LIVE: MeidasTouch RESPONDS to MAJOR BREAKING NEWS - 2/9/26

What this episode is about

The discussion centers around the implications of newly released Epstein files, highlighting potential connections between Donald Trump's legal team and Jeffrey Epstein's lawyers, particularly regarding unlawful redactions. Key figures such as Democratic Congress member Jamie Rascin and Ghislaine Maxwell are featured, with concerns raised about Maxwell's recent claim of the Fifth Amendment in light of her previous trafficking convictions and her attempts to secure clemency from Trump.

Key takeaways

• Trump's Epstein connection reveals a tangled web of deceit that's just the tip of the iceberg.
• Ghislaine Maxwell’s Fifth Amendment privilege feels less like protection and more like a ticket to oblivion.
• A $12 trillion trade deal from Russia? Sounds like the economic equivalent of wishing on a shooting star.
• As Bannon dabbled in overthrowing governments, Trump's DOJ meanwhile plays a game of legal dodgeball.
• Ukraine's defense woes paired with the U.S.'s shortage of PAC-3 missiles: diplomacy or just difficult math?

Who speaks in this episode?

• Ben Meiselas (Host) · 33 min speaking
• Brett Meiselas (Host) · 25 min speaking
• Jordy Meiselas (Host) · 25 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 10:00: Donald Trump, Epstein file, Ukraine, Sean Bannon
2. 10:00 – 20:00: Donald Trump, Kate Blanch, Sean Bannon, Ghislain Maxwell
3. 20:00 – 30:00: clemency, Donald Trump, Epstein file, Kate Blanch
4. 30:00 – 40:00: Donald Trump, Department of Justice, Kate Blanch, Epstein file
5. 40:00 – 50:00: Donald Trump, Department of Justice, Jamie Raskin, Kate Blanch
6. 50:00 – 1:00:00: Artificial Intelligence, Midas Touch, Donald Trump, clemency
7. 1:00:00 – 1:10:00: Donald Trump, Epstein file, Ukraine, Russia
8. 1:10:00 – 1:20:00: Donald Trump, Ukraine, Russia
9. 1:20:00 – 1:23:21: Donald Trump, Midas Touch

Notable quotes from "LIVE: MeidasTouch RESPONDS to MAJOR BREAKING NEWS - 2/9/26"

• And Epstein's lawyers relating to Mara Lago. We're going to talk about that on this episode. You have Gileain Maxwell.

  about Ghislain Maxwell · at 0:39

• Prisons. We're going to talk about that also as part of this coverup. You have Trump's DOJ, specifically the federal prosecutor, was actually just Janine Piro who signed this…

  about Donald Trump · at 2:21

• Emirates about a potential trade deal that the US is trying to enter into with Russia where Russia's promising to give the US 12 trillion in economic value despite the fact…

  about Russia · at 4:49

• So much to discuss. This coverup goes incredibly deep. We have been discussing the consequences from the fallout of the Epstein files happening overseas. And I think one of the crazy things are that we are seeing how many ties Epstein had.

  about Epstein file · at 6:05

• Associates of Epstein, whether tech leaders like Elon Musk or whether we're talking about Howard Lutnik, people say things I cut off contact with the guy in this year. And then…

  about Howard Lutnick · at 7:02

• Were little children, little girls who were raped. We give her clemency for what? Clemency is for people who were proven to not do what they did or people who engage in…

  about clemency · at 26:22

• Well, no. I think that the Department of Justice has been in a cover up mode for many months and has been trying to sweep the entire thing under the rug.

  about Department of Justice · at 44:12

• And Trump to get Ukraine to fully surrender. The US demanded that regardless of any ceasefire that Ukraine agree to new elections and agree to a referendum of turning over…

  about Ukraine · at 1:09:44

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Donald Trump — Person · Primary referenced political figure (subject of allegations/criticism) · 38 mentions · first at 0:00
  Central figure in the episode’s discussion of alleged DOJ coverups related to Epstein files, potential clemency for Maxwell, and broader claims about corruption and governance.
• Ghislain Maxwell — Person · Primary referenced witness/defendant (focus of congressional testimony segment) · 3 mentions · first at 0:44
  Discussed as a convicted sex trafficker who invoked the Fifth Amendment before Congress while allegedly seeking clemency from Trump in exchange for favorable statements.
• Kate Blanch — Person · Referenced DOJ official / Trump attorney (key intermediary) · 8 mentions · first at 0:57
  Portrayed as Trump’s former criminal defense attorney who met with Maxwell; used as a contrast to her later Fifth Amendment invocation before Congress.
  And while she was willing to speak with Donald Trump's former criminal defense attorney, turned number two at the Department of Justice Todd Blanch several months back when it came to her testifying before the House Oversight.
• Jamie Raskin — Person · Referenced lawmaker / investigator voice · 5 mentions · first at 0:18
  Presented as a leading House Democrat reviewing redactions in DOJ-held Epstein materials and alleging a coverup and improper redactions.
  Well, no. I think that the Department of Justice has been in a cover up mode for many months and has been trying to sweep the entire thing under the rug.
• Sean Bannon — Person · Referenced political operative (alleged Epstein communications; legal case mentioned) · 5 mentions · first at 2:36
  Discussed as appearing in Epstein communications and as the subject of DOJ action to dismiss charges related to January 6 committee obstruction.
  Through Janine Piro is requesting that the case be dismissed. And this is as Bannon was found to be all over the Epstein files, constantly communicating with Epstein about…
• Howard Lutnick — Person · Referenced cabinet official (Epstein ties alleged) · 2 mentions · first at 3:40
  Discussed as facing calls to resign due to alleged extensive ties to Epstein, including a business deal and alleged visit to Epstein’s island.
• Massie and Kana — Person · Referenced lawmaker (question author; accountability push) · 2 mentions · first at 17:08
  Credited with pre-submitting specific questions for Maxwell to clarify what she claims would be self-incriminating, highlighting perceived inconsistencies.
  Months now that she's going to invoke the fifth and she's going to say habius corpus. And sure enough she did. And I want to give a hat tip though to Democratic Congress member…
• Janine Piro — Person · Referenced DOJ prosecutor (dismissal request signer) · 2 mentions · first at 2:29
  Named as the federal prosecutor who signed a document requesting dismissal of charges against Steve Bannon (as characterized in the transcript).
  So unlike the Gain case, the Bannon case is still pending. But now Trump's DOJ through Janine Piro is requesting that the case be dismissed. And this is as Bannon was found to be all over the Epstein files, constantly communicating.
• Elon Musk — Person · Referenced tech leader (example of Epstein-linked elite) · 2 mentions · first at 6:15
  Mentioned as a tech leader allegedly tied to Epstein, used to illustrate breadth of the 'Epstein class' connections.
  We are seeing how many ties Epstein had to people in this Trump regime. And it's so deep that I think it may take less time to name people who are not tied to Epstein in this…

Companies & orgs

• Department of Justice — Company · Key institution · 9 mentions · first at 0:23
  Central to discussions about the Epstein files, redactions, and alleged cover-ups involving Trump's administration.
• Midas Touch — Company · Host · 7 mentions · first at 6:00
  The podcast network hosting the discussion, mentioned as the source of the episode.
  To be here with you guys. Great to be here with everybody watching and listening. Whether you're watching us live on YouTube or whether you're listening on the Midas Touch podcast audio feed, it's it's great to be here.

Products & tech

• Patriot missile system — Product · Military equipment · 1 mention · first at 4:27
  Discussed in the context of Ukraine's defense capabilities and US support.
  Shahi drones and a lot of the air defense in Ukraine has been struggling because the US has claimed that it now has a shortage of these pack 3 missiles that go in the Patriot missile system.

Concepts & topics

• Epstein file — Concept · Core topic · 8 mentions · first at 0:02
  Primary focus of the episode, detailing the release, redactions, and implications of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein's network.
• clemency — Concept · Key argument · 14 mentions · first at 1:32
  Discussed in the context of Gileain Maxwell's request for clemency from Donald Trump in exchange for testimony.
• Artificial Intelligence — Concept · Secondary topic · 2 mentions · first at 56:58
  Mentioned in the context of economic discussions and the Trump regime's stance on AI replacing workers.
  About horrible jobs reports that have been coming out here in the United States and the Trump regime's view that it's going to be great for AI and data centers to replace…

Places & events

• Ukraine — Place · Setting · 7 mentions · first at 4:09
  Discussed in the context of international relations and conflict with Russia, including military support and political strategies.
• Russia — Place · Setting · 7 mentions · first at 4:09
  Discussed in relation to its conflict with Ukraine and alleged dealings with the Trump administration.
• Mara Lago — Place · Setting · 2 mentions · first at 0:39
  Mentioned in relation to communications between Trump's lawyers and Epstein's lawyers.
  Horrifying. Also, we know there are a lot of unlawful redactions covering up communications between Trump's lawyers and Epstein's lawyers relating to Mara Lago. We're going to talk about that on this episode. You have Gileain Maxwell.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 Donald Trump can try to run, but he's not escaping this one. The fallout from the Epstein files continues, and it's only been a partial release. And in that partial release, there have been tons of unlawful redactions. Democratic Congress member and ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee. Jamie Rascin went with other House Democrats and others into the Department of Justice and they were given permission to look at what was behind those redactions and it's horrifying. Horrifying. Also, we know there are a lot of unlawful redactions covering up communications between Trump's lawyers and Epstein's lawyers relating to Mara Lago. We're going to talk about that on this episode. You have Gileain Maxwell.

0:47 She was scheduled to testify before the House Oversight Committee earlier today. And while she was willing to speak with Donald Trump's former criminal defense attorney, turned number two at the Department of Justice Todd Blanch several months back when it came to her testifying before the House Oversight Committee. As we predicted, as we've been saying all along, she's invoking her fifth amendment right against self-inccrimination when she was already incriminated of child sex trafficking. And she's run out of appeals. The Supreme Court rejected her request for Cersei Aari a few months ago, actually October 4th or October 6th. And so, she's run out of appeals.

1:26 And so, she can claim, "Ah, I still have my appeals around." No, she doesn't. And we're going to break down the truth about that. And and meanwhile, she was begging for clemency. And she goes, "I'd be happy to vindicate Donald Trump if I can just get clemency from Donald Trump." Then you had James Comr, the chair of the House Oversight Committee. We'll show you this clip in a little bit. He was asked about her request for clemency and if he thinks that Donald Trump should give her clemency. And he didn't say no. He was like, "That's going to be up for Donald Trump." It's going to be up for Donald Trump. She's a convicted child sex trafficker who was moved from a facility in Tallahassee where she belonged to this clubfed VIP facility in Camp Bryan, Texas after she spoke to Todd Blanch several months back. She doesn't belong to be in this facility in Texas because she's a convicted child sex trafficker. She's

2:18 literally banned, but she got an exemption from Trump's Bureau of Prisons. We're going to talk about that also as part of this coverup. You have Trump's DOJ, specifically the federal prosecutor, was actually just Janine Piro who signed this document in Washington DC requesting that criminal charges against Steve Bannon stemming from his obstruction of the January 6 committee, his refusal to show up where he was convicted by a jury, I might add. Um, she's requesting that that case be dismissed. That's still a pending case technically because he has not been finally rejected by the Supreme Court.

2:55 So unlike the Gain case, the Bannon case is still pending. But now Trump's DOJ through Janine Piro is requesting that the case be dismissed. And this is as Bannon was found to be all over the Epstein files, constantly communicating with Epstein about working with Trump to overthrow governments around the world and hoist up these MAGA candidates and MAGA politicians in places like Brazil and elsewhere. And as Bannon was talking to Epstein about refurbishing Epstein's reputation, Donald Trump is clearly in my opinion trying to help Banyan to also buy Bannon silence about everything that Bannon knows there. That's a big story.

3:36 And you have uh now almost on a bipartisan basis people calling for Howard Lutnik, Trump's commerce secretary, were to resign after it becomes more clear his extensive ties to Epstein, including being involved in a business deal together shortly after it appears that Lutnik visited Epstein's island with Lutnik's children and the children of other friends of Lutnik. They entered into a business deal together. We'll talk about that. We can't forget about what's going on internationally and we have to focus on everything like you should note that uh you have in Ukraine Russia has been bombarding Ukraine with ballistic missile strikes, cruise missile strikes, shahi drones and a lot of the air defense in Ukraine has been struggling because the US has claimed that it now has a shortage of these pack 3 missiles that go in the Patriot missile system.

4:29 So the US is, "Ah, we can't give you the Pack 3es anymore." And so Zalinsky's had to find ways to boost their air defense with the US really not helping the way it did before or really kind of starving Ukraine of what it needs. And also Zalinsky learned while uh the Ukrainian delegation was in the United Arab Emirates about a potential trade deal that the US is trying to enter into with Russia where Russia's promising to give the US 12 trillion in economic value despite the fact that Russia's annual GDP is about $2 trillion per year. And that's been the main focus of Trump trying to do this $12 trillion trade deal. It's a fake deal. Russia doesn't have that money. And Trump has demanded terms of surrender for Zalinsky yet again. And so really what Trump is doing with Ukraine is every uh month or so he comes up with a new plan to try to force the surrender there. And then we'll talk about uh horrible jobs reports that have

5:30 been coming out here in the United States and uh the Trump regime's view that it's going to be great for AI and data centers to replace workers and put you know hardworking American people out of business. So in other words, we have a lot to discuss. Let's bring in Brett and Jordy. A long intro there, but I think an important one to outline the the main issues that we're going to be discussing.

5:51 A lot to discuss indeed, brothers. Great to be here with you guys. Great to be here with everybody watching and listening. Whether you're watching us live on YouTube or whether you're listening on the Midas Touch podcast audio feed, it's it's great to be here. So much to discuss. This coverup goes incredibly deep. We have been discussing the consequences from the fallout of the Epstein files happening overseas. And I think one of the crazy things are that we are seeing how many ties Epstein had to people in this Trump regime. And it's so deep that I think it may take less time to name people who are not tied to Epstein in this Trump regime than to name the people who are. And I think that you see that Trump is afraid right now because if everything truthfully came out about these people, you would start seeing this government fall the way we are seeing governments overseas uh get absolutely decimated by the

6:46 release of the files and the consequences um of that. And so right now we are going to continue to hold people's feet to the fire. I think one of the most kind of revealing things about this whole saga has been watching these kind of cabinet members and other associates of Epstein, whether tech leaders like Elon Musk or whether we're talking about Howard Lutnik, people say things like, "I cut off contact with the guy in this year." And then we inevitably find out when the files release that their relationship was far deeper than that, that they had far more contacts with with Jeffrey Epstein, with Galain Maxwell, you name it. And I think their lying kind of speaks a lot to those relationships. And it at least uh you know it leads you to at least think that there's a lot more to it than they are leading on because it shows you that they are hiding information. You can make an adverse inference based on all

7:37 that. We're going to get into it all. I know we got a lot to discuss. Jordy, what's the latest on your

7:41 What's up, brothers? What's up, Midas? Mighty. I'm excited for today's show. A lot to get into. And Brett, look to your point exactly. It It's why we don't lie, right? It's why as like at your court just don't lie. The truth is always going to come out eventually. And so when you see all these folks who lied, Brett, to your point about the folks who are like, I I ended communication with Epstein in this state. You thought this was never going to come out. Like you genuinely thought that you could corrupt the government in such a way that you would never personally get exposed by this. And now it's all blowing up in your face. And for me, it's so disheartening because this should never be political, right? The release of the Epstein file should not be a political thing. This is a humanity thing. And we should want the best for people. We should want the the best for the survivors. All of us should. And the

8:24 right-wing media ecosystem who who, you know, touted their chest on releasing the Epstein files about four or five years, whenever that was, they've gone silent. Crickets. Total crickets. Which just goes to show you just like a small sliver, a sample size, if you will, that those people, they don't care. They don't actually care about the release of information or or anything that could help the survivors. They're just using them. They're they're they're simply using them to I don't know prop up their own status. It it's really bizarre and and it's deeply offensive actually. And for me again, it's not a political thing. When the files are released, release all the files. Redact the things that need to be redacted to protect the survivors, right? But anyone who's involved in the Epstein Cabal, expose them all. I don't care what political party that is. That's not a political thing to me. Expose them all 10,000 per

9:11 second. Say with my whole chest, Ben. Yeah. You know, look, when we report on the Epstein files, there's a philosophy that we have here at the Midas Touch Network. Number one, we can't ever lose sight of the survivors. And that within these files are human beings, are girls who may now be women who some who didn't make it, some who died and were killed, right? who were sexually abused and tortured and raped by this cabal, right? And it is important in in discussing it to make sure their stories are told. And so it's important for us and I'm going to be doing a lot more of this as we help tell the story of Lisa Phillips or Anushka de Georgia. You may have seen the interview we did last week and I've been in contact with a lot of other survivors and I'm going to be doing a lot more long form interviews with them the way I just did with Anushka, the way I previously did with Lisa. and I want to

10:20 share their stories and I want them to be able to tell as much as they're comfortable sharing because when you hear how they were trafficked, it uh brings a a a new layer to it versus just the documents. So, there's that aspect of it. There's another layer to this which is the Epstein class. You've heard that term more and more. And the idea of this Epstein class, these oligarchs who are out there using the girls and their sex trafficking as the currency as they manipulate the world and then also inflict suffering at large on people throughout the world, tampering with governments, interfering and intervening in economies. You know, Epstein is on these emails that led to Brexit. Epstein is on these emails that led to the hoisting up of Bolsinaro. I mean, part of the emails or text messages between Epstein and Bannon involved Epstein saying to Bannon, I didn't like that Bolsinaro, he was the MAGA puppet in Brazil, calling

11:32 any association with you, Steve Bannon, fake news. Though I understand, I'd prefer a MBGA hat. Make Bannon great again hat is what I believe it stands for. To which Bannon says, "Gotta keep the jier thing behind the scenes. My power comes from not having anyone defend me." In other words, my power comes from being the deep state basically is what he's saying.

11:58 Might be make Brazil great again, right? And Jire Bolsinaro is the MAGA puppet in Brazil who was the insurrectionist now who's been put in prison by the Supreme Court there in Brazil which actually had the strength to do the right thing unlike our Supreme Court who gave Donald Trump absolute immunity. But there's lots of emails like that Brexit Jer Bolsinaro crypto I could go on and on and on about inter oh about Crimea annexation. I mean, you have Epstein talking about shorting the ruble right before the annexation and how that's going to create opportunities while he's speaking with prime ministers and princes and princesses and, you know, world leaders and the top business executives. I mean, there's there's a photo of like him and Zuckerberg and T like all these people and it almost looks like they're in a dungeon in in this photo. It was a photo that was on Epstein's desk that was hard to even

12:54 know what it was. But now that it was in the files, you can see it was him and then every major like tech person who went from being like, you know, I don't know, like pretending that they cared about the world to then becoming these right-wing Trumpers and they were all there like kind of plotting it out behind the scenes. And so you have this other macro story about the Epstein class that are screwing people. And that's going to tie into what we talk about later in the episode as they push AI and data centers to replace workers and try to destroy people's lives that way as well. And I think we're showing the photo right here that's in the email from Epstein to uh Peter Atia who he was then brought on right Brett by what CBS to be a reporter there. And then you know and and recently um when CBS became a Trump regime media source and then you can see over here all of these people who are sitting around him. So there's

13:53 there's that that we're going to talk about. But the lying is just what these people do. Their words are meaningless. It's tools for them of control. Whereas you watching or listening to this may feel guilty if you tell a lie. Right? Like you go, "Oh my god, I can't believe I did that." Like, "Uh, maybe what do I do?" These people lie every day and they lied about Epstein. But they lie about everything. Like Howard Lutnik lies about everything. And he does that with that repulsive bad guy voice. Well, we're going to tell you what we're going to do, you know, and it's like uh and and he was of course lying about Epstein, but they lie about everything.

14:36 And so, you know, we're trying to get to the bottom of things. We're trying to get to the truth, but the Epstein class wants to cover all of this up, right? That's why Gilain Maxwell spoke with Todd Blanch, Donald Trump's criminal defense attorney, who became the number two at the DOJ several months back. She didn't invoke the Fifth Amendment then. She didn't say, "Ah, I need to be protected." No, she went willingly. She lied through her teeth. She said the things that Donald Trump wanted to hear. And then they moved her from the Tallahassee facility where she belonged.

15:10 And they moved her to a camp in Texas where she gets to do yoga and play with puppies where she's actually banned from. And then she said she couldn't testify before Congress because she had an appeal to the United States Supreme Court. So she said, "I can't testify until the appeal is resolved to the Supreme Court because my case is still active." And while that's obviously BS because she was willing to talk to Todd Blanch, at least there you can say, "Well, you have okay, wait till the Supreme Court makes the ruling because that's the last place you could appeal to. We all get that, the Supreme Court."

15:46 Well, she lost in the Supreme Court. So now that she lost in the Supreme Court, she was supposed to testify earlier today. She has no more appeals when she goes, "Well, I'm still pursuing my habius corpus petition." Okay, every prisoner has a habius corpus right, right? Although Donald Trump and this regime deny lots of people the rid of habius corpus. It's in the constitution and it protects people from unlawful detention by the government. So, it's not an extra appeal. It is this extraordinary writ that you say, "Ah, things that have not been addressed by the appeals process, things that have not been known by the Supreme Court or the circuit courts. I've just discovered new things to show you that my detention is unlawful. Every prisoner in the United States has the ability to file a rid of habius corpus under the Constitution. So, it's nothing." So she's saying because she wants to file

16:42 this writ or she filed a in my opinion a frivolous writ that therefore she has an appeal. That's a lie. That just just stop the freaking lying right here. So when she went in to testify to Congress today, we knew this at the Midas Touch Network thanks to our extensive sourcing and we've been saying this for frankly months now that she's going to invoke the fifth and she's going to say habius corpus. And sure enough she did. And I want to give a hat tip though to Democratic Congress member Ro Kana because he knew what she was going to do in advance. And so before she testified, Ro Kana wrote a list of the types of questions that he would ask her. and he wanted confirmation that these are the questions that she thinks would incriminate her, which is why she claims that she needs to plead the fifth because she's saying that I have a right to plead the fifth, to not testify against myself, to incriminate myself

17:35 possibly. So, Roana says to Chairman Comr, "Okay, here are the questions I'm gonna ask her." So, confirm that she's gonna invoke the fifth and say she can't talk about these questions because it might incriminate her. And this was confirmed today. So I'm glad Congress member Connor got ahead of this deposition and put these questions in writing. So here are the questions. On December 17, 2025, Miss Maxwell, you filed the habius corpus petition stating that four named co-conspirators and 25 men who entered into secret settlements were not indicted as part of the investigation. Is that statement accurate? Who are the four co-conspirators and the 25 other men other than Epstein who sexually abused minors at Epstein's Island in the New Mexico ranch or his New York residents and why do you believe they were not indicted? What information, evidence or personal knowledge do you have regarding why these individuals were not charged

18:27 or prosecuted by federal authorities? It is well documented that you, Donald Trump Epstein, had a social relationship and there are several photographs of you together. Did you or Mr. Epstein ever arranged, facilitate, or provide access to underage girls to Donald Trump. After Trump publicly stated that he would look at a possible pardon for you, did you or anyone acting on your behalf have any discussion with him or his representatives about a pardon or a reduced sentence in exchange for your silence? What client list or records did you or Mr. Epste maintain that documents the identities of clients or associates?

19:02 Please identify any foreign governments, whether it's Israel, Russia, or anyone else that you or Epstein were acting on behalf of. She invoked the fifth amendment on those questions, saying that if she was forced to testify, that could incriminate her and that she has a right not to speak on those questions. So, I think it's important that we actually talk about the question she's refusing to answer. Brett Jordan.

19:24 Yeah. And I think it's also important to note that in my opinion, it's actually not about incriminating her. That's the cover story that she is using. The fifth amendment she is using as a cover for her actual intent because she knows right now that she is serving a 20-year sentence and she has reached the end of the line. As Ben said with all of his appeals, the Supreme Court's not taking this. She's got nowhere to turn. Nowhere to turn except one direction. And that one direction is towards Donald Trump. She knows that Donald Trump right now holds the cards over her life, over her freedom. And Donald Trump has refused to say whether or whether or not he would grant her clemency and give her a pardon and free her from prison. So Gla Maxwell right now is holding this out as a bargaining chip to Trump. And her lawyer was kind of very clear about this uh today in a message that he posted when

20:15 he spoke about his client um going that she was going to be pleading the fifth. And this is her attorney here. Here's the statement. from David Oscar Marcus, Glain Maxwell's attorney. And he said, "On my advice, Gla Maxwell will respectfully invoke her Fifth Amendment right to silence and declined to answer questions today, even though she would very much like to answer your questions." And here's the tell. If this committee and the American public truly want to hear the unfiltered truth about what happened, there is a straightforward path. Miss Maxwell is prepared to speak fully and honestly if granted clemency by President Trump.

20:49 Only she can provide the complete account. Some may not like what they hear, but the truth matters. For example, both President Trump and President Clinton are innocent of any wrongdoing. Miss Maxwell alone can explain why, and the public is entitled to that explanation. So, just saying it out loud, Donald, if you grant me clemency, guess what? Guess what I'm going to say? I'll come clean. Wink wink. And I'll let them know that you weren't involved in any of this. Don't you want to clear your name? Well, there's one way that you could do it.

21:25 Wink wink. It's like the most obvious scheme imaginable that they are trying to pull right now. And the fact that they like put it in writing, too. It's the whole thing is so incredibly corrupt. But what else? I mean, that's their only move, right? I guess like that's that's her move. She sees it. She sees that Trump is a guy who would do this. They have a relationship going back 20 plus years. Uh Melania has a relationship with Gla Maxwell going back 20 plus years. These are like their best friends from back in the day. So she's appealing to her best friend to get her out of prison. It's the It's the craziest thing that we're witnessing right now. And he might do it.

22:02 It's offensive. It's it's offensive to the American people. They're they're insulting your intelligence. They're they're saying you're too stupid to call this out. You're you're too stupid to see what's happening here. It's the most obvious thing ever. I mean, it's really unbelievable. And just from anyone's perspective here, like I don't care if you are a Republican, don't care if you are a Democrat. I don't care how you identify on the political spectrum. Don't you find it weird that the president of the United States just will not go out and say, "I will not grant you clemency, Gain Maxwell, I will not give you a pardon." That should tell that that tells you everything you need to know right there. How Donald Trump has been behaving about all of this and the fact that he just won't say those five or six words. It's it's really that's it. It that's what it boils down to as far as what his complicity so

22:49 obviously is to me. Ben Brett, pull up that statement one more time, the full one by David Oscar Marcus, if we've got it. Just look at this. Ready? On my advice, Gileain Maxwell will respectfully invoke her fifth amendment right to silence and declined to answer questions today. Even though she would very much like to answer your questions, she must remain silent because Miss Maxwell has a habius petition currently pending that demonstrates that her conviction rests on a fundamentally unfair trial. Just pause there. It's why I like to establish an understanding between you and I, you listening and watching, and what the law is, as I would in my law classes that I teach, right? They're using big words like habius petition and all these things, but their appeals are done.

23:38 Every prisoner can make a habius petition. So, this is not some new appeal that she has. She's just using it as pretext. Okay. So, let's just go through the next statement as well. Let's pull open that statement. Let's pull it up. Um, then it says she must remain silent because Miss Maxwell has a habius petition. For example, jurors lied during voadier to secure seats on the jury and the government promised immunity and then broke that promise. Newly disclosed documents now demonstrate these facts conclusively. So, pause there. This was the exact argument she made to the Supreme Court.

24:18 So, there aren't new documents. We've all reviewed the files, the Epstein file. The files make her prove that she is extra guilty and that she should have been charged with far more than she was actually charged. She got off easy by having to only serve about 20 years in prison. There's no new documents out there that vindicate her. These are the old recycled arguments. And then let me just put it to you this way. If all of this was true, then all of this existed when she spoke to Donald Trump's DOJ, right? All of these same things that she's claiming that prevent her from speaking to Congress existed at the exact same time. In fact, the Supreme Court hadn't even ruled yet on her appeal. So, when she was speaking with Trump's former criminal defense lawyer, who's now the number two at the DOJ, that could have potentially incriminated her more if she wants to go that route because the Supreme Court didn't even

25:18 rule. And of course, Brett, as you say, these the fifth amendment is all pretextual for her to basically tell Donald, "Give me clemency." But my point is, stop gaslighting us on this. And especially, stop gaslighting on a topic of child sex trafficking. Like that's to me, you're going beyond being a zealous advocate there when her lawyer says that, which I understand that lawyers can represent bad people and occasionally. That's what lawyers, criminal defense lawyers do. But to me, this is something different what he's doing and posting. And it's disingenuous. And to me, it's just it's actually horrifying. Let me share this with you. James Comr, who's the chair of the House Oversight Committee, he's asked about what he thinks about clemency. Should Gileain Maxwell get clemency? Should her child sex trafficking essentially be forgiven by Donald Trump? Jordy, to your point, the answer is no. Of course, she shouldn't.

26:20 What are we talking about here? They were little children, little girls who were raped. We give her clemency for what? Clemency is for people who were proven to not do what they did or people who engage in extraordinarily good acts while they're incarcerated and can prove that they're what? What gain? Not only that, Comr, but she's obstructing Congress. She gave you the middle finger today. She's the She's doing everything wrong. So, what do you think about it? Comr, let's play this clip.

26:52 Mr. Chairman, quick question. What are your thoughts about Gila Maxwell's lawyer saying she needs clemency to testifies?

26:58 Well, I don't know. Uh, you know, initially she said months ago that she would testify if we granted her immunity on the oversight committee. and we we discussed that after we met with the survivors and they didn't support that. So we we never considered it that. So this was something you today obviously that's not for me to decide that's for the president side. Thank

27:23 he doesn't rule it out. He says that's for the president to decide. And that's the guy right there who gets like literally turned on by the idea of having the Clintons testify about Epstein. And then when the Clintons say, "We will testify in public. Let's do it in front of the cameras, in front of the world. Let's go." Then he's like, "No, no, no. We're not going to do that. Let's keep it secret." Okay. So, you're treating Gileain Maxwell significantly better than any other witness out there, and you're not ruling out giving her clemency after she just went in front of your committee and refused to answer any questions. and gave you the middle finger. Like, if you're the chair of this committee, again, I don't care what political party you're from, you should be pissed. A convicted child sex traffickers making a bogus fifth amendment claim in order to try to extract a grant of clemency and

28:24 basically extort the Congress and the White House into into letting her get clemency when she was instrumental and a and convicted of child sex trafficking. like you should BE OUT THERE SCREAMING THE WAY I AM. And he's like, well, you know, we were thinking about giving her immunity, but then some of the survivors didn't want to give her immunity. So, you know, if we love clemency, giving this child sex traffs to do if he wants to give her clemency, I'm going to I'm going to leave that to got to go to the Lou. It's like the hell the hell are we watching

28:56 there? You know, look, there there there's that expression, the cover up, you know, is worse than the crime. Now, obviously not the case here. The crime was beyond anything, beyond beyond repair. The cover up though is just absolutely despicable as you see all the different uh politicians and and and everyone sort of involved in it. It's nonsense. It's offensive that Comr can't just stay there. No, he shouldn't get he should not grant her clemency. No, absolutely not. Like with his whole chest. It is offensive the way they're going about this. And it's all because, in my opinion, they're trying to cover all of their asses now, right? They are the dog who caught the car and now they're trying to figure out, well, how how do I solve this problem now? What do I do now? Right? I don't actually want the information. I just wanted to campaign. I just wanted to use the survivors to campaign off of them.

29:47 That's what these Republicans wanted to do. That's all they wanted. I really wish I really wish that these people who had these positions like a James Comr who leads the House Oversight Committee uh or a Todd Blanch who's the deputy attorney general. I wish they were actually in these positions to do their job, right? To try to get to the truth, to actually try to investigate things. But you I mean we realize it's a long time ago. You realize very quickly that they're in there for one purpose and that's to protect Trump and and to go after Donald Trump's enemies. You know, they talk about government weaponization during the Biden administration which is just absurd. It's it's anybody who knows the Biden administration knows that that's ridiculous on its face, but that's exactly what they are doing. And so they view their task as how do we protect Donald Trump and how do we go after people who Donald Trump doesn't

30:30 like and every kind of step in this process, they have put up roadblocks to actually getting the truth in this situation. I mean, we've seen what Blanch has been doing, who's done an absolutely horrific job, intentionally so. Um there's a reason why Donald Trump put his criminal defense attorney uh in charge of this in charge of this project. And we're seeing even just like what happened today. Like we're learning that, you know, Jamie Rascin went to look at these files there and the because members of Congress today were able to see the redactions. They were actually able to see what was under the redactions. And Jamie Raskin's been saying that and this is big news that they made it as difficult as possible for these members of Congress to see the redactions. First off, some of the some of the areas were still redacted. They weren't supposed to be redacted at all.

31:14 They were supposed to be able to see everything. They only had four computers in the room for everybody to look at all the files. And he said that according to calculations by his staffers that it would take seven years to go through the files for these members of Congress to go through the files the way that the Department of Justice is setting this up. So, they've done this for a reason. They do this to try to muck it up because they don't want the truth getting out there. They don't want people to know what is actually behind these redactions. But now you're starting to see some people like Thomas Massie kind of start to hint at some of the names behind these redactions. I know Roana earlier today uh said that he saw um at least six co-conspirators names who were redacted by the DOJ and co-conspirators names weren't supposed to be redacted. They had one instruction, hide the victim's personal

31:58 information, redact the victims and they failed at that. Yet they're protecting yet they're protect protecting all of the people who are actually involved with Epstein and it's heinous.

32:08 Yeah. As our editor-in-chief, Ron Philipkowsky writes, "Now we learn from representatives of both parties who saw the unredacted Epstein files today that Trump, Bondi, and Blanch are covering up the absolute worst things in the Epstein files to protect the wealthy, powerful, and politically connected. DOJ is being run by criminal co-conspirators." It's true, as I've said before, I wasn't being hyperbolic. The DOJ, in my view, is now a RICO defendant. They are a racketeering defendant in the enterprise of covering up a child sex trafficking ring. And all of the DOJ lawyers are implicated in my view the same way you would in any RICO case. And here's the thing, in like a RICO case, anybody part of the enterprise kind of knowingly or unknowingly can be charged in a in the RICO case. So, you know, to me, if the whole DOJ is a racketeering enterprise now that's covering up a child sex trafficking ring, what if you're just a

33:03 line prosecutor in Nevada, right? What if you were just a an a USA in Oregon, right? Like what if you are a prosecutor in Florida? You now know that the enterprise that you're a part of is implicated and covering up child sex trafficking by violating the Epstein transparenc. you have a reckoning that you have to do with yourself because if you were applying the Department of Justice manual to these prosecutors, they'd be part of the RICO enterprise and they could be charged if the law were applied. Everyone in the DOJ, you know, I'm not, again, I'm not being hyperbolic. I just think that's the reality. All right, let's talk about what lawmakers who saw what's underneath those redactions are talking about. I know we had a long segment there, but I like when that first segment is long. We get out a lot of details there. So, we'll be right back. But just a reminder, make sure you hit subscribe.

33:56 We're getting closer to that 6 million subscriber mark. So, hit subscribe. Check out midasplus.com. That's our Substack. For YouTube viewers, check us out on audio podcast as well. Wherever audio podcasts you use, just search Midasouchodcast. Leave a five-star review. Those five star reviews are very much helpful to the algorithm and keeping the Midas touch a top audio podcast. and audio listeners subscribe to our YouTube channel. All right, let's take our first quick break of the show. We'll be right back. Tax season is right around the corner and if you're already dreading it, it's time to stop doing this alone.

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38:04 Get your prodemocracy gear all there. store.midistouch.com. Shopify has been really cool for us. So, rad. Uh Brett's pulling up some of the play the clip merch. That's our new collection that we got there. So, yeah, definitely check that out. store.midestouch.com. Benji, where to next? Well, just look at these headlines from the past week using just the Wall Street Journal and New York head New York uh Times as uh as as headline exemplars. Um Trump posts video online depicting the Obamas as apes. Trump calls US skier in the Winter Olympics team a loser as politics ripples through Olympic games. Trump scolds CNN's Caitlyn Collins for not smiling when she was asking about Epstein child sex trafficking. And then you could have added on to that Donald Trump attacks Bad Bunny and says that a performance where Bad Bunny said, "Together we are America. Love beats hate. Let's come together." The most

39:04 unamerican thing ever. As Donald Trump posts that I I'll just mention it briefly because these things have happened. But this is Donald Trump's behavior every single day, right? He is of the Epstein class. He is engaged in demented, sick, evil behavior, grotesque behavior that absolutely needs to be called out in clear terms. To me, it's not enough to say he made a racist post. No, I think you need to say that he posted a photo of apes that the heads of former President Obama and Michelle Obama were photoshopped on and then he said that the post was very strong about election fraud. That's what he said. And that he won't apologize for it. Right.

39:50 It's it's sickening. It wasn't just that he said to Caitlyn Collins, "Why don't you smile?" It was that he said it in response to her asking about child sex trafficking. And the problem with you is that you don't smile enough. You're you're like a you're like a young woman who doesn't smile. Smile more, right? You have that um and you have Donald Trump attacking uh an Olympian, an American who's competes in freestyle skiing because he said, "I have conflicting emotions right now because there's so much that I love about this country, but then also there's things that I don't like, like masked ICE agents and border patrol out there abducting people." And so just because I'm wearing the American flag doesn't mean that I support all of that conduct.

40:35 To which Donald Trump posted, US Olympic skier Hunter House, a real loser, says he doesn't represent his country in the current Winter Olympics. If that's the case, he shouldn't have tried out for the team and it's too bad he's on it. Very hard to root for someone like this. Make America great again, right? You know, I'm just so looking forward to the day in a postTrump era where we can have a leader of the United States conduct themselves with dignity, to respect our Olympian athletes, to not post these vile racist memes, right? That should be the bare minimum to take allegations of child sex trafficking seriously. Right?

41:21 the the these times. Oh, this is politicized. No, it's Donald Trump and MAGA politicizing everything. Even a Bad Bunny halftime performance, which was beautiful, which actually didn't say anything about ICE or Border Patrol, which it could have, right? It was just someone who said, "Together we are America. You know, we love each other. Let's love each other. Respect, unity, dignity." And they were like, "Oh my god, this guy's not speaking English. This is so divisive." This is what you're an I wish that you would give a fraction of the anger that you had to Bad Bunny to a child sex trafficking ring that's taking place.

42:04 So, I just wanted to address there Donald Trump's post, but I want to focus on what the the cover up that's taking place as it relates to the child sex trafficking ring. Here's what Democratic Congress member Ro Connor said regarding Gilane Maxwell's deposition where she refused to answer any questions. Let's play this clip.

42:22 I submitted to COMR a letter with six or seven questions. Things like, who were the other co-conspirators? Who were the other men who raped these underage girls? Did she have any conversations about a deal with Donald Trump? Now, she's taken a blanket fifth amendment on any question, and my view is that many of my questions don't in any way incriminate her. So, we'll see what she does, but there's seven questions that I have specifically asked. And the assumption is she's pleading the fifth to each one of those, and the American people will see that there's an inconsistency. Why did she not plead the fifth when Blanch asked her questions? And now she's pleading the fifth about things that don't implicate her, but may implicate uh many of the other powerful people in the Epstein class that committed these crimes.

43:14 And that's a term that needs to be used over the Epstein class because it's truly what it was. It was an Epstein class and is an Epstein class of predators out there and they're among us right now and that's why they're concealing that and they're out there being predators still doing this hiding behind redactions. So, let's talk about what was behind some of those redactions. Here's what Democratic Congress member Jamie Rascin, who's the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee. Here's what he said about the DOJ being in coverup mode for many months. Let's play this clip.

43:53 The members, but the point is that there is no way before Attorney General Bondi arrives on Wednesday that we're going to have the opportunity to go through every redaction in order to ask um thorough questions. Do you think that's the connection that they held up releasing this so that everybody wouldn't be as thoroughly prepared for her testimony Wednesday?

44:12 Well, no. I I think that the Department of Justice has been in a cover up mode for many months and has has been trying to sweep the entire thing under the rug. And I and the the more deeply that I get into it, because obviously our colleagues on the oversight committee have taken the lead, but judiciary plays a very important role because we oversee the Department of Justice. But the more that I've gotten into it, the more I believe that the the survivors here, the victims who are now active citizens for justice really are leading the way. And we need to be having hearings with the survivors to hear from them about their experiences so they can explain what happened and so they can begin to set forth a theory of what took place. We need to be investigating the money. We need to be investigating the organizational hierarchy. There's no way you run a billion-dollar international child sex trafficking ring with just two

45:11 people committing crimes, Jeffrey Epstein and Galain Maxwell. No way. It doesn't work like that. So, we need to figure out what other conspiracies were involved, what other co-conspirators were involved. And I really do believe that listening to the survivors is going to be our pathway through this nightmare. to

45:30 next. Here's what Jamie Rascin said about Trump's lawyers speaking with Epstein's lawyers as seen in some of these redactions. Let's play it.

45:40 Are any of them well-known individuals? Um, for example, um, you know, um, Mr. Waxner, his name was, uh, redacted from a government document. Um and I couldn't understand the logic of that. He was not a victim and his name has appeared other places. Now um the Department of Justice has not sent forth its so-called privilege log. So it's not explained yet why there might be certain redactions that have been made. Um, I saw one document which was um an email that was sent by Jeffrey Epstein to Galain Maxwell which was the forward of an email that he had received from some of his lawyers giving an account of a conversation between Epstein lawyers uh and Trump lawyers and others about um what had taken place um during that 2009 period. It was during the period of the 2009 investigation.

46:51 And Epstein's lawyers uh synopsized and quoted Trump as saying that um that Jeffrey Epstein was not a member of his club at Mara Lago, but he was a guest at Mara Lago and he had never been asked to leave. And that was redacted for some indeterminate, inscrable reason. I know it seems to be at odds with some things that President Trump has been saying recently about how he had kicked uh Jeffrey Epstein out of his club or asked him to leave. And this was um at least one report that appears to contradict it. But

47:30 and there's more clips of Congress member asking, but I think we get the point there. He goes on to talk about how DOJ had one job. redact the names, personal identifying information and photos of the victims and survivors. They did not do that. So, it was either done recklessly or maliciously, right? And maybe a combination of both. But then when it came to the Epstein class, that's where all of these redactions are. And we're not even talking about the fact that there are still about 3 million documents, which may be as many as 25 to 50 million pages that have that are being hidden right now by the DOJ, which I believe are the most devastating. Brett and Jordy.

48:18 Yeah, it's really horrifying. And you know, if Raskin was able to see that with his limited time in there, just imagine if he actually had full access to see everything for an unlimited amount of time. These documents are are you know not difficult to parse through but they take time. I mean I've been spending so much time digging through the publicly available ones and if I was just given you know a couple hours and a few computers with time constraints I don't know how I would even be able to do that job. Um but the fact is everything we've been fed from this Department of Justice has been a lie.

48:48 There have been so many inconsistencies uh throughout this entire investigation going back to Trump's first term and far before that that where things just don't add up and there are so many inconsistencies that you can't help but thinking that they are covering something up and covering something up big. I mean, you see these FBI documents where they say that uh, you know, there was someone in the an FBI agent purposely removed a hard drive from the jail recording system uh that was recording Epstein cell knowing very well that that would wipe it clean and make it so it deleted all the footage on it.

49:24 Like you hear things like that and you're like, "Okay, maybe if one of those things happened, it could be a coincidence." But when everything kept happening like this in order to cover up whatever the hell happened in that prison cell and all the actions of Jeffrey Epstein and all of his crimes and all of his co-conspirators when it keeps happening over and over and over again. You could really only draw one logical conclusion and it's that most of this at least is very much on purpose. I mean, do you guys remember when Cash Patel a few months back sometime last year sat before uh Congress and said that Epstein had no co-conspirators?

50:01 That it was just he ran a sex trafficking ring just by himself. There was no nobody else involved. I mean, it's outrageous. It's absolutely outrageous. And Cash Patel was the guy who was leading a push for Epstein on all of his podcasts and was coming up with all these conspiracy theories in order to try to implicate all of Donald Trump's political enemies. But now that it's caught up to him, now that Cash Patel actually has seen the files, seen Donald Trump's name in the files, all of a sudden he starts having a different tune about all of this. And none of what he says is lining up with even the stuff that we currently know as the public. So there's a lot of fishy stuff going on. I think that goes without saying. And they're going to keep putting up roadblocks. They're going to they're going to keep trying to hide this because the fact is, as we're seeing overseas with these other governments,

50:50 it extends to far more than kind of one co-conspirator here, one co-conspirator there. This is a network as Ben was referring to it as uh a network of the Epstein class. People in powerful positions throughout the world. People who are in charge of running major organizations, people in charge of running uh major banks, major corporations, major law firms, universities, uh governments, you name it, are all implicated in this. and they're all trying to protect each other because because I mean it could lead to the collapse of all of these various entities and institutions if all the truth comes out. And so I think we need to be aware of that. Um and we need to just, you know, continue to stay on the case. And I'm glad that we're actually finally now getting uh people like Rascin who are actually able to get in there and give us the truth on this and a bipartisan consensus too. not just from Rasca, not just from Roana, but

51:43 from people like Thomas Massie, Republicans who are coming out and saying, "I saw the names of the co-conspirators in there who uh the Trump administration was redacting and hiding from the American people." The whole thing's nuts. I guess for me, too, it's like what is the DOJ's plan here? Genuinely, like what is their plan to just continue to do these delay tactics and act like they're fumbling? Oh, like, oh, it's my sheer incompetence. That's why those names were redacted. Oh, we we're maybe we'll fix it and show it to you in a 100 days and just hope people like start stop for like forget about this whole thing. I genuinely like it makes me so confused what they're trying to do. And Brett, to your point, right, they're obviously trying to it feels like protect a lot of people here. But ultimately, the more they deflect, the more they conceal, the guiltier and guiltier they look, the guiltier the

52:37 whole cabal looks, and the more, you know, conspiracy theories it starts to throw at this whole thing. And it's just ultimately people want the facts. People want the truth. So, the more Trump and the Trump regime try to hide from the American people what's out there, the more questions people are going to ask about this. This is not going to go away. It's not a oneperson thing, right? It it's not just, oh, maybe we just have to get rid of this person and everyone will stop talking about it. No, at this point, everyone is hyperfocused on it.

53:05 There is no way you can distract the American people from this. We all demand answers. Look, even MAGA Republican Anna Paulina Luna is responding to Midas Touch social media posts. You don't get much more MAGA than Anna Paulina Luna in response to our post saying Gileain Maxwell's lawyer says his client will only speak if Trump grants her clemency. Luna writes, "No clemency. You comply or face punishment. You deserve justice for what you did, you monster." And then David Oscar Marcus Gain's lawyer says, "A sitting congressman wants to punish someone for invoking a constitutional right. sending someone to harsher confinement because they invoke a constitutional right is something we associate with authoritarians. I think he was also referring there to Roana's post because Roana said you need to send her to maximum security facility because she was moved to the minimum this you know this camp this club fed and Anna

53:59 Paulina says your client is actively obstructing a congressional investigation and only willing to testify after claiming to be the victim if she gets immunity. You are getting paid to protect a pedophile and trafficker trafficker who is really sad here. And then Marcus goes, "Hello, congresswoman. Invoking a constitutional right is not obstruction. It's what our great country was built on. Personal attacks on council don't change the constitution or beneath your office." To which she goes, "This is not a personal attack. That's what you're doing. You're getting paid to defend a pedophile and a trafficker. That is the truth. I'm sorry if you don't like it. What about the constitutional rights of the children?

54:40 Your client is looking for immunity for crimes in exchange for testimony where she could give us names. You may be able to twist facts in court to sway jurors, but those games don't work with us. And it's not even that. She's convicted and she lost her appeal to the Supreme Court. This is not someone who is like, "Well, now I'm appealing to the circuit court." She was found by a federal jury to be a child sex trafficker. It's done. The case is over. Her appeals are done. This habious petition thing, it's literally BS. And that's what's pissing me off, too, is that they're trying to act like, well, she still has an appeal.

55:21 She doesn't. Her appeals are done. The habius is just a constitutional right to say that you're being detained unlawfully. It's not. Every prisoner has that right and it's utterly it's just this should enrage everybody regardless of what political party that you're from. All right, when we come back I want to talk about two more topics. I want to talk about internationally. You have Trump threatening Canada again to take a to steal a bridge from Canada. That's Trump's new attack on Canada. Then you have Trump uh threatening or not threatening working behind the scenes with Russia to do a fake 12 trillion dollar deal to force a complete and total surrender by Ukraine. So he has Putin tactics against Canada and then he's doing a fake deal with Putin to attack Ukraine. Just letting you see what's going on here. Then let's talk about uh the economy here and how the Trump regime is bragging that AI is

56:20 replacing workers. Let's take our last quick break of the show, but a reminder, hit subscribe, help us get to six million subscribers here. We're getting close. I think we can hit six million soon. Also, subscribe to the audio Midas Touch podcast. So, wherever you get audio podcast, search Midas Touch, subscribe. Even if you don't plan on listening on audio and you just like the video, it helps us a lot and it's super simple to do. And leave a five-star review on your audio podcast device because that helps us a lot. All right, let's take our last quick break of the show.

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59:55 Let's go. Shout out Miraclemade, man. They've been a sponsor with us for like since we started the podcast. Definitely check those out. I love my Miracle Made Sheets link in description of the YouTube and the audio. Can I comment just real quick on just the brain rotted people who are so angry about the halftime show? I mean, it is just so pathetic to me. First off, it was a great show. Like, objectively, like it was it was really creative. It was a good show. Like, just hands down, political feelings aside, also it wasn't even political. like you are telling on yourself so much if you are a cancel the halftime show, you know, with that woke NFL and all of that. It's it's it's so humiliating like the the hoops that people will jump through. There was this I'm not even going to say her name.

1:00:39 There's this former reality TV star that went off on this whole weird thing and she's like, I I didn't like him. He he didn't speak English and there were no white people in the set. And Lady Gaga was literally in the set. And then she went on to say like I thought it was political like just his mere existence. Bad Bunny's mere existence to you is political. It's a polit he is a political state. You are I mean it's scary to me because there's so much of the country that that actually was like upset about it. The vast majority of the country loved it. But again for that like MAGA ilk that are just like always complaining about cancel culture yet consistently try to cancel things. So much so that they had their quote unquote own a halftime show. It's just so pathetic and we just have to get beyond that as a society, man. It to me it's just Anyway, great show. I just bought

1:01:30 it's part of the division of of Trump and MAGA and it's what they do. And what they do is they try to pick big cultural moments or big American icons and they try to attack it and they try to tear it down and they try to get people riled up and get people angry over dumb culture war stuff that really, you know, in a vacuum. I don't think people care about any of this stuff, right? But all of a sudden you get all they get all their Maggie influencers start, you know, I don't know, tweeting about Cracker Barrel or tweeting about Target or tweeting about uh the NFL, you know, the Super Bowl, Bad Bunny, you know, Bud Light, whatever it is. Mr. Potato Head, the sexy Eminem, like whatever they're talking about in the day, they just try to rage bait their own followers constantly. They're constantly trying to rage bait them because they'd rather have them screaming about that stuff than yelling at them about what's in the

1:02:18 Epstein files and yelling about them as to why things are so expensive. Yelling about them as to why their lives are getting worse under Donald Trump. It's just their it's their ploy. And for people who call themselves patriots and try to pretend like they love America, they sure always attack the things that I think make America great and and and are constantly trying to tear down kind of the the institutions that have previously united us.

1:02:42 Yeah, let let's talk. It's a good pivot to international news. Um although I will say this as we pivot to international news. I mean, you have a congresswoman like Congresswoman Salazar from Florida who's uh comes from a family that's Cuban refugees and she's the one who always talks about the dignity act and I have the dignity act and Donald Trump says that he's never going to have ICE go after people uh who are not criminals because of the dignity act and then like Trump's like I've never read the dignity act before in the white so we don't know what you're talking about. And then she goes, "Well, when it comes to Venezuela, absolutely.

1:03:19 Maria Maria Machado um is going to be uh is definitely going to be we're just give it a few more weeks. We're going to have Machado, the opposition leader, is going to be installed." And then like the Trump regime is like, "Machado is a bad person who's trying to destroy our national security." And so and and here you have uh Congresswoman Salazar saying the Super Bowl is the biggest game of America's most iconic sport. It's a national moment to bring the whole country together. And let's be honest, it should not be a multicultural fair.

1:03:52 Just pause there for a second. She's Cuban and she represents a multicultural district of Cubans, Venezuelans, Haitians, and and a group of other people who's telling the immigrant population, "Trump loves you." And she's ranting about what should be a great moment for Americans, especially people who speak Spanish. She goes, "Its audience is overwhelmingly English-speaking, and they deserve a halftime show they could understand and enjoy. To have a fully Spanish language halftime show with no subtitles isn't inclusive. It's exclusive. In Miami, we listen to Spanish music, but we put America first. Unfortunately, today, this is a deranged statement.

1:04:37 Unfortunately, today, instead of talking about the great contributions Hispanics make to our country, the legal ones and the undocumented, we are debating how poorly this event missed the mark. A very big opportunity loss. No, Salazar. You're the person who's who's debating with nobody. You're just on state regime media talking about an issue that Americans actually aren't debating. Overwhelmingly, this was a great show. and you're missing the opportunity intentionally to talk about a cover up of a child sex trafficking ring and Americans getting screwed by this Trump regime because you're intentionally engaged in a culture or issue frankly against your own people in your district in order to distract from all of the things that people are really going through. I mean, what a a very big opportunity lost. And then you have the audacity to mention the contributions of undocumented people while your furer is

1:05:33 rounding up migrants, undocumented and documented, and stripping away people with TPS documentation and throwing them into concentration camps. And might I add, not giving them habius corpus petition rights. Interesting, right? that Gain Maxwell invoking habius corpus petitions after being found guilty of sex trafficking and actual human beings who have habius corpus rights getting lost in the system as they rot in concentration camps like Dilly and Delaney and other ones throughout this country. Interesting how that works, huh? And while all of that's going on, turning to international news for a second, you had Donald Trump earlier today attacking Canada and saying that China will be taking away Canada's Stanley Cups and they're taking away the right to play ice hockey. That's what they call it in Canada. We like to play our ice hockey in Canada. Trump is posting here that uh Canada won't let a

1:06:33 new bridge open. Let me just read what he says. As everyone knows, the country of Canada has treated the United States very unfairly for decades. No one knows that. Now things are turning around and fast. But imagine Canada is building a massive bridge between Ontario and Michigan. They own both the Canada and United States side and of course built it with virtually no US content. Barack Hussein Obama stupidly gave them a waiver so they could get around the Buy American Act and not use any American products, including our steel. Now the Canadian government expects me as president of the United States to permit them to just take advantage of America.

1:07:12 What does the United States of America get? Absolutely nothing. Ontario won't even put US spirits, beverages, and other alcoholic products on their shelves. They are absolutely prohibited from doing so. And now on top of everything, Prime Minister Carney wants to make a deal with China, which will eat Canada alive. We will just get the leftovers. I don't think so. The first thing China will do is terminate all ice hockey being played in Canada and permanently eliminate the Stanley Cup. The tariffs Canada charges our dairy products have for many years been unacceptable, putting our farmers at great financial risk. I will not allow this bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them. But also importantly, Canada treats the United States with the fairness and respect we deserve. We will start negotiations immediately. With all that we have given

1:07:56 them, we should own perhaps at least one half of this asset. The revenues generated because the US market will be astronomical. Thank you for your attention to this matter. He's a predator. He is a predator just like Putin. And these are the Putin tactics right here. And as Josh Windrove says, it's difficult to boil down the bridge saga discussed for years by officials and lawmakers of every major party in both countries in part to make sure the continent's top trade corridor wasn't beholden to a single privately owned bridge. The US wouldn't split the cost.

1:08:32 Canada fronted it and is going to be repaid by tolls. named for Gordy How, hockey legend and Canadian-B born Detroit Redwing star as a big nod, as you can imagine, to the country's joint history. And now, here's what Donald Trump is doing. These are the Putin tactics that we discussed. Now, speaking about the poop tactics, I did a whole video on this uh earlier this morning where as part of what was going on in the United Arab Emirates was in peace discussions, by the way, you had Kushner and Witkoff purposefully not dressed in suits as they made the Ukrainian delegation wear suits. I just think that that should be noted because it was an intentional FU to the Ukrainians because they said they wouldn't have discussions with the Ukrainians unless the Ukrainians dressed up. And then Witco wore like a jumpsuit and and Kushner wore like a regular, you know, sweater or whatever.

1:09:26 Whit's got like a He's got like a deep V. Yeah, it looks like he's like one of the Sopranos like character. Like he looks like a soprano.

1:09:32 No undershirt. I'm just going to No undershirt. Like soprano gold chain. Like what the hell are we even doing here? And what was really going down here with Zalinsky uncovered is that this was part of the plan between Putin and Trump to get Ukraine to fully surrender. The US demanded that regardless of any ceasefire that Ukraine agree to new elections and agree to a referendum of turning over Ukraine to Russia in May or June the latest. And Zalinsky has said, "If you want me to do a referendum, there needs to be at least a 30-day or 60-day ceasefire. How could we do elections if our people are getting killed?" And Putin has refused anything, not even a 30-day ceasefire to allow elections, right? And so what Putin did do at UAE is through this guy Carill Demetri, who runs the sovereign wealth fund of Russia. He was the guy who met with Witoff and Kushner in Miami along with Ushakov uh before right when

1:10:33 the US started talking about making Landry the governor of Louisiana the envoy to Greenland and started talking about annexing Greenland. That happened when you had Demetri in Miami meeting with the US individuals. So then Demetria proposed what's being called the Demetri of package$12 trillion dollars of Russia to Donald Trump. Russia's entire annual GDP is$ two trillion dollars. So Russia's told the US, "We'll give you 12 trillion, but you got to have these elections in Ukraine by May, and we're not going to agree to a ceasefire." And the US is delaying, saying that we don't have the resources to give pack three missiles, which are the new missiles that go into the Patriot system, the air defense that Ukraine has. The issue is when you get this US military gear, you have to rely on US for maintenance and further equipment once you buy it. So if you buy the F-35s, you have to rely on the US

1:11:29 Department of Defense for repairs and maintenance and parts. Which is why countries like Canada are like, why would we buy F-35s now? And Denmark's regretting buying F-35s because if you buy the F-35s, you're going to be beholden to the US for the life cycle of these planes. And if Trump wants to extort you, he can just say, "I'm not giving you the parts." That's what's happening in my opinion in Ukraine right now while they try to force this. And by the way, is is this getting reported on anywhere else other than the might?

1:12:00 Like, you would think this is a pretty big deal, right, that there's this $12 trillion fake deal taking place and the US is trying to force this surrender on Ukraine and it just doesn't get any attention anywhere. And I find, and I speak uh when I speak with Senator Bernie Sanders about this a lot, that the most important issues are often the ones that are least discussed. And I know front and center on American minds right now is AI and data centers. That's one of the top issues. You know, obviously health care, um being able to afford homes, affordability generally.

1:12:33 But this issue of AI and data centers destroying jobs is a massive issue that Americans are horribly fearful of. And it doesn't exactly help people's fears when you have people like Donald Trump's national economic adviser, Kevin Hasset, go on TV and say basically, well, you know, uh, it is what it is. You know, there's, you know, job creation's going to lag, but you know, what can you do? Watch Hasset earlier today. Let's play this clip.

1:13:03 That the open question really is, uh, what's going to happen to jobs as productivity goes up. Uh, and I think that there's a chance that that job creation lags. Uh, productivity skyrockets, profits skyrocket, GDP skyrocket. Uh, but then all of a sudden, like you were making 20 widgets and and you can make 20 widgets with a fewer person and then that person has to find a two new job. I I think that that kind of transition could happen.

1:13:29 Here's Hasset again. Well, the other thing is that there's a pretty big decline in the labor force uh because uh illegals leaving the country and so the break even job number is quite a bit lower than it was uh under Joe Biden when there were people you know you know basically coming across the border uh willy-nilly and so I think that you should expect slightly smaller job numbers that are consistent with high GDP growth right now and uh that one shouldn't panic if you see a sequence of numbers that are lower than you're used do because again population growth is going down uh and productivity growth is skyrocketing. It's an unusual set of circumstances

1:14:09 and let's see are noned educated white voters and non-oleducated voters who form the backbone of Trump's base are they buying this? If you know anything about Donald Trump, you know that he built his two presidential victories on winning voters without a college degree. Well, Donald Trump's base with non-ol voters is absolutely collapsing. What are we talking about here? Well, why don't we just take a look? Voters without a college degree on Donald Trump. Look at this. Back in 2024, he won those voters over Kla Harris by 14 points. You come over to this side of the screen. What's his net approval rating with him? He is underwater by nine points. That's a 23 point switcheroo with his base of non college voters. He is absolutely collapsing with a group of voters that helped put him into the White House. Kate,

1:14:56 okay, so how I'll just show you one more on the economy. How do people view Trump on the economy? Let's play this

1:15:03 staggering. You know, the economy used to be the wind beneath Donald Trump's presidency wings and now it's his Titanic because what are we talking about here? Well, let's just take a look here. Trump's economic net approval one year in IN TERM ONE. HEY. YEAH. Plus side of ledger plus eight points. It was his best issue arguably, but now it's one of his worst. Look at that. Way way down in the basement. 18 points below water. What is that, John? Quickly, Samantha. What is that? A 26 point switcheroo in the wrong direction. This is the type of number that Democratic midterm dreams are made of in Republican.

1:15:41 Brett Jordy Harriet and so silly. Before Brett gives like a student, I just want to I I I like him. I I'm going to use the G-word. He's the goat, man. That guy cracks me up, dude. Water talk. I mean, I just I love the whole stick. I like people who at least protect

1:16:01 You like his stick. You like such a stick. And he and he he likes his job. And I just respect the hell out of that. Sorry, Bret. Go.

1:16:09 He's committed. I'll just say this. I'm not sure I agree with you, but you're entitled to your opinion. But he's certainly committed to that shtick. He knows that there's a lane for that shtick.

1:16:20 There's a total lane and he's filling it. He's he's def he's definitely committed to the bit. You see, you know, I think one of the things that you'll see in tying, you know, all these various topics together, it's that Donald Trump is constantly trying to protect those people in the Epstein class, whether it's uh, you know, from crimes that they may have committed or whether it's from uh any sort of economic effects. You know, he's trying to preserve their wealth. He's trying to grow their wealth. He's trying to make sure that they're as rich as possible. And he really doesn't care what regular people are going through. He doesn't care if regular people are getting hurt by AI data centers and the water extraction that's a result of that or the power that's being used and the bills that are increasing because of that. He doesn't care at all as long as as Kevin Hasset said there with a smile. Productivity is

1:17:06 going up even though all these people are losing their jobs. Isn't that it's a great thing. Kind of unusual, right? But isn't that fantastic? They are bragging about it. And what you see Donald Trump doing is he is just doing things constantly to enrich those people in the Epstein class to enrich the billionaire class at the expense of the people who were previously as Harry was saying those non-oleducated Trump voters um and and just Americans in general kind of workingclass Americans. And we see this especially as results to clean energy.

1:17:38 This is like one of the kind of clearest examples that exists there because already as of this moment right now, Donald Trump has already cancelled or delayed enough projects that would account for power for more than 13 million homes across the United States. And this is while everyone's bills are skyrocketing. And you could tell me right now, you know, I'll look in the comments, are your electricity bills up or are they down? because I'm I'm I'm seeing already people are saying that your electricity bills are up and are going way up. And I've heard this from so many people. So why would Donald Trump cancel 335 clean energy projects, delay them, strip them of funding if those projects could actually help bring these bills down? Well, it's because Trump is deliberately blocking them or slowing these federal approvals or piling on red tape to get in the way of these uh projects to block these

1:18:33 projects while he's making it easier for companies uh for oil, gas, and coal companies to operate. Did you guys see the new Trump administration mascot? And like this is beyond parody. In fact, I think I saw it on a parody on late night shows. And when I saw this, I thought this was a joke at first, but they made a mascot named Coley. And I'm I have a picture up of Kohi right here to make coal accessible and make Cole seem great and cool uh for all the American people to push coal on people. I'm showing this this image of Coley who they are spreading. It's a little cartoon coal image who they put in uh pictures with other people in the uh Trump administration. Um but it's very clear what they're doing. They're blocking all of this kind of clean energy policy, all these various projects that that would actually bring down the cost of goods for people and help people. And in many cases, the jobs that come from these

1:19:26 projects are actually primarily in red states and so in so many cases. But Donald Trump doesn't care about that. He'd rather enrich the oil and gas industry than actually help people lower prices. Also, he could just destroy clean energy. And it's all a part of this kind of protection racket that we've been seeing across all of these various topics that we've been speaking about today. Coley is something you would hear like out of like a South Park episode. It's like it it is so the whole thing. Man, I think I went a little too far in the last segment calling Harry Anon the goat. I maybe he's not the goat, but he's set he's definitely having a moment. So, let me just I want that back.

1:20:04 What was the South Park character was I know. Yeah. Okay. This This is a real post from Secretary of the Interior Doug Bergam. Mine, baby. Mine. Donald Trump made it a top priority for the Interior to unleash big, beautiful coal. We're leading the charge. Learn more about how we're advancing Trump's American energy dominance with our new spokesperson, Coley. Mine, baby. Mine. Mine, baby. Mine. By the way, I'm I'm just about 100% sure too they made this image with AI make image of me and Cole, you know, with I mean this is this is some, you know, ridiculous things. But, you know, this is, as we said, this is what the Epstein class does. This is what these predators do. These are horrible people.

1:20:54 These are horrible, evil people who behave that way. And I I hope one of the themes that you see on this episode is that there's really not a lot of things that I've said which is I'm like here's the this is why you need to vote Democrat, right? This is why you need to vote for the Democratic candidate over the Republican candidate. I just want you to take all this information, okay? And I want you to take a step back and I truly want you to reflect on everything that we just shared. I want you to draw your own. It's not for me, frankly, to tell you. And I'm very I I'm very resistant to even having the role. Well, that's why you need to vote this person or that person or that's why I don't like reporting on like the primary. This person's beaten this person and the this person. That's just not really excit.

1:21:46 doesn't that's not what interests me about this show or about teaching about about what I do. What interests me is taking all this vast information out there, simplifying it, showing you the themes, and then allowing you to make these decisions feeling empowered. That's what the show to me is about more than anything else. So, let's do that. You have the information, share it. you know, tell share it, you know, and and with with Coley. Share it with Coley. Coley Coley is the most ridiculous thing I've ever want to thank everybody for watching. We're grateful for you. Make sure you hit subscribe.

1:22:27 Let's get to six million subscribers. Um, subscribe on audio and video. Leave a fivestar review on audio. Join, become a member of this YouTube channel. It's one of the main ways we grow. Um, we appreciate you all so much. And uh let's get to 6 million. And Jordy, take it away. Shout out to the mightest mighty.

1:22:51 Standing strong against the fascist. We sing our song. We will get it right. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our Substack at midasplus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Philipsky, ad free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at midasplus.com.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "LIVE: MeidasTouch RESPONDS to MAJOR BREAKING NEWS - 2/9/26"?

Ben Meiselas (Host), Brett Meiselas (Host), Jordy Meiselas (Host).

What is "LIVE: MeidasTouch RESPONDS to MAJOR BREAKING NEWS - 2/9/26" about?

The discussion centers around the implications of newly released Epstein files, highlighting potential connections between Donald Trump's legal team and Jeffrey Epstein's lawyers, particularly regarding unlawful redactions. Key figures such as Democratic Congress member Jamie Rascin and Ghislaine Maxwell are featured, with concerns raised about Maxwell's recent claim of the Fifth Amendment in…

What is mentioned in this MeidasTouch episode?

18 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Donald Trump, Epstein file, Department of Justice, Ghislain Maxwell, clemency, Ukraine. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "LIVE: MeidasTouch RESPONDS to MAJOR BREAKING NEWS - 2/9/26"?

The episode runs 1 h 23 min; the transcript is about 14,714 words in 120 timestamped sections.

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