Good morning, Today’s rundown leads with new developments in the Epstein story: subpoenas, sealed NDAs, and a $158 million question about what one of his associates was really paying for. We also look into Mitch McConnell, issues with Hegseth, and more right now.
Covering this material isn’t free of consequences. Since I started digging into the Epstein network and the powerful people who moved through it, I’ve faced pushback I didn’t expect: hostile messages, attempts to discredit the reporting, and pressure from people who’d clearly prefer this story stay buried. I’m telling you this because you deserve to know what it takes to keep this coverage independent, answering to no advertiser, no network, and no one with a stake in how these names get treated.
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I’m not going to stop. Let’s get into today’s news.
Alleged Epstein Co-Conspirator:
Alleged Epstein co-conspirator, Leon Black, is suing the House Oversight Committee to block subpoenas tied to his deposition testimony and an effort to obtain his NDAs with women, arguing the subpoenas lack a legitimate legislative purpose and exceed Congress’ authority. The lawsuit comes as Black faces a committee deposition Thursday after refusing in June to answer questions about those NDAs, part of a broader inquiry into his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. At the center of that inquiry are $158 million in payments Black made to Epstein between 2012 and 2017 for what Epstein called tax and estate-planning “art,” a fee Epstein himself struggled to justify, once writing “the value is in the eye of the beholder.” Senator Ron Wyden has released a report finding Bank of America flagged $170 million in suspicious Epstein-related transactions connected to Black, some with “no apparent economic, business or lawful purpose,” and has called at least some payments equivalent to hush money. A 2021 Apollo-commissioned Dechert report found no wrongdoing and said Epstein’s strategies saved Black $1-2 billion in taxes, though outside tax lawyers told Bloomberg the techniques were largely standard estate-planning tools rather than the novel work Dechert described.
Congressman Thomas Massie named Black as one of 14 possible co-conspirators associated with Epstein:
The core transaction underlying the dispute was a 2012 crisis: Black’s family trust had overpaid him $142 million, risking a clawback that could have cost up to $1 billion in estate taxes, and Epstein devised a fix where Black gave up future trust distributions in exchange for swapping the trust’s $1.6 billion Apollo stake for a promissory note backed by art and stock. Dechert’s report called this a “grand slam,” but Bloomberg found the underlying technique, a “power of substitution,” was a well-established estate-planning tool that Black’s own longtime lawyer had presented on nearly a decade earlier. Epstein also helped Black extract tax benefits from valuation discounts on subdivided Apollo shares and from a 2015-16 transaction selling a stake in Black’s art-book company Phaidon at a reduced valuation to Black’s own employee and brother-in-law, a deal one outside lawyer warned the IRS likely wouldn’t approve and could result in “an embarrassing article in the Wall Street Journal.” That Phaidon deal eventually closed in revised form and saved Black about $11.6 million in taxes. Disputes over fees tied to these transactions, especially Phaidon, became a central source of friction between the two men.
The relationship fully collapsed over a 2016 art deal in which Epstein personally bought two artworks from Black for $30 million to help him defer capital-gains taxes via a like-kind exchange, then struggled to resell them and grew increasingly frustrated, at one point complaining Black hadn’t even offered to buy him lunch. Financial records show both men treated Epstein’s later reimbursement demand as a $30.5 million loan, of which Epstein repaid only $10 million, privately writing that he believed he actually owed Black a smaller amount. Epstein also hinted at leverage, warning that disclosing details of the tax exchange “will cost him more than the 30” and would expose other problematic past transactions. According to the Dechert report, Epstein’s failure to repay the remaining loan balance led Black to sever ties with him later that year, and weeks after the breakup, renewed media scrutiny of Epstein’s criminal conduct emerged, casting fresh attention on the relationship that had just ended.
Republican Calls on Hegseth to be Fired, Pressure Builds:
The Pentagon announced new clinical guidelines Wednesday requiring male service members age 30 and older to be screened for testosterone deficiency during their regular health assessments, following Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s summer call for the change. Troops diagnosed with hypogonadism will get follow-up testing and treatment options including testosterone replacement therapy, which Hegseth has said is voluntary. Men under 30 will be offered optional annual screenings, while women will be asked about symptoms of hormonal dysregulation and referred for further evaluation if needed. The Pentagon frames the push as aimed at force readiness, and cites research suggesting high-stress roles, including special operations, carry elevated risk of hormone-related issues sometimes called “Operator Syndrome.”
A wave of senior Pentagon and military leaders has departed since Hegseth took over, most recently Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who resigned Monday reportedly amid an icy relationship with Hegseth and concerns about the Army’s condition. Others pushed out or forced into early retirement include Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, Gen. Christopher Donahue, Vice Chief Gen. James Mingus, and Navy Secretary John Phelan, along with a February 2025 purge that removed Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. CQ Brown Jr., Adm. Lisa Franchetti and Gen. James Slife. Hegseth has pursued a broader effort to reduce the number of generals and root out what he calls “wokeness” in the ranks. The pattern spans nearly every military branch and includes intelligence roles like NSA/CYBERCOM chief Gen. Timothy Haugh and DIA director Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse.
Senator Thom Tillis publicly urged President Trump to fire Hegseth on Wednesday, accusing him of “inept mismanagement” and creating a “leadership void” as the six-month-old war with Iran continues without resolution. Tillis, who voted to confirm Hegseth despite reservations, said the secretary is “intimidated by competence” and focused on culture wars rather than modernizing the military for evolving warfare seen in Ukraine and against Iran. He directly tied Driscoll’s resignation to Hegseth’s leadership style, saying a better secretary would be fighting to retain talent rather than pushing it out.
Hegseth faces mounting scrutiny as the war with Iran, launched February 28, has left the Pentagon grappling with reportedly shrinking munitions stockpiles and no clear end in sight. More than two-thirds of Americans disapprove of the administration’s handling of the war, according to an August 31 University of Massachusetts poll, and the conflict has coincided with spiking fuel prices and sinking approval numbers for Trump ahead of November’s midterms. Hegseth has also pursued controversial changes including limiting press access to the Pentagon and reviewing academy admissions standards, moves that have drawn criticism even from within his own party.
Other news:
Senator Mitch McConnell’s absence from public view hit 80 days on Wednesday, with no update from his office on his condition in nearly a month, fueling growing speculation and criticism in Washington. The 84-year-old Kentucky Republican has missed 60 votes since his June 14 hospitalization, including on an Iran war powers resolution and the confirmation of Attorney General Todd Blanche, at a time when the GOP holds only a narrow Senate majority. A visit to McConnell’s D.C. residence this week found it guarded by a security detail of three unmarked SUVs plus marked Capitol Police cars, with most curtains drawn but no mail piling up outside as there had been during his hospital stay. His office has released only two “proof of life” photos since he vanished from public view, both showing him smiling with wife Elaine Chao but revealing nothing about his health, and aides have ignored repeated requests for a video update or phone call to a media outlet. McConnell missed two major Kentucky events he’d normally attend, the Fancy Farm picnic and the Kentucky Farm Bureau Country Ham Breakfast, and while some allies like Scott Jennings claim to have had lengthy phone calls with him, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear says he’s heard nothing from the senator in 80 days.
U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman of Maryland issued a preliminary injunction Wednesday blocking Trump’s August executive order that sought to further narrow birthright citizenship, calling his legal reasoning a “distorted” reading of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling. The order, Trump’s second attempt to limit the 14th Amendment’s citizenship guarantee, tried to carve out new exceptions for children of parents labeled “alien enemies,” foreign government employees, or those accused of “birth tourism,” despite the Court’s ruling in Trump v. Barbara that children born to parents “unlawfully or temporarily present” are still “citizens at birth.” Boardman wrote that “no Presidential Executive Order can undo what the Supreme Court has done” and found the administration cited no language from the Barbara decision to support its interpretation because none exists. She specifically cited two mothers, from Venezuela and Mexico, whose children risked being wrongly classified as members of designated terrorist organizations under the order. Boardman called the order “almost certainly unconstitutional” as applied to the certified class of children covered by the earlier ruling.
Gloria Steinem, the pioneering feminist journalist and activist, died Wednesday at her New York City home at age 92, surrounded by loved ones, according to a statement on her official Instagram page. No cause of death was given. She rose to national prominence in 1963 with an undercover exposé on the working conditions of Playboy bunnies, then went on to co-found Ms. magazine in 1971 and become the public face of second-wave feminism. Her activism helped reshape rights for women, from credit access to Ivy League admission to legal abortion, and she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama in 2013. She married David Bale in 2000 after decades of publicly rejecting marriage, and continued working for equality until the end of her life.
A shooting at a downtown Minneapolis apartment building Wednesday afternoon left three dead, including the suspect, and at least six injured, among them police officers. Interim Police Chief Bill Peterson said officers exchanged gunfire with the shooter and entered the building after reports of an active shooter, encountering victims and a visibility-limiting haze on an upper floor. Two officers were shot, one in the leg and one twice in the abdomen, while a third suffered non-gunfire injuries; all three are expected to recover. Witnesses described hearing 25 to 30 gunshots and seeing people wounded in the lobby, with one resident saying he had previously reported the suspect to building management after encountering him with a handgun. The FBI and ATF responded to assist local authorities, and the surrounding area was cleared before being declared secure.
The Dutch central bank announced it relocated tens of tons of gold from the United States and Canada to Europe between March and August, citing “crisis preparedness” amid global political unrest. Roughly 86 metric tons moved to London from a combined 313 metric tons held in New York and Ottawa, shifting each city’s share of Dutch holdings down to 18.5 percent from 31.3 percent and 19.7 percent respectively. The bank holds 612.4 metric tons of gold total, valued at about 72.2 billion euros ($83.6 billion) at the end of 2025. Governor Olaf Sleijpen said the move improves the “tradability” of reserves, calling London-held gold the world’s most easily accessible in a crisis compared with New York or Ottawa. Part of the shift involved selling gold in New York and using proceeds to buy gold in London rather than physically transporting all of it.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced Thursday that Russia will close German Goethe-Institut cultural centers in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, retaliating after Germany shut the Russian Consulate in Bonn and a Russian cultural center in Berlin. The move follows Germany blaming Moscow for a drone plot at Leipzig/Halle Airport, a major freight hub supporting Ukraine, where an explosive-laden drone was found and defused in early August. Putin has denied the allegations, claiming Germany is deflecting from domestic political troubles and that evidence was “planted.” The episode is part of a broader pattern Western officials call hybrid war, including Britain summoning Russia’s top diplomat, a large-scale Finnish civil defense drill, Norway seizing a Russian vessel tied to a Ukrainian arbitration claim, and Danish intelligence warning of possible Russian sabotage targeting defense companies. EU ministers met to weigh further sanctions but are struggling to find new non-military response options.
Firefighters rescued a man trapped inside a Recology garbage truck in San Francisco early Wednesday morning after the truck’s driver was flagged down by someone who heard yelling from the truck’s garbage compartment. About 25 firefighters responded to the roughly two-hour operation, during which one firefighter suffered a hand laceration requiring stitches. The rescued man was conscious, breathing and talking when he was taken to a hospital, though the extent of his injuries was not immediately known. A fire official said he is believed to have climbed into a dumpster looking for food before becoming trapped when the truck compacted its contents. The incident occurred on the 100 block of Mason Street.
American journalist Thomas Weir Pauken II, 51, was sentenced to two years in federal prison for acting as an illegal agent of China’s government, after pleading guilty earlier this year and declining to appeal. Prosecutors said Pauken, who worked for Chinese state outlets CCTV and Xinhua after moving to China in 2010, wrote intelligence reports for a handler known as “Cathy” that were read by Chinese President Xi Jinping, receiving at least $100,000 for his work. He was also asked to recruit sources, including providing one contact with a phone, computer and secure messaging credentials, and told investigators he suspected that contact might pass classified information to China. His lawyer said no classified information was actually shared and that Pauken has accepted responsibility. Pauken used the alias “Tom McGregor” to distance his father, a former Texas Republican Party chairman, from his work in China, and was arrested in February after returning from a family trip to Washington, D.C.
Former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, asked a federal judge Wednesday to dismiss their drug trafficking indictment, arguing head-of-state immunity protects them from U.S. prosecution. Their lawyers argued no American court has ever tried a sitting foreign head of state and that heads of state are exempt from any court but their own. Maduro and Flores have been jailed in Brooklyn since U.S. forces seized them in a January raid on their Caracas home, and face a trial scheduled for June 2026 with oral arguments on the dismissal motion set for November 17. Prosecutors allege Maduro ran a conspiracy to move thousands of tons of cocaine into the U.S. by colluding with Venezuelan law enforcement and drug traffickers, charges he denies, calling his capture a kidnapping. Federal prosecutors are due to respond to the immunity arguments later this month.
Former Tropical Storm Edouard dumped nearly two feet of rain on rural East Texas, prompting dozens of rescues from stranded cars, flooded homes and an assisted living facility as the storm lingered over the state into Thursday. Hardin County was hit hardest, with 18 to 20 inches of rain, downed trees and power lines, and roughly a dozen water rescues, while nearby Jefferson County reported about 22,000 customers without power. Wind gusts reached 90 mph as the storm moved through, sparking at least one house fire from a downed power line near Lumberton. An assisted living facility in Hardin County was damaged, requiring the evacuation of 21 residents with help from Texas Parks and Wildlife game wardens. Separately, three hurricanes, Marie, Lowell and Karina, were active in the Pacific Ocean, with dangerous swells expected to reach Hawaii and southern California in the coming days.
John Herb Hayes III, 70, and Geordyn Nichole Hayes, 31, of Bristol, Virginia, were arrested and charged with unlawfully placing a child at risk after their 5-year-old autistic, nonverbal daughter, Saylor, was found dead in South Carolina waters near Pawleys Island. Authorities said the parents failed to provide appropriate supervision for a child with a known affinity for water and history of wandering, and that Saylor’s Project Lifesaver tracking device had been removed before the family left Virginia. According to arrest affidavits, the parents directed searchers toward using the tracker even though they knew Saylor wasn’t wearing it, and steered search efforts away from the nearby body of water where she was ultimately found. The device was later located inside a vehicle at the family’s Virginia home. Georgetown County Sheriff Carter Weaver called the death “a heartbreaking tragedy,” saying Saylor “deserved to be safe” and vowing to pursue accountability through the justice system.
Nvidia agreed to buy AI developer platform Hugging Face for $12.93 billion, one of its biggest acquisitions ever, in a bet that supporting open-weight AI models will sustain demand even as major customers like Meta, OpenAI and Microsoft build their own chips to reduce reliance on Nvidia. The deal gives Nvidia direct access to a platform developers use to build, test and share AI tools, potentially offering insight that helps it keep pace with top U.S. and Chinese AI labs, including Chinese firms like DeepSeek and Z.ai whose cheaper open models have gained ground. Nvidia will pay about $11.9 billion to Hugging Face’s investors plus up to $1 billion in retention equity for employees joining the company, and CEO Jensen Huang said Hugging Face will remain an open platform that doesn’t require Nvidia chips to use. The New York-based startup, founded in 2016 by Clément Delangue, Julien Chaumond and Thomas Wolf and backed by Intel, AMD and Amazon, also hosts datasets and cloud tools for AI development, and was recently in the news after a hack involving rogue AI agents that escaped an OpenAI testing environment.
See you soon.
— Aaron
