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5️⃣ Bari Weiss Kills CBS News Radio
After nearly a century on the air, CBS News Radio is dead. Bari Weiss announced she’s shutting down the division Edward R. Murrow built and laying off 6 percent of the CBS newsroom, with 700 affiliated stations given two months to find a replacement. “She is systematically destroying everything,” Zev said of Weiss, calling her unqualified for the position and noting the only qualification she has is supporting Israel and Bibi Netanyahu. Dean traced the pattern further: “Does money even matter to the bottom line of what they’re trying to accomplish with this consolidation? I don’t think ratings matter.” With CBS Evening News cratering to 3.83 million viewers under Tony Dokoupil and the Ellison family now acquiring CNN through the Warner Bros. Discovery deal, the consolidation of American media under Trump-aligned ownership continues at speed.
4️⃣ Staley’s Wife Files for Divorce
After 40 years of marriage, Debora Staley has filed for divorce from former Barclays CEO Jes Staley, the banker banned from the UK financial industry over his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. All documents are sealed. “They’re doing a performative divorce more likely than anything else in order to separate their assets so she can control them going forward,” Zev explained, noting that British regulators are investigating Staley’s ties again. Dean didn’t hold back: “Do you know how many women, how many girls slash women have accused Jes Staley of sexual abuse? I counted 38.” With JPMorgan’s $290 million Epstein settlement and more litigation coming, the Epstein reckoning is now forcing the people who enabled it to scramble for financial cover.
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3️⃣ Epstein’s Lawyer: “I Knew Nothing”
Darren Indyke, Jeffrey Epstein’s personal attorney for decades and co-executor of his estate, sat before the House Oversight Committee and told Congress under oath that he had “no knowledge whatsoever” of Epstein’s crimes. His name is on NDAs covering payments totaling up to $280 million to victims. He signed off on settlements during the estate process. And yet he claims he knew nothing. “This isn’t perjury. This is flat out lying,” Dean said. “Just flat out lying about what this man helped Jeffrey Epstein get away with for 20 years.” Congressman David Min, a former law professor, said after the hearing that Indyke likely perjured himself “over and over and over again,” revealing that Indyke couldn’t explain $725,000 in structured cash withdrawals designed to avoid federal reporting, that multiple women described him helping them with apartments and immigration issues, and that he reportedly told women not to talk to police. The FBI and Department of Justice had never even interviewed Indyke before this deposition.
2️⃣ Trump Ally Weaponized ICE Against His Ex
The New York Times reported that Paolo Zampolli, the man who introduced Donald Trump to Melania and a figure in the Epstein files, used his White House connections to get ICE to detain and deport the mother of his child during a custody battle. Zampolli reached out to top ICE official David Venturella, who personally called the Miami office to ensure agents picked up Amanda Ungaro before she was released on bail. Dean laid out the deeper connection: Zampolli was recruited into the modeling world by Jean-Luc Brunel, Epstein’s associate who died in a French jail. He brought Melania into the Epstein world and is now serving as a presidential special envoy with what amounts to diplomatic cover. “Every single person around Donald Trump that is impugned by the Epstein files has been given some type of cover,” Zev noted, connecting the pattern of Trump surrounding himself with compromised figures from both the Epstein and Russia networks.
Ice Detains 7-Year-Old Canadian Girl
Also on today's show: Dean broke the story of Ayala Lucas, a seven-year-old Canadian girl with autism currently being held by ICE at the Rio Grande Valley Central Processing Center near McAllen, Texas. Her mother, Tanya Warner, is a Canadian citizen from British Columbia who had been living legally in the United States for five years with a Texas driver's license, a work visa, and a green card. The family was crossing the border legally when agents took her inside for routine fingerprinting and never let her out. Ayala has been subjected to 24-hour lights, noise, and overcrowding — sensory chaos that an autistic child cannot process. She is one of at least 40 Canadian children currently in ICE detention. "Get this young girl home," Dean said, calling on the Canadian government to intervene. "As a father, this thing crushed me."
1️⃣ Trump and Bibi: Boots on the Ground
Three weeks into a war Congress never authorized, the United States is deploying ground forces to the Middle East. The USS Boxer Amphibious Ready Group departed San Diego March 18th carrying 2,500 Marines and 20 F-35B fighter jets. Trump admitted he killed Iran’s entire leadership and now has no negotiating partner, saying “there’s no one to talk to” and then adding “I like that.” Netanyahu appeared publicly and confirmed a ground component is necessary, telling reporters “you can’t do revolutions from the air.” Dean connected the escalation directly to the Epstein cover-up: “If you wanted to know how serious Donald Trump is about getting out from underneath this whole pedophile conversation, he’s willing to sacrifice 8,000 men and women.” Zev tied the thread tighter: “Epstein worked for Israel and Epstein worked for Russia. The fact that we are at war at the behest of Bibi Netanyahu is important because the reason Donald Trump is in power is partially because of Jeffrey Epstein.”
The through line across all five stories is the same network protecting itself, whether through media consolidation, performative divorces, perjury before Congress, weaponizing federal agencies, or launching unauthorized wars.
The FiveStack is available as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. The FiveStack is a co-production of deanblundell.substack.com and narativ.org.
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