all carrying valid press credentials, were escorted out of the Republican Party’s midterm convention in Dallas, nicknamed “Trump-a-palooza,” just minutes after Palmeri pressed House candidate Robert Burke on the Epstein files. The survivors were already in Dallas for the Epstein Files Reading Room bookmobile tour when they joined Palmeri at the event. Burke initially welcomed the topic, telling the group “we really need to know what actually happened” and inviting the survivors to ask him questions directly. One survivor asked whether he’d support holding anyone involved in Epstein’s crimes accountable regardless of party, and Burke replied “I don’t care who they are, unlawful touching is unlawful touching. Consent is consent,” before volunteering, unprompted, that a friend of his had represented both Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, though he wouldn’t name the person. Palmeri then pushed him on why Trump hasn’t released the remaining files, and Burke tried to redirect toward Joe Biden. When Palmeri asked who actually controls the Justice Department now, Burke answered “Trump does,” then immediately said he disagreed with the “premise” of her question.

• GOP insiders say Trump has checked out on his own party. Republican insiders are increasingly convinced Trump has tuned out his own party just weeks before the midterms, telling reporters he’s fixated on personal legacy projects, like his new White House ballroom and the botched Reflecting Pool renovation, rather than helping Republicans win in November. One operative close to the White House put it bluntly: “He doesn’t care about Republicans winning the midterms. You got a tax cut, which is great. But then all you’ve got is a ballroom and war with Iran. That’s all he’s talking about.” The same operative said they don’t believe Trump actually wants JD Vance or anyone else to succeed him in 2028, pointing to his habit of naming buildings and institutions after himself, from the Kennedy Center to an airport, as proof it’s “all legacy vanity.”

Houthis Expand Operations, Diesel Surges:

• Houthis Seize Key Red Sea Territory as Diesel Hits Record. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have completed a sweeping takeover of the western Red Sea coast, seizing the port city of Mokha along with the islands of Perim and the last two holdouts in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, Greater and Lesser Hanish. A Yemeni government military official put it bluntly: “Everything that was under our control on the western coast has fallen.” Saudi Arabia responded with waves of airstrikes and briefly shut down its East-West oil pipeline in the Riyadh and Medina regions after attacks injured several workers, cutting off a key route Saudi oil uses to bypass the Strait of Hormuz entirely. The advance has already displaced more than 46,000 people according to the U.N., and it helped push diesel to a record $6.05 a gallon nationally, more than 60% higher than a year ago.

• Saudi Arabia Presses Trump to Strike the Houthis. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has personally pushed Trump multiple times this week to launch U.S. military action against the Houthis as their offensive rapidly overtakes Yemen’s Red Sea coast. Trump has so far turned him down, offering intelligence and targeting support instead while more than 200 U.S. military personnel remain in Saudi Arabia providing what officials call non kinetic support. Adm. Bradley Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, was in the kingdom for coordination talks as the two leaders continue to speak directly about the escalating threat. The concern driving Riyadh’s request is retaliation: officials worry that if the U.S. or Saudi Arabia hits the Houthis too hard, Iran could strike Saudi Arabia directly in response.

• Iran Taunts the U.S. Over Its Economy. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi kept up a public campaign against Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, mocking the administration days after it rolled out sanctions Bessent had likened to an “economic D-Day” against Tehran. “The U.S. Treasury Secretary has been gleefully boasting about wanting to impoverish Iranians and collapse our economy,” Araghchi wrote. “Instead, he stands powerless and exposed as the world loses belief in the U.S. financial system. Meltdown over cost of funding U.S. debt is only the beginning.” He posted a chart of surging 30 year Treasury yields, which hit their highest level since 2004 even after Bessent said his department would buy back $6 billion in long-term bonds to calm markets. Oil prices briefly easing and an inflation report landing close to expectations helped U.S. stocks claw back much of the week’s losses despite the rhetoric.

9/11 Ceremonies:

• Giuliani-Mamdani Ground Zero Exchange. Rudolph Giuliani and Zohran Mamdani had a brief but pointed encounter at the ground zero ceremony marking 25 years since 9/11. Mamdani extended his hand to Giuliani, who had previously said the mayor should skip the event entirely, and Giuliani responded, “I’ll pray for you. It’s a really hard job.” Mamdani declined to elaborate publicly on the moment afterward, instead steering attention back to the victims’ families in attendance. The exchange became one of the most talked about beats of the day precisely because of the tension Giuliani himself had stirred up beforehand.

• Trump and Hegseth Tie 9/11 to Iran War. At the Pentagon ceremony, Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used their remarks to draw a direct line between the 2001 attacks and the ongoing war with Iran. Hegseth told the crowd, “We are ensuring that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. We control the Strait. We will finish this fight,” framing the current conflict as a continuation of the post-9/11 fight against terror. Trump echoed that message, saluting troops “working right now to ensure the world’s number one sponsor of terror, the Islamic Republic of Iran, will never ever have a nuclear weapon.” The remarks turned what is usually a solemn day of remembrance into a platform for justifying the administration’s Iran policy.

• Terry Strada Confronts Saudi Arabia. At the New York ceremony, 9/11 widow Terry Strada used her turn reading victims’ names to call out Saudi Arabia directly. “For 25 years, administration after administration have chosen to protect the Saudis instead of standing with the 9/11 families,” she said. “Tell the Saudis to stop lying.” She thanked Vice President JD Vance for showing up and specifically asked him to carry her message back to the administration, while another family member used their moment at the podium to push for declassifying remaining files. Not everyone struck the same note: Michael Massaroli’s son used his reading to condemn the use of 9/11 as a pretext for spreading hate against Muslims.

• Trump’s Appeared to Struggle to Stay Awake at the Pentagon. Trump drew a separate wave of attention during the Pentagon ceremony after social media users, including journalist Aaron Rupar, circulated clips accusing the 80 year old president of appearing to nod off or look “tired” and “sleepy” while seated for the remembrance. The moment spread quickly online alongside side by side comparisons to his more animated moments earlier in the event. The White House pushed back hard on the characterization, with spokesman Davis Ingle insisting Trump was “solemnly listening” throughout. The dueling narratives, uncontrolled Iran rhetoric on one side and questions about his alertness on the other, made for an unusually chaotic Pentagon appearance on what is typically the most tightly choreographed day on the calendar.

Other news:

• Reflecting Pool contractor admits it was their own screwup, not vandals. Atlantic Industrial Coatings admitted its own faulty work caused the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool’s new liner to peel and blister after this summer’s renovation. The company said workers applied too little primer due to human oversight, causing the liner’s layers to separate, and that two incompatible chemicals in the “American flag blue” coating reacted badly, with the top layer reaching a temperature the one underneath couldn’t handle. Trump had repeatedly insisted vandals used a knife or box cutter to slash a “350 foot slit” in the lining, and prosecutors charged several people, including former Olympian David Hearn, before dropping every case this summer and admitting the damage came from a botched installation. The pool remains closed and fenced off months after repairs were originally supposed to wrap up by July 4. Taxpayers are now paying the same contractor $14.7 million to fix the mess it caused.

• Trump’s $5,000 “dividend” checks would come with a catch. Trump says his proposed $5,000 payments to every adult citizen, promised if Republicans hold Congress in the midterms, could only be spent inside the United States, telling the crowd in Dallas “we don’t want you going to Canada to spend the money... we don’t want you going to China, to Germany.” The pledge has drawn immediate skepticism over whether it’s even legal, since federal law bars offering payments to influence how someone votes, and over whether he could authorize roughly $1.3 trillion in spending without Congress. Pressed on why he doesn’t just send the checks now, Trump gave a garbled answer blaming “negative growth” under Democrats. He’s floated similar cash payment ideas before, including “DOGE dividends” tied to tariff revenue, that never actually materialized. The proposal would cost more than double what tariffs have brought in since October.

• A salmonella outbreak tied to broccoli sprouts has sickened 22 people. The FDA is investigating a multistate outbreak linked to broccoli sprouts made by Idaho based Evergreen Fresh Sprouts, which were sold to restaurants, co-ops and grocery stores across Washington, Idaho, Montana and Utah. Two people in Washington have been hospitalized, and bagged or clamshell sprouts with expiration dates between September 7 and September 16 are affected. This is a separate outbreak from an earlier salmonella and E. coli scare tied to the same company’s alfalfa sprouts. Symptoms, including diarrhea, high fever, bloody stool and dehydration, can show up as late as six days after exposure, and officials say older adults, young kids and people with weakened immune systems are at the highest risk of severe illness.

• Prices are up across the board, not just gas and groceries. A new analysis of federal data found consumer prices have jumped more than 30 percent since 2019, about two and a half times the pace of increases seen in the years before the pandemic, with the pain now spreading into rent, car insurance and dining out. Childcare costs are up 62 percent since 2012, rent has jumped 75 percent, car insurance is up 115 percent, and beef and veal prices have nearly doubled. Economists point to Trump’s tariffs and the war in Iran as key drivers pushing inflation back up after it briefly dipped to 2.3 percent last year, with the rate now sitting at 3.4 percent, still well above the Fed’s target. Democrats have seized on the numbers ahead of the midterms, tying rising prices directly to the Iran war, while the White House credits Trump’s policies with recent monthly drops in beef, prescription drugs and car insurance.

• Two former DHS chiefs say the agency needs a “reset.” Democrat Jeh Johnson and Republican Michael Chertoff, who each ran Homeland Security under past administrations, say the agency has become what Johnson called “radioactive” and a “pariah” under the current mass deportation push. Johnson argued deportation operations have overwhelmed DHS’s other jobs, like tracking security threats and disaster response, leaving it at risk of missing real dangers as political violence rises. Chertoff separately said enforcement should target people who actually pose security threats rather than sweeping arrests, saying resources are going toward “gardeners and home health aides” instead of people doing real damage. Roughly half of Americans now support abolishing ICE outright, and public opinion of DHS has soured sharply since 2023. The agency has pulled back from military style raids in cities but is still notching record arrest numbers, and it defends its record as necessary to keep the country safe.

• A California woman is accused of killing both of her best friends in one afternoon. Prosecutors say 32 year old Anila Baby of Milpitas killed Ann Mary Mathew and Anjana Hari within 90 minutes of each other in two separate, premeditated attacks last month. Mathew was found stabbed and strangled at her San Jose home, with security footage from the scene deleted during the attack, while Hari was struck by a vehicle and killed in a parking lot about 10 miles away shortly after. Prosecutors call both killings willful and extremely violent, though no motive has been made public, and Baby was arrested trying to flee the second scene covered in blood with facial injuries. She’s being held without bail and returns to court November 17 to enter a plea.

See you soon.

— Aaron

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