Movement towards releasing more Epstein info (07-24-2025--Hour2)

What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all of the links, become a patron, go to thepeteclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free, write to your smartphone or tablet, and again, thank you so much for your support. I shall now discuss the thing that I've been told not to discuss, the Epstein Files. Don't meet. Don't do it. You're gonna get fired. They don't want you to say it. Now. Nobody is telling me. I mentioned this yesterday. I have very little patience and by little I mean zero for people that throw false choices at me, saying you can't talk about this unless you talk because you can't talk about this other thing. You know, It's like you either talk about this one topic or you talk about this other topic. No, I disagree. I will talk about all the topics that I want to talk about. And I've talked about the Epstein Files. I've talked about it for years. Actually, so there isn't anybody telling me don't talk about it? Just because I choose on a particular day not to talk about the Epstein files. Does it mean that somebody has gotten to me they're telling you not to talk about the Epstein files. Multiple things can be true at the same time, Right, Beware of anybody that tells you it's either this or it's that, because that is like ninety nine percent of the time not the case. There's a little bit of truth in this, and a little bit of truth over here, and a little bit over there and all that. And then you also, I always tell people to assess incentives. What are people's incentives, Not necessarily their move but they're incentives things that make it easier for them to do one thing over another. Where are there incentives aligning? And so there's a couple things against this backdrop you always need to keep in mind. Number One, Democrats have not given a flying fig Newton about Jeffrey Epstein and the files until like a minute ago. Okay, they haven't cared, but they care now because they see it as a way to hurt Trump and create another you know, Russia collusion hoax type of a smoke screen, Right, so they like that and even better if there's something in there that incriminates Trump, even better, right, So that's why they care about this. Now. Number two, there is a wing of magaaland over on the quote right or what has been referred to as the woke right, that is also interested in wrestling control of MAGA away from Donald Trump and anointing themselves as the leader of the Maga movement. Because one thing to always keep in mind that wherever power rests, then you will have psychopaths try to take control of that power base. They don't believe the things that you believe. As you are part of a particular political movement or a philosophy or whatever, any kind of institution of power, they see it. They recognize the power there and they will adopt your language, but they don't actually believe it. They don't care about the philosophy or the ideology. They care about the power. Okay, So keep that in mind as well. And that faction inside of this woke right faction driven by a lot of these woke right influencers that are being propped up by bot farms to increase their reach and to reinforce this there, you know, anti Semitism, anti Israeli stuff, anti Jewish stuff. And that's also part of this Epstein stuff as well, because there's all the rumors about the masade and Epstein is a Jew and all of this. So they're like that that whole anti Semitic wing that gets boosted by these overseas bot farms, and that's been that's been documented, by the way, so I'm not just like making this up. Okay, that's been documented that they they boost the reach they interact. They're like, yes, that's right, it's the Jews or whatever like they are. They're promoting these accounts, and they promote real people, real people's accounts. You say something like, oh, I totally agree with Candice Owen's on this anti Semitic ranch. She went on Hitler wasn't all bad. That's that kind of stuff. And then you see your tweet get boosted all of a sudden, you got like three thousand likes, and you're like, oh my gosh, this must be a popular opinion, when in fact it's not. It's just being artificially boosted for some other reason. Right, So you got to keep that in mind. You've got that wing inside. It's not even the right. This is like you get into the horseshoe theory of politics where the you know, the woke right the woke left. It's like they're the same. They they believe in the same tactics and such. They they all they're just seeking power. They know, they want to cancel people, you know, they want to tear down the institutions of the West and replace it with you know, some sort of uh, you know, religious national religious or Christian nationalist kind of a government. And they say this, Okay, James Lindsay has done brilliant work exposing these people over there. Anyway, so you've got that. And the Democrats see this, they see this riff inside magaworld, and so they're trying to hammer the wedge down to try to break up Trump's base of support. And so they're giddy at all of this stuff with the Epstein files. That doesn't mean just because the Democrats want the files released doesn't mean that we should reject the idea. Right, Oh, if the Democrats are for it, I must be against it. Well, not necessarily. Just because the Democrats have happened to stumble into a correct position doesn't mean I have to abandon that correct position. I'm not a Democrat. That's what they do. I mean, really like, that's what they have done on these issues where they feel like, oh, well Trump said it, so I have to be against it. It's like, yeah, but that was your policy up until like a year ago. Now you're against it all of a sudden because Trump is for it. So absurd. Think for yourself. Okay, I've said this before. Last week I think it was when I did I did an hour maybe two on the Epstein files, the update on Epstein. I don't know what to believe. And anybody who tells you that they know what Epstein was about, where he made his money, and the nature of the operation that they were running. Anybody who claims knowledge of this, unless you're like Gallaine Maxwell, you're lying. You can have theories. I've got some theories, like right now, I think the most plausible theory is the one I heard put forth by a guy named Mike Bens And he's got a podcast he does called The Gray Zone. He's a former State Department guy, anti corruption guy, journalist now and his theory is that Epstein was a financier for off book operations that governments and intel agencies did not want their fingerprints on. And so you use these cutouts, You use these bagmen basically, and they can go around, they can collect a bunch of money, and they can then funnel that money to the effort you know, overthrowing a government, arming some rebels, whatever. You can move that money then and your government is not involved in it. So this way, any ally that says, hey, why'd you do this? Like I didn't do it. I don't know who this guy is, right. That's not to say like he could have been an asset. I don't know if that's true or not. He could have been an asset of an intelligence agency. I tend to think not at this point, but I'm able to be persuaded you show me some evidence that he was. Sure. But if that's the case, right, if he is a financier at the very least, then it makes sense that these governments that were willing to utilize this guy to get money to various off book projects and operations, then it makes sense why the government now and the government under Biden, they don't want they don't want these files to be disclosed. They don't want people to see the fingerprints. Right, So, to some extent, that makes a bit of sense. That's not an excuse for keeping them all hidden, though, and there are records that are hidden like that. We do not have access to all of the files. And I'm not talking like they should not be releasing files with victims' names or any of the child pornography or whatever that exists on the videos. We don't need to see any of that, but we do need to see some of the people that were utilizing the various services he was offering. All right, if you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events, and I know you do too, and you've probably heard me say get your news from multiple sources. Why well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with ground News. It's an app and it's a website and it combines news from around the world in one place so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check dot ground, dot news slash pete. I put the link in the podcast description two. I started using ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check dot Ground, dot news slash pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get fifteen percent off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. All right, So as I have in my hands here, three yeah, three. I don't know updates if you will on the Epstein's saga Number one A how subcommittee yesterday voted to subpoena the Department of Justice for its files in the sex trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. This is according to the Associated Press, which reports after Democrats successfully goaded GOP lawmakers to defy President Donald Trump and Republican leadership to support the action. Because it can't be that the Republicans want the files too, No, that's not possible, ap right, Associated Press. They know the motivation of the Republicans, and it was that they got goaded into it by the Democrats. Score one for the Democrats victory good for them, says the cheerleaders for the Democrats over at the ap piece by Stephen Groves and Matt Brown. The House Committee on Oversight also issued a subpoena for Gillaane Maxwell, a convicted sex offender and girlfriend of the late Epstein, to testify before committee officials in August. Related there are reports that she believes if she cooperates in some manner, she may get herself a pardon. Good luck with that. I'm not sure that Trump is going to want to pardon a convicted sex offender part of the human trafficking sex trafficking operation of Epstein, particularly when there's all this swirl about whether his name is in the files or not, which by the way, I expect that his name is somewhere in Epstein's address book, his contacts book. I have no doubt about that, because we have long known that the two knew each other, moved in the same circles, attended same parties. Epstein went to mar A Lago, they went at each other in an auction for some property down in Florida, and that apparently led to the falling out. Like we already know this, and yes, I covered this last week when the Wall Street Journal published its report about the birthday wishes that Donald Trump allegedly wrote to Epstein. That was just newly discovered. All of this just newly discovered. So maybe Maxwell testifies, maybe she talks to the to the DOJ or something about whatever. Maybe she's trying to get a pardoned or commutation of her sentence or something. I don't know. Maybe she will, maybe she won't. Here's the thing. Criminals will lie just like Commi's okay, So you just got to be you just got to keep that in mind. I'm not saying don't believe anything she says. I'm just saying, probably don't believe everything she says just because she says it. You'd have to confirm this stuff. Okay. So Democrats on this subcommittee, which is part of the House Oversight Committee, made a motion for the subpoena. Yesterday afternoon. Three Republicans on the panel voted with the Democrats for the subpoena, sending it through on an eight to two vote. Democrats cheered the action as proof that they're push for disclosures in the Epstein investigation was growing stronger. The committee agreed to redact information on victims as it should, Yet Democrats successfully blocked a push by Republicans to only subpoena information that was deemed to be credible. So Democrats don't care if it's credible. They want, they want all the speculation. Now, why is this important, because there is a piece at Newsweek here it is. On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Pambondi and another top DOJ official informed the president in May that his name appeared in the Epstein files, along with the names of other high profile figures, as part of what the sources characterized as quote unverified hearsay. That's what Democrats want. They want the unverified hearsay because they don't care about the truth. They don't care about the Epstein files. They don't care who burns. If you like, some guy is in Epstein's rolodex because they did some sort of a deal somewhere along the line that was completely legitimate. The guy had you know, this business person had nothing to do with any of the trafficking, had no idea. They just did some deal together. So his name is in a book someplace, and the Democrats don't care if that guy burns, he will forever, Like if that guy has to be sacrificed for Democrat electoral purposes. They are totally fine with that. That's why they want the end unverified hearsay out there. They don't care if the information that they subpoena is credible or not. If it says Donald Trump on it or any other Republican, that's good enough for them. This is again from the AP goes on to say, Democrats have delighted in pressing Republicans to support the release of the files. Yeah, because this is their only issue right now. Have you noticed, like the ice stuff has kind of fallen away, the arrested variis, all of those tactics, like those things have kind of drifted away. This is now the sole focus because this is what they think is their winning issue. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina. Just a quick drive up the mountain and Cabins of Asheville is your connection. Whether you're celebrating an anniversary, a honeymoon, maybe you want to plan a memorable proposal, or get family and friends together for a big old reunion, Cabins of Asheville has the ideal spot for you. 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So, Democrat leaders are hoping to make the Epstein issue more about just Epstein. Right. They want to It's about more than that, Okay, right? They they want to make this about Trump. They want to make it that he's involved in the sex trafficking, that he was, you know, friends with Epstein, he knew all about it. Now he's covering it all up and and you know, divide the MAGA movement. Right. So that's the ap story, and that's the the update from the subcommittee vote to subpoena DOJ files. Then there is the follow up story that the Wall Street Journal did. I mentioned a bit of it a moment ago. The White House has responded to a new Wall Street Journal report that Attorney General Pam Bondi told President Trump back in May that his name was mentioned in documents related to the investigation into the disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The journal's report cited senior administration officials who said Trump's name appeared quote multiple times in the Epstein files. Right, but in what context? So, like, this is the problem I have with these anonymously sourced stories. Fine, Okay, you got an anonymous source to say, you know, I can confirm we told him that his name's in the files. Okay, but like in what context? Like for what I can't say anymore? Well, then I think you are simply planting this information to harm the president. Why else would you just tell me that if you know his name is there, you've seen the files, right, If otherwise, what are you just saying that you know BONDI said this and that's it? Well, then in what context was his name in the files? Was it? Like? I hate Donald Trump because he outbid me on that auction for the property that I wanted but he got. We know, and this is the thing too, We know that these two guys knew each other. We knew this. We've known this since he came down the escalator. We've known it for thirty years, because we have video, we have pictures, we have all this stuff, which, by the way, in this Newsweek story they talk about how CNN reported on breaking news newly surfaced photos show Epstein attending Trump's nineteen ninety three wedding to Marla Maples No, as well as images of the two men standing next to each other at the Harley Davidson Cafe opening that same year. Really, the Harley Davidson Cafe had a grand opening and they invited local luminaries and business people and rich folks to hobnob. Well, that's a shock like this, they lived nearby. They lived near each other. Donald Trump wrote a book about sleeping with his friend's wives. Like this is not like the guy was a serial philanderer. We knew this. It's already baked into the cake. The fact that he and Epstein would know each other, we've already known and it's not surprising. The question is was he participating in the illegal activity? And until you can show me something that proves that, then then I am suspicious of all of these leaked reports that don't provide any information or any evidence of his involvement in the illegal activities because Epstein was running some sort of hedge fund. This is the other thing too. There's another possibility here, which is that Epstein was just a con man. That's possible too. I mean, yes, he was, you know, sex trafficking and doing that stuff. But this, this is not a new story in the rich elite world. This happens all the time where con men, Cohn women go in there and they take advantage of really rich but kind of stupid people, right, They do this all the time. They sell them on some story, some origin story, I'm actually the Prince of Nepal or something like it. Wasn't there What was the big one Sydney the guy who claimed he was Sidney Poitier's son? Did I say that name? Potier? And the guy was bilking millions of dollars from like these uber rich liberals I think in New York City or something. Then, of course CNN has another video uncovered by CNN showing Trump and Epstein laughing and chatting together at the nineteen ninety nine Victorious Secrets fashion show. Okay, like, do you have do you have this of Donald Trump paying Epstein for the sex at the at the Island? No, do you have any communication? Do you have any do you have any proof of any of this stuff yet? Well, that's because it's all being suppressed, Pete. We shall see, we shall see. And that's what Democrats keep sniffing around for. It's a there's there's a double benefit here, is that number one, you hurt Trump at number two as you divide his base because a chunk of the base has been demanding the Epstein files be released me included, by the way, Like I'm saying they should have released and gone after and charged the Johns like you, how do you imprison Gallaine Maxwell on this you know, sex trafficking operation and there be no clients. Do I think there's a client list. I don't know. It would not surprise me if there was not, it wouldn't. I think Jeffrey Epstein probably would not have kept a list where somebody would be able to get the list, you know, so that it's possible, but they would know. He would have known who the people were. Maybe he used that to blackmail them individually, that's possible. I don't know. I want to know. I think we should know because I feel like the people who did participate in the illegal activity, the pedophile ring, they should be held accountable. And I don't care what political party they are, I don't care who they are. They need to be brought up on charges. But the way to do that is to actually do an investigation. And then there is Then there's the money, which to me has always been sort of this blind spot for some reason, How did Epstein get all of his money? Follow the money? But somehow and other people aren't interested in following the money. But now we have somebody who is interested coincidentally timed just for right now when Trump is in office, and it's Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon Democrat did an interview with The New York Times. He said that his investigators on his staff in the Senate had discovered that four big banks had flagged one point five billion dollars in potentially suspicious money transfers involving Epstein. They flagged these transfers and told the Treasury Department one point five billion dollars in wire transfers or money transfers, which kind of lends some evidence to the idea that he was a financier of these off book operations. The revelation, which emerged via Widen's work as ranking Democrat on the Finance Committee ratified. This is according to The New Republic, which is a left wing rag written by Greg Sargent, who was a leftist, awful person. But this is the only place I found the write up on it, because The New York Times is a paywall. But this is, you know, regarding widespread suspicions that there is still much we don't know about Epstein's relations with some of the most powerful and wealthy elites in the world in the lead up to his twenty nineteen arrest on sex trafficking charges. Now Widen is ratcheting things up once again. Widen's office just sent a new letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi suggesting seven lines of inquiry that the Justice Department could follow right now to dig more deeply into his web of financial relations with global elites. And this is where things might get tricky if he was a financier of off book intelligence and government operations. Right you start pulling at these threads and you don't know where they may lead, and then you end up with some international crisis because some ally finds out that you were running some op that they told you not to run. You know, stories are powerful. They help us make sense of things, to understand experiences. Stories connect us to the people of our past while transcending. They help us process the meaning of life. And our stories are told through images and videos. Preserve your stories with Creative Video. Started in nineteen ninety seven and Mint Hill, North Carolina. It was the first company to provide this valuable service, converting images, photos and videos into high quality produced slide shows, videos and albums. The trusted, talented and dedicated team at Creative Video will go over all of the details with you to create a perfect project. Satisfaction guaranteed drop them off in person or mail them. They'll be ready in a week or two. Memorial videos for your loved ones, videos for rehearsal, dinners, weddings, graduations, Christmas, family vacations, birthdays, or just your family stories, all told through images. That's what your photos and videos are. They are your life told through the eyes of everyone around you and all who came before you, and they will tell others to come who you are. Visit creative video dot Com. Let us Ham and Tomato go to the phone lines. Here's Dan. Welcome to the Dan. How are you hi, Pete, Thanks for taking my call. Sure, I'm curious if you think it's possible that Donald Trump knows exactly what's in the whole dossier, if you will, about Epstein, and is simply allowing the Democrats to just keep demanding it, just keep demanding it. Finally it's okay, well we'll release it, and here comes an absolute explosion of Democrats up to their ears in it. That's possible, right, Like. I don't know if he's that savvy. I'd like to think he is, right, great play well. Yeah, And that's the thing about Trump is like, I don't know, is he playing the you know, forty seven dimensional chess going on right now? Or is this uh? Is this just him, you know, reacting viscerally and emotionally like no, shut it down, there's not going to see here whatever, and wants it all to go away for the reasons that everybody you know tends to think, which is that his name is in the file and it's going to hurt him. But your theory could also be true that he got a briefing, he knows what's in it, and he's like, let them keep running with this, this story, and then they will eventually it'll come out and there will be a lot of Democrats that get burned when it does. That's possible too. It would be perfectly in his style to let them hang themselves from their own fitards. That's the second time this week that the word petard has been used. Yes, so I think we're on course for a record. Yeah, Dan, thanks for the call, man, I appreciate it. Sure bye. All right, Yeah, it's a look. I got a text on the WBT text line driven by Liberty Buick GMC. What are the chances that the Epstein files are full of Democrats and the DJ is waiting until the midterms to wipe out the field. Yeah, the chances are, I'd say, even see, that's the thing with this, with this kind of stuff, like you don't know what's in there. These Democrats may not know what's in there, and you keep for this stuff, and it just stands to reason that this is a bipartisan scandal. In fact, like you remember when we found out that there was all of this money being paid out for all of like the sexual harassment claims that were lodged against members of Congress, Those like tens of millions of dollars have been handed out through this fund or whatever taxpayer funds to settle these accusations, these claims and make the people go away. And what happened, right, We were like, hey, well who were the claims made against? And all of a sudden you saw a bipartisan unity and they were like, we're not releasing the names and stuff. And to some extent, like I understand why. And Trump has been a victim of this, and most famous people and powerful people have been involved in these kinds of things where it's just easier to just pay them to go away. When you become really rich, people see the power, they see the wealth, and they're like, I'm going to make some accusations and I'm going to get paid. You know, professional athletes deal with this, actors deal with this, politicians too, right, So it makes sense why people would just pay and make somebody, you know, go away. I just want to get rid of this problem. It's not true. What they're accusing me of is not true. But it's not worth it to get dragged into this fight where I'm going to suffer reputational damage even though it's not true. So you know, I can understand that. And so here's the thing too, Like you're going to have people that are in the files that have done nothing wrong and they're going to get dragged into it, and they're going to now carry this scarlet letter around with them that they were identified in the Epstein files even though they did nothing wrong. They were unaware of whatever it was that he was doing. They had some dealing with him on something else unrelated. Right, the context matters, and far be it for me to suggest that I don't trust the media to tell me the full context of the stories. But I don't trust them, Okay, I don't trust them, So you know they're just gonna give me a list of everybody that's in all of the files, and everybody's gonna go ooh, they're pedophiles, and they're not. And then you're going to open yourself up to lawsuits for slander, for libel, all of that. Back to this piece at New Republic. Again, it's a lefty rag. So take this from where it's coming from. But this is the place where I saw the information about Senator Ron Wyden's letter to the DOJ, where he's outlining like, this is what we have found with financial transactions. There were like almost five thousand wire transfers involving Epstein's accounts, and they say this merits further investigation. You got one and a half billion dollars moving through these accounts Treasury Department records that were looked at by Widends investigators. This was examined his financial transactions for several years. They looked at them. In February of twenty twenty four, when Democrats controlled the Senate, his staff viewed in camera, which means privately thousands of pages of Treasury files documenting the transactions. That review brought to Widen's attention the one point five billion dollars in suspicious transactions flagged to Treasury by big banks, which they have to report, like these suspicious activity reports, the Star's reports, right, so they file these reports. Now Democrats do not care if Hunter Biden is doing these shady transactions that get Stars flags on them. They don't care about those, But now they care follow the money. As is always the case, It's unclear whether DOJ has or has not examined the Treasury files. It's possible it's already done so, but Widen's office says, at a minimum, DOJ should say whether it has done this and if it has, what did their review find. But the DOJ has not replied to his questions, he says. Wyden's letter to the DOJ also lays out other lines of inquiry that the DOJ could pursue, urging examination of a number of specific payments made to Epstein by several wealthy financiers that his investigators discovered. The letter also suggests subpoenaing banks that filed the SARS reports in case they failed to report on Epstein related transactions that remain unknown. So, okay, you know you got a bank and it filed like say ten stars reports, Well maybe they should have filed one hundred, but they only filed ten. Widen also says the DOJ needs to examine hundreds of millions of dollars in wire transfers discovered by his investigators that passed through several Russian banks that are now sanctioned. I don't know if they were sanctioned at the time of the transactions, but they're sanctioned now. So Russia, Russia, Russia, guys, we can get the band back together, okay. Widen's office also offers another revelation in the Times interview. A Treasury spokesperson dismissed Widen's demand for release of these documents, insisting that Joe Biden, when Joe Biden was president, Widen never asked for the info, But Widens often said that office says that's not true. We reviewed him in February twenty twenty four, and when he asked for the info from the Biden Treasury department, he got access to it, and he says Widen staff viewed these Treasury documents in private. Widen actively then moved to get the Senate to subpoena their release, but because the Finance Committee rules required bipartisan support, he was unable to get GOP senators on the committee to back him, and so he was unable to get them released. And again keep in mind they're hoping to drive a wedge in the magabase. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.