[[link removed]]

TRUMP’S EPSTEIN FIASCO TAKES DARKER TURN AS DEM SENATOR DROPS NEW
BOMB  
[[link removed]]


 

Greg Sargent
July 23, 2025
The New Republic
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ Sen. Ron Wyden has some ideas for Pam Bondi to pursue, if she’s
interested in getting to the bottom of the Epstein scandal. His
investigators had discovered that four big banks had flagged $1.5
billion in potentially suspicious money transfers _

The season 27 premier of "South Park" shows President Donald Trump in
bed with Satan. ("During the premiere episode, titled "Sermon on the
'Mount," Trump is shown lying in bed with Satan, arguing with the
Canadian prime minister and complaining about the , about the size of
his penis."(Newsweek)) - Photo credit: Comedy Central

 

A few days ago, as the Jeffrey Epstein scandal gripped Washington,
Senator Ron Wyden offered a striking revelation in an interview
[[link removed]] with _The
New York Times_. The Oregon Democrat said that his investigators had
discovered that four big banks had flagged to the Treasury Department
$1.5 billion in potentially suspicious money transfers involving
Epstein, much of which appeared to be related to his massive
sex-trafficking network.

The revelation—which emerged via Wyden’s work as ranking Democrat
on the Finance Committee—ratified 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 2019 arrest on sex-trafficking charges.

Now Wyden is ratcheting things up once again. Wyden’s office just
sent a new letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi—which _The New
Republic_ obtained—suggesting seven potent lines of inquiry that
the Justice Department could follow, right now, to dig more deeply
into Epstein’s web of financial relations with global elites.

“I am convinced that the DOJ ignored evidence found in the U.S.
Treasury Department’s Epstein file, a binder that contains extensive
details on the mountains of cash Epstein received from prominent
businessmen that Epstein used to finance his criminal network,”
Wyden writes in the letter.

The Treasury Department has this information because that’s where
banks file suspicious activity reports, or SARS. Wyden’s letter says
his staff has documented that Epstein-related filings by banks contain
“information on more than 4,725 wire transfers involving Epstein’s
accounts, all of which merit further investigation.”

Wyden’s letter seeks to demonstrate what the Trump administration
is _not_ doing to examine Epstein’s financial relations with the
rich and powerful. This comes after Bondi’s recent announcement
[[link removed]] that
there’s no evidence of any Epstein “client list,” which appeared
to close the door on any release of the “Epstein files,” the trove
of evidence gathered by law enforcement in connection with his arrest.
That has persuaded much of the MAGA movement—and many liberals and
Democrats
[[link removed]]—that
a lot is being kept hidden about his activities that would implicate
other elites.

Wyden’s move here is in some ways a trolling exercise, since DOJ
won’t act on it. But such trolling by lawmakers can be constructive
if it communicates new information to the public or highlights the
failure of others in power to exercise oversight and impose
accountability. Wyden’s letter does both.

For instance, Wyden suggests that DOJ prosecutors and FBI agents
should “immediately investigate the evidence contained in the
Treasury Department records on Epstein.” Wyden’s investigators
know of these records because his office has been examining
Epstein’s financial transactions for several years. In February
2024—when Democrats controlled the Senate—Wyden’s staff viewed
in camera (that is, privately) thousands of pages of Treasury files
documenting those transactions.

That review brought to Wyden’s attention the $1.5 billion in
suspicious transactions flagged to Treasury by big banks, which is
detailed in the _Times_ report. Wyden’s letter fleshes out these
revelations, noting starkly that Treasury’s “Epstein file contains
significant information on the sources of funding behind Epstein’s
sex trafficking activities.”

That appears to mean Wyden’s investigators saw evidence in those
SARS that a large chunk of the money that passed through Epstein’s
network was related to that sex trafficking. As the letter notes:

Epstein clearly had access to enormous financing to operate his sex
trafficking network, and the details on how he got the cash to pay for
it are sitting in a Treasury Department filing cabinet.

To be fair, it’s unclear whether DOJ has or has not examined these
Treasury files; it’s possible it has done so. But Wyden’s office
notes that at minimum, DOJ has a responsibility to say _whether_ it
has done this and, if so, what this review unearthed. DOJ has not
replied to Wyden’s questions in this regard, his office says.

Wyden’s letter also lays out other lines of inquiry for DOJ, urging
examination of a number of specific payments to Epstein by several
wealthy financiers that his investigators discovered. The letter also
suggests subpoenaing banks that filed these SARS, in case they failed
to report on Epstein-related transactions that remain unknown.

In an intriguing move, Wyden also presses DOJ to examine “hundreds
of millions of dollars in wire transfers” discovered by his
investigators that passed through “several now-sanctioned Russian
banks.” The latter adds suggestively: “It appears that these wire
transfers were correlated to the movement of women or girls around the
world.”

Wyden also urges DOJ to investigate banks that failed to report on
suspicious Epstein transfers in a timely manner and to depose bankers
who presided over large Epstein-related transactions, among other
things.

All this could worsen this fiasco for Trump. Right now the White
House insists
[[link removed]] that _he
personally_ favors transparency on the Epstein files but is letting
Bondi, DOJ, and the FBI decide how to proceed. Miraculously, they are
opting not to divulge the files beyond moving to release grand jury
testimony, the one thing Trump has ordered them to seek, as it’s
unlikely to be revelatory.

Given Trump’s professed desire for transparency, it’s unclear why
he won’t simply order the full files released. With new reporting
suggesting
[[link removed]] Trump
might have been closer to Epstein than previously known, the
possibility that Trump himself is in the files—whether in
incriminating fashion or not—can’t be dismissed.

Wyden is also demanding that Treasury release to Congress these SARS
documenting Epstein’s transactions. Yet Treasury is apparently
refusing, making the administration’s obfuscation look even darker.

In that regard, Wyden’s office also offers another revelation. In
the _Times_ piece
[[link removed]],
a Treasury spokesperson dismissed Wyden’s demand for release of
these documents, insisting that when Joe Biden was president, Wyden
“never asked” for this information, exposing the demand as
“political theater.”

But Wyden’s office says this is false. The in-camera review by Wyden
staffers of Treasury documents in February 2024 itself shows that
Wyden sought this info from the Biden administration—and that he got
access to it.

What’s more, a Wyden aide tells me that in 2024, soon after
Wyden’s staff viewed these Treasury documents in camera, Wyden
actively moved to get the Senate to subpoena their release. Because
Finance Committee rules require bipartisan support for subpoenas,
Wyden sought the backing of several GOP senators on the committee,
including now-chairman Mike Crapo and Marsha Blackburn. But none would
support a subpoena, the aide says.

That also has very dark implications, and you’d think MAGA would now
intensify pressure on Senate Republicans to seek access to these
Treasury documents as well. But with the Epstein scandal now
threatening Trump with serious political damage, a subset of powerful
MAGA influencers—ones who initially thought the files would expose
pedophilia among elite Democrats—are suddenly losing their zeal to
see them divulged
[[link removed]].
House GOP leaders just scuttled a vote
[[link removed]] on
compelling their release.

That’s why moves like this one by Wyden are important, and why
Democrats should use their limited power to do more of them. This
would keep the spotlight focused where it counts: The Trump
administration possesses large amounts of information about
Epstein’s corrupt and depraved dealings with unidentified members of
the global elite, and Trump and his top advisers—with active GOP
acquiescence—are now all in on the elite cover-up.

_[GREG SARGENT is a staff writer at The New Republic and the host of
the podcast The Daily Blast
[[link removed]]. A
seasoned political commentator with over two decades of experience, he
was a prominent columnist and blogger at The Washington Post from
2010 to 2023 and has worked at Talking Points Memo, New
York magazine, and the New York Observer. Greg is also the author
of the critically acclaimed book
[[link removed]] An
Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Disinformation and
Thunderdome Politics.]_

* Jeffrey Epstein
[[link removed]]
* Donald Trump
[[link removed]]
* sex-trafficking
[[link removed]]
* child sex-trafficking
[[link removed]]
* Bill Clinton
[[link removed]]
* wealthy elites
[[link removed]]
* 1%
[[link removed]]
* the 1%
[[link removed]]
* the rich
[[link removed]]
* Pam Bondi
[[link removed]]
* Justice Dept.
[[link removed]]
* Justice Department
[[link removed]]
* Treasury Dept.
[[link removed]]
* Sen. Ron Wyden
[[link removed]]
* south park
[[link removed]]
* paramount network
[[link removed]]
* stephen colbert
[[link removed]]
* Columbia Broadcasting
[[link removed]]
* CBS
[[link removed]]
* pedophilia
[[link removed]]
* war on women
[[link removed]]
* Women
[[link removed]]
* MAGA
[[link removed]]
* GOP
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]
Manage subscription
[[link removed]]
Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]