We Should All Be Epstein Conspiracy Theorists Now
Mehdi on the creepy dead pedophile who was threatening a creepy president, the latest from Marjorie Taylor Greene's revolt, and Gavin Newsom's ambitious attempt to unite the Democratic Party.
🎦 Happy 83rd birthday to one of my favorite film directors, Martin Scorsese! I will never stop loving ‘Goodfellas,’ even though it does feel like we’re living through a real-life mob boss movie right now (!)
Good morning! Mehdi here, frantically trying to finish writing this Monday morning email before I head out for an exclusive sitdown interview with a big name in the news right now. Check out your inboxes for that ‘Mehdi Unfiltered’ interview later this week. You won’t want to miss it!
In today’s ‘First Draft,’ the Epstein revelations get weirder and weirder; the Department of Homeland Security names a vicious immigration raid after a classic children’s book; the UN Security Council votes on Gaza; and Donald Trump escalates his war on… wait, what… Marjorie Taylor Greene.
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Did Jeffrey Epstein Die by Suicide? Really?
Picture the scene. Imagine it is, say, December 2022. A high-profile, convicted child sex offender who once partied with President Joe Biden is emailing a friend. “I am the one able to take him down,” the sex offender writes, referring to his old pal Biden, who now holds the most powerful office in the country.
Just seven months later, in July 2023, the sex offender is arrested and charged by the Biden administration with sex trafficking of minors. A month later, the sex offender is found dead in his cell, in federal custody. It turns out the prison guards didn’t check on him that night, and are later found to have falsified the records. The cameras outside the cell malfunctioned, too. And the CCTV footage that does emerge later is missing more than 60 crucial seconds.
What do you think Donald Trump, the Republican Party, and Fox would have said in response? Would they have accepted an instant ruling of suicide from Biden’s attorney general, delivered six days before the official ruling from the medical examiner?
Of. Course. Not.
They would have screamed ‘Murder!’ They would have accused Joe Biden of having his former friend killed in prison and then covering it up. They would have repeatedly pointed to the email showing the dead man claimed to be “the one able to take [Biden] down.” We all would have been subjected to one deranged conspiracy theory after another from the denizens of MAGAworld.
And yet what I describe above is exactly what did happen between a convicted child sex offender and a sitting president. But it was, of course, Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump, not Joe Biden.
It was Trump who partied with Epstein. And it was Epstein who suggested he had the goods on Trump that “could take him down.”
In December 2018, the Department of Justice and the FBI were investigating the financier over allegations of sex trafficking in the wake of a Miami Herald investigation into his sweetheart plea deal in 2008.
“It will all blow over!” an unidentified person wrote to Epstein on Dec. 3, 2018. “They’re really just trying to take down Trump and doing whatever they can to do that...!”
“yes thx,” Epstein replied. “its wild. because i am the one able to take him down.”
Seven months later, in July 2019, Epstein was charged and arrested by the Trump DOJ, and a month later, he was found dead in his cell in federal custody. It was Trump’s Attorney General Bill Barr who was quick to label Epstein’s death an “apparent suicide.”
And it is Trump who, up until last night, was repeatedly and angrily refusing to release the Epstein files – despite pledging to do exactly that while running for the presidency last year. (Late last night, the president did a shameless U-turn, realizing that dozens of House Republicans were about to go against him on the Epstein files vote, and instead called on them to “vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide.”)
“Nothing to hide”? I have to be honest. I have spent my career resisting conspiracy theories: about 9/11, moon landings, and more. But the Jeffrey Epstein saga may have finally made a conspiracy theorist out of me.
Now, some of you might be wondering: how can we really believe wild conspiracy theories about murder, child rape, and top elected officials, as if we’re living in some sort of episode of ‘Scandal’ or ‘House of Cards’? But the real question is: how can we not? How can we not entertain conspiracy theories about the death of the world’s most famous child sex offender when we see the world’s most powerful man frantically spending weeks pressuring members of his own party to vote against the release of all the records, throwing his own loyal allies under the bus in the process, and ordering blatantly partisan investigations into only his political opponents?
How can we not entertain conspiracy theories when Donald Trump’s name appears in the Epstein emails and files released by the House Oversight Committee more than anyone else? When those emails show Jeffrey Epstein saying the president “knew about the girls” and that Trump is the “dog that hasn’t barked”?
How can we not entertain conspiracy theories about a dead pedophile who was a close friend of the president, especially when that president is also a convicted criminal himself and was found liable for sexual abuse by a jury of his peers in New York?
This should be the biggest story in the country, if not the world. By a country mile. It is a bigger political and criminal scandal than Watergate, Whitewater, and Iran-Contra rolled into one. It merits nonstop, round-the-clock attention, outrage, and journalistic scrutiny. (We here at Zeteo are playing our part and have provided to the public a searchable online database of the entire set of new Epstein files and emails.)
The great irony, of course, is that the MAGA movement spent the past decade furiously insisting that a secret cabal of politicians has been covering up child sex crimes, and it turns out they may have been right, but what they didn’t realize is that the cover-up is coming from inside the house. Yet the same conservatives who accused Bill and Hillary Clinton of murdering their opponents now have little to say about the ridiculously suspicious death of Jeffrey Epstein in federal (read: Trump) custody.
To be clear: I am not saying Donald Trump had Jeffrey Epstein killed. I am saying that if the situation were reversed, there is no doubt that Donald Trump would definitely be claiming Joe Biden had Jeffrey Epstein killed.
🗞️ What You Need to Know
“Operation Charlotte’s Web”: Border Patrol said it arrested 81 people across North Carolina’s largest city in the Trump administration’s latest assault on immigrants. Yes, DHS really named an immigration raid involving masked agents detaining people near grocery stores, churches, and apartment buildings, after a classic children’s novel!
Trump big bucks: Trump bought over $80 million in corporate and municipal bonds from late August to early October, and they include investments in sectors that profit from his MAGA policies. According to the latest disclosures, he made over 175 purchases in about 35 days.
War on Venezuela: Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday night that the Venezuela-based Cartel de los Soles will be designated as a foreign terrorist organization. The announcement came just hours after a major US aircraft carrier entered the Caribbean Sea, in a flex of military strength.
War on women: South Carolina is weighing the most oppressive abortion measure in the US. Under the bill, anyone who gets an abortion or assists someone would face up to 30 years in prison. It would also limit in vitro fertilization and potentially restrict some contraception methods like IUDs.
No more flight cuts: The FAA ended its mandatory flight cuts as of 6 am today, after a flurry of air traffic issues during the shutdown. The announcement comes just in time for the hectic holiday travel season.
🧠 Pop Quiz!
Which Trump attorney general’s father ran the school where Jeffrey Epstein began his career?
Keep your eyes out for the answer below!
🇵🇸 Don’t Forget Gaza
Death sentence in custody: At least 94 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody since Oct. 7, according to the Physicians for Human Rights–Israel (PHRI). The majority of those who died were civilians, PHRI noted, adding that this number is likely a vast undercount.
UN to vote on ceasefire: The UN Security Council is set to vote on a US-led resolution on the establishment of the International Stabilization Force (ISF), which would be deployed to Gaza to help implement the next phase of the ceasefire agreement. Just yesterday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu engaged in a last-minute effort to rewrite a portion of the resolution after the US incorporated a line to enable a “pathway” for Palestinian statehood.
Palestinians push for self-determination: The National Commission for Palestinian Popular Action came out against the UN resolution, emphasizing that Gaza’s future must be decided by its people rather than the externally imposed transitional administration as proposed in the resolution.
And in the occupied West Bank… Israeli settlers stole Palestinian residents’ agricultural equipment in Al-Mughayyir, a village near Ramallah, in the latest attack on this year’s olive harvest season. Netanyahu attempted to downplay the settler violence in the area, saying it’s only “caused by a minority.”
💬 Quote Unquote
“I want it to be the Manchin to Mamdani party. I want it to be inclusive.”
Inclusive is one thing, but is Governor Gavin Newsom, the man that a growing number of pundits view as the next Democratic presidential nominee, really aligning himself with perhaps the most conservative Democrat in the Senate in the 21st century? Come on!
🌏 Anywhere But America
🇧🇩 Ex-Bangladeshi leader sentenced to death: A special tribunal in Bangladesh sentenced ousted former leader Sheikh Hasina to death over the deadly crackdown on last year’s student uprising. Up to 1,400 people may have been killed in the protests, according to the UN. Hasina, who called the trial a “politically motivated charade,” remains in India, which has not responded to previous requests by Bangladesh to extradite her.
🇨🇱 Chile’s polarizing election: A communist and hard-right contender will compete for Chile’s presidency in a runoff vote next month after no candidate secured a winning margin in Sunday’s election.
🇱🇧🇮🇱 Israel attacks southern Lebanon: An Israeli drone strike on a car in Al-Mansouri, near Tyre, killed a school principal, Lebanese media reported. Israeli troops also opened fire on UN peacekeepers, claiming to have misidentified them. No injuries were reported. The UN said it’s the third time Israel has attacked the peacekeepers in the last three months.
🇸🇩 Genocide in Sudan: The Sudanese Armed Forces have recaptured the Kazqil and Um Dam Haj Ahmed territories in the North Kordofan state from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). This comes as the RSF is reportedly burning or burying numerous bodies to cover up their genocidal violence against civilians.
🇺🇦 Strikes in Kyiv: UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the Russian missile and drone strikes on Kyiv that took place on Friday, which reportedly killed at least six people, injured several civilians, and damaged buildings in the area.
🚨 Don’t Miss It!
I spoke to activists Alon-Lee Green and Sally Abed from ‘Standing Together,’ an Israeli grassroots movement that aims to bring together Palestinian and Jewish communities against occupation and discrimination. They’re taking on the far-right Israeli government at home but also facing criticism from some pro-Palestine groups in the diaspora.
It’s a conversation you won’t want to miss - and it’ll be in your inbox later today.
🤯 WTF?!
Who would’ve thought we’d see the day that Donald Trump went fully on the attack against one of his closest MAGA allies in Congress, Marjorie Taylor Greene, whom he now calls a “traitor?
🧠 Trivia answer: Donald Barr, father of Bill Barr and ex-spook, was headteacher of the Dalton School when a 21-year-old Epstein was hired there as a math teacher.
📺 Sunday Show Roundup
On CNN’s ‘State of the Union,’ Dana Bash pushed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on why she hasn’t spoken out against Trump’s vicious and threatening rhetoric until it was directed at her. She responded: “Dana, I think that’s fair criticism. And I would like to say, humbly, I’m sorry for taking part in the toxic politics.”
On that note, Rep. Ro Khanna said on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ that Trump is losing touch with his own base, pointing to the president’s un-endorsement of MTG and comments from the MAGA clan: “All these people who were on his side are now saying, ‘Mr. President, what happened to you?’”
Republicans will literally say anything to avoid answering questions head-on. CBS’s Margaret Brennan pressed Senator Bill Cassidy on whether or not he regretted voting to confirm RFK as the Health and Human Services secretary. His response: “You live life forward. Again, you just do. Let the day’s own troubles be sufficient for the day.”
The Trump administration does not seem to understand the concept of checks and balances. When asked about the White House’s back-up plan in the case that the Supreme Court rules against the tariffs, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox’s Maria Bartiromo that the tariffs were Trump’s “signature policy” and that “the Supreme Court does not interfere with a president’s signature policy.”
🗓️ Mark Your Calendars
Monday, Nov. 17: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is set to make his first US visit since the murder of Saudi journalist and US resident Jamal Khashoggi, meeting Trump at the White House to hash out a defense deal and discuss his kingdom’s possible entry into the Abraham Accords. And on ABC’s ‘The View,’ Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie are expected to discuss their co-sponsoring of the petition to release the Epstein files.
Tuesday, Nov. 18: House Republican leaders are planning to hold a vote on that Khanna/Massie bipartisan legislation to force the full release of the Epstein files by the Trump DOJ.
Wednesday, Nov. 19: A US federal judge is expected to weigh ex-FBI Director James Comey’s bid to get his criminal case tossed. In Vienna, Austria, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 25-nation Board of Governors will meet, as the agency presses Tehran to resume full inspections of its nuclear facilities after disruptions linked to US and Israeli strikes.
Friday, Nov. 21: Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton is scheduled to appear in federal court for an initial status conference after pleading not guilty to mishandling national defense information.
Saturday, Nov. 22: World leaders will convene in Johannesburg at the G20 Summit. Trump said no US government official would be in attendance. The agenda: global economic chaos, climate cash, and whether anyone can agree on anything.
ICYMI From Zeteo
Zeteo’s Melanie Riehl, Akshay Gokul, and Minnah Arshad contributed to this newsletter.
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Would the tyrump stoop to murder? Of course he would; he is murdering people in cold blood in the Caribbean almost daily.
“Trump is the dog that didn’t bark” he thought to himself minutes before he was strangled to death.
That’s your Goodfellas scene.