We’re late again this week, gang — primarily due to Paul having to testify this week in Washington to the House Judiciary Committee regarding crime in our blue cities (stay tuned on that…).
In the meantime: Was Jeffrey Epstein looking to destroy Trump’s political career?
It’s not a fanciful notion at all, if you examine the facts. So let’s do that.
First, note that Trump famously outmaneuvered Jeffrey Epstein in a 2004 Palm Beach real-estate auction — a deal Epstein himself tipped Trump off to — and the two men appear to have fallen out soon after. Newly released emails from House Oversight Committee Democrats show clear bad blood, and the timing aligns closely with Epstein’s 2006 arrest and 2008 conviction.
Epstein’s initial Florida case was a catalog of predation: unlawful sexual activity with minors, lewd molestation, procuring minors for prostitution, and possession of child-sex images. Yet he escaped with a stunningly lenient state-level plea deal — just 18 months, of which he served 13 on work release — while federal charges being prepared by the FBI were quietly neutralized.
Somehow, as the Palm Beach cops were preparing their state case against Epstein, the feds decided that the plea deal being negotiated by the state exempted Epstein from being charged with a concurrent federal case that was underway by the FBI. The FBI had in fact received the case on Epstein when the Chief of the Palm Beach Police Department saw the direction that the state prosecutor was going with the case, and objected to the plea deal. So the Chief contacted the FBI and turned over his department’s evidence, hoping Epstein would get the justice he deserved.
Didn’t work. The federal Southern District of Florida countered the FBI investigation by using the Florida State prosecutor’s plea deal to draft a non-prosecutorial agreement for Epstein.
So essentially: If Epstein took the Florida state-level sweetheart deal, the feds would not charge their case at all. Who wouldn’t take that deal?
Readers, during our careers, the purveyors of The Ops Desk have had numerous fights with prosecutors to convince them not to drop charges or offer lenient deals – but Epstein’s deal was one for the ages — and no doubt the product of political influence. Hats off to the Palm Beach Chief for at least trying to get justice.
The deal was so bad, in fact, it was later deemed improper by federal judge Kenneth Marra. Which mattered, because pressure from that led the Southern District of New York to initiate the case that Epstein was under indictment for when he killed himself (or whatever happened in the MDC).
Now during this sordid tale, Trump, unlike many elites, cut ties with Epstein — for moral or practical reasons, it doesn’t matter. It was the right call. Larry Summers, Steve Bannon, Barack Obama’s lawyer Kathryn Ruemmler, and CIA Director William Burns, along with others, didn’t make the same choice. They knew Epstein’s record and kept meeting with him anyway.
Nonetheless, this fallout with Epstein appears to have come back to bedevil Donald Trump. As Trump’s successful 2016 run for office began, the recent email release shows that the anti-Trump forces were willing to go to this convicted pedophile to dig up dirt. Journalist Michael Wolff solicited propaganda from Epstein to use for his anti-Trump articles and books during multiple interviews in 2017.
And take a guess as to where Epstein turned to malign Trump? Russian collusion!
As the Obama regime leaked false intelligence on Trump and Russia, Epstein created his own angle to support it. Wolff claimed, based on his interviews with Epstein, that the Palm Beach real estate deal that Trump beat him on in 2004 was because Trump was actually a straw buyer for Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev, who years later, bought the property outright from Trump. There is absolutely no evidence of this claim.
Later, Epstein even inserted himself into congressional questioning. During Michael Cohen’s 2019 hearing, Epstein now famously texted U.S. Virgin Islands Delegate Stacey Plaskett mid-hearing, coaching her to ask about Trump aide Rhona Graff — a supposed “vulnerability” he imagined. Plaskett followed his suggestions despite not knowing what he was talking about.
And if you’re wondering how on earth Epstein and Plaskett know each other so well, recall that Epstein’s “pedophile island,” Little Saint James, is located in Plaskett’s jurisdiction — the U.S. Virgin Islands. No wonder no one ever looked into the place.
These examples of Epstein’s machinations explain much of the information that was contained in the carefully selected emails released by the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee. They appear to be part of a revenge plot orchestrated by Jeffrey Epstein to harm Trump. Correspondence with Michael Wolff outright explains how releasing information on Trump could benefit Epstein by implying it could garner good will amongst Democrats or encourage Trump to drop the pending case against Epstein for fear of more bad headlines. Didn’t work.
So it is not a fantasy to view what is happening now as just a continuation of Epstein’s game plan. He is not around anymore to reap the benefits personally. But Democrats are still using a pedophile to go after Trump, based on no evidence other than Epstein’s own scheming.
That context raises questions about the latest insinuations that Trump somehow “knew” about Epstein’s crimes and stayed silent. Are these claims genuine — or just more debris from Epstein’s own attempts to wound Trump?
It’s time for Trump to push for total transparency (he now appears to be leaning that way). He should demand the full release of all Epstein-related files, petition federal courts to unseal records, and end the drip-drip weaponization of selective leaks. It would eliminate another avenue of attack and expose who truly enabled Epstein — because it wasn’t Trump.
To his credit, and unlike far too many powerful figures, Trump stopped associating with Epstein once his crimes came to light. Others didn’t. And the fact that a convicted predator became a go-to source for Trump’s political enemies says far more about them — and about our so-called elites — than it does about Donald Trump.
Time to clear all this up, once and for all, and move on from the squalid tale of The Talented Mr. Epstein.
The Greatest Stock-Picker Of All Time? Suuuuure….
Over decades in Congress, Nancy Pelosi and her husband, Paul Pelosi, have amassed a stock-portfolio performance whose chart looks like an ICBM launch — and reads like hedge-fund barroom bragging. Yet no hedge fund has the kind of access and influence a speaker of the House wields. That alone is reason enough to be suspicious.
Then there are those pesky things that keep cropping up: the facts.
According to public reporting, the Pelosis investments defy gravity. One recent headline shows a return for the Pelosis of 16,930% over the course of her 37-year congressional career. In 2024 alone, disclosures estimate their net worth at up to $413 million, up from about $370 million just a year earlier. Most striking: their portfolio allegedly produced an annual return of roughly 54% in 2024, compared with the S&P 500’s ~25% and “every large hedge fund” below that.
Wow. Twice as good as the institutional traders who do this stuff all day, every day, with enormous staffs, AI-assistance, computers, and algorithms.
But the numbers are only the beginning. The timing is even more troubling.
The Pelosis reportedly sold 5,000 shares of Microsoft Corp. (≈ $2.2 million) in July 2024 — just months before the Federal Trade Commission announced an antitrust investigation of Microsoft. They also sold 2,000 shares of Visa Inc. (≈ $525,000) less than three months before the U.S. Department of Justice sued Visa for monopolization.
On the buying side, in 2021 (as always, during the Biden administration), Paul Pelosi bought more than $3 million of stock in Microsoft two weeks before the Army announced it had signed a massive $22 billion contract with Microsoft to purchase augmented reality headsets from the company. A month later, Microsoft unveiled a deal to purchase Nuance Communications, a company making speech recognition technology, for $19 billion — a signal to investors that Microsoft was looking to expand. Microsoft’s shares dutifully rose on the news.
Then in May of 2022, Paul Pelosi’s bought up to $600,000 in Microsoft call options and up to $1.5 million of Apple. Regarding Paul Pelosi’s stock purchases, according to Business Insider: “Together, these companies, along with Microsoft, spend tens of millions of dollars each year lobbying the federal government, including Congress.”
That same year, Paul Pelosi also bought shares in semiconductor firm Nvidia just before Congress began formally considering subsidies to the industry.
There are numerous examples of such dubious timing.
Now, note that under the 2012 STOCK Act it is illegal for lawmakers and their families to trade on material non-public information. Insider-trading cases have been made on far less, when the will was there.
Recall that Pelosi claims she holds no stocks and is not involved in her husband’s “investment decisions” (riiiight). But the defensiveness has been telling. When pressed by reporters, Pelosi loses her usual composure, snapping, yelling, and lashing out rather than offering a transparent breakdown. That level of agitation is exactly what you’d expect if someone had something to hide.
It’s past time to ask: why has Nancy Pelosi not been investigated thoroughly? Why hasn’t the House Ethics Committee or the Department of Justice launched a full review into whether privileged information was used? In the name of fairness, integrity and public trust—she should be.
Could it be that many other Congress members are up to similar shenanigans? Note that under the STOCK Act, all members of Congress are required to disclose their trades — but with a 30-to-45-day delay. As a result, any Congress member trading on inside info is well out ahead of the rest of us. Reportedly, Pelosi is potentially not the only violator. She may not even be the worst.
But she is certainly the person with the most power and access. If Congress exempts one of its most visible members from scrutiny, the message is clear: the stock-trading privilege for federal lawmakers — which has been demonstrably used illegally in many instances — is a back-door to corrupt wealth beyond the reach of ordinary Americans.
Nancy and Paul Pelosi’s performance, timing and reactions all mean an investigation is not just warranted—it’s overdue.
This Week’s Pod: John Brennan Questioner, Tom Speciale!
Gang, if you have any social media at all, you probably saw the recent clip of former CIA Director John Brennan losing all composure when he was publicly asked a simple question: Why did you try to use bogus intelligence against Donald Trump?
With John Brennan currently referred to DOJ for potential prosecution, it was an extremely telling moment. And we have the man who asked that question with us today.
Tom Speciale is a former government intel analyst, former military, and current national security consultant. He’s got decades of experience — and clearly, he knew what to ask Brennan when the moment arrived.
So join us for Part One of our discussion with Tom as we peel apart the weaponized Steele dossier, the intelligence community’s use of it to influence the 2020 election, the laptop from hell… and where all this is going now.
Will Brennan be indicted? How about Peter Strzok and Lisa Page?
Why was it all done? Did it actually have an appreciable effect? (Hint: it did).
And: Did Tom actually think Brennan was about to hit him? (This writer thought so).
So special thanks to Tom, who is much in demand these days. Click above to see why… and HERE for the whole pod.
DC and Memphis Crime Update: Trump’s Law-and-Order Strategy Is Working
Don’t look now, but Trump’s federal takeover of Washington, D.C. law enforcement on August 11, 2025, has produced results that even his critics can’t hand-wave away.
With DOJ oversight and National Guard support, crime in the nation’s capital has fallen off a cliff. From August 11 through November 14, overall crime showed a 31.5% decline. Violent crime fell even faster, down 35% (from 950 to 614). Murders plunged an astonishing 62%, and robberies fell 51%. In a city that had been sliding backwards for years, those are transformational numbers.
Memphis tells the same story. After Trump and Tennessee Governor Bill Lee launched the Memphis Safe Task Force, the city began receiving a surge of federal law-enforcement resources along with 160 National Guardsmen, fully deployed by October 10. The impact was immediate. FBI-designated major crimes between October 6 and November 9 showed a 45% drop — that’s right, nearly half. Homicides dipped 12.5%, but the standout figure is robberies (which many consider the key metric): down from 155 to 54, a staggering 65% reduction.
Predictably, the usual voices in the media and on the left have responded with the standard hand-wringing about “militarization” and “optics.” But the numbers don’t care about optics. They tell a simple story: Trump’s interventions are making once-dangerous cities dramatically safer in a matter of weeks, not years.
Whatever one thinks of the politics, these outcomes are undeniable. For residents of D.C. and Memphis, quality of life is improving, violence is dropping, and decades of failed promises are finally giving way to measurable success.
If there is a failure here, it is in the Trump administration’s messaging. These results should be a major narrative, and they aren’t yet.
This might be the one time in life you will ever hear this phrase:
President Trump, speak up!
Michelle Obama, Please Go Away To One Of Your Four Mansions
Michelle Obama is in the news – again. And again, she is denigrating this country. It’s high time this woman sailed off into a quiet retirement. We’re sure she can afford the required yacht.
This time she is claiming that the United States is not ready for a female president. Despite being a progressive, she was apparently able to determine what a woman is (so normative!) and pontificate that misogynistic Americans are not cultured enough to elect one to lead the country.
Add that comment to the numerous claims of victimhood based on race and gender and it is clear that she is not a fan of this country. Has she ever said a positive thing in her life?
She is also someone who is not in touch with her own reality. For starters, if Michelle Obama had entered the 2024 presidential race, she had a real shot at the oval office, but she held back — likely due to the fear that a potential loss to Trump would damage her brand.
Some reports, in fact, listed Michelle as the favorite in the 2024 race. So spare us the “Me Too” tripe. That’s, like, SO ten years ago….
When examining her comments on her racial hardships, she is downright comical. Her Wikipedia page is filled with one comment after another of all the race and gender-based adversity she and her family faced. She has often claimed that she and Barack had to be “twice as good” because they were black. She also claimed that they, “didn’t get the grace that some other families get.”
Considering her current behavior — maybe it was because she wasn’t exactly “graceful” herself?
Let’s note that this is someone who got accepted to a highly regarded magnet high school in Chicago, and then a discounted admission to Princeton despite what were likely less than average SAT scores. Her Princeton thesis, available online, has been widely derided as lightweight and error-filled.
Michelle then acquired a law degree from Harvard University (reportedly, after her Princeton advisor had to rewrite her recommendation), leading to a very successful career as an attorney working at the prestigious Sidley Austin Law Firm, and later a position as associate dean at the University of Chicago. She was also the First Lady of the United States, and is currently well-within the 1% of the wealthiest people in human history, with an estimated net worth approaching $100 million. The Obamas reportedly own at least four luxury properties, in places like Martha’s Vineyard and Hawaii. What a tragic story of the struggle of a black woman in America.
So Michelle, we know we speak for millions when we say: Enough already. Americans are sick of hearing you — and your fellow elites — bad mouthing the country that has given them so much.
Time to buy the yacht and disappear. If you really need to pipe up, maybe you can start a substack. We promise not to subscribe.
And finally…
Maybe Branco’s best.
Look for this to be a major issue for the midterms. This sums up the present state of affairs — but the Republicans better have a fix ready.
The dems hooked the ideas Epstein planted in their heads. I wouldn’t call the dims fishing trip, revenge. I would call it trying to mislead the country.