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5️⃣ Lutnick’s Epstein Web Grows Deeper
New details from the Epstein files reveal Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s extensive financial ties to Jeffrey Epstein, including a Manhattan mansion at 11 East 71st Street — next door to Epstein’s own residence — that Lutnick acquired through a chain of Epstein-controlled trusts for just $10. An FBI whistleblower who worked in the securities business for 32 years told agents that Lutnick “instructed all the fraud” at Cantor Fitzgerald and that the firm laundered money for the Russian mafia through an affiliate called Parabridge International Services, which was connected to Deutsche Bank. The whistleblower complaint identifies 37 separate instances involving Lutnick in money laundering investigations, all hidden from public view until the files were released. Lutnick was also tied to Liquid Funding, Epstein’s offshore vehicle at Bear Stearns that was the only fund saved during the 2008 crash — with $6.7 billion from the U.S. Treasury. “This guy’s as crooked as you can get,” Zev said, noting that the FBI flagged Lutnick in two major cases before he was confirmed as Commerce Secretary, and the warnings were simply ignored. Dean pointed out that Lutnick’s sons have since set up a company at Cantor Fitzgerald allowing businesses to take advances on tariff refunds — profiting from the very tariff chaos their father’s boss created.
HOW DID THE LUTNICK STORY RATE ON GROUND NEWS?
We checked it on Ground News and the bias meter tells you everything. The Lutnick-Epstein connection — a sitting Commerce Secretary tied to money laundering, the Russian mafia, and Jeffrey Epstein's financial network — is virtually invisible in right-wing media. It barely registers in mainstream outlets. The only places covering it consistently are independent journalists and a handful of left-leaning sources. That's the kind of blind spot Ground News was built to expose. When you can see who's covering a story and who's burying it, the silence becomes the story. Get 40% off Ground News at groundnews.com/fivestack.
4️⃣ Anderson Cooper Walks as CBS Turns to State TV
Anderson Cooper has left CBS’s 60 Minutes after 20 years, and while the network cites personal reasons, the real story is what’s happened to CBS News under editor-in-chief Bari Weiss. Since taking over in October 2025, Weiss spiked a 60 Minutes report on CECOT — the El Salvador prison Trump flew migrants to — heavily edited Cooper’s January story on Trump’s South Africa refugee policy, and is reportedly planning to fire correspondents including former anchor Scott Pelley and Sharon Alfonsi. The censorship extended to late night when CBS blocked Stephen Colbert from airing an interview with James Talarico, the born-again Christian Texas Democrat mounting a serious challenge to flip the state. Colbert was told he couldn’t air the segment, couldn’t explain why, and couldn’t discuss the conversations that led to the decision — but because he owns the content rights, the interview appeared on YouTube anyway. “She is turning CBS into a propaganda arm of the government,” Zev said. Meanwhile, Warner Brothers has reopened negotiations with the Ellison family for a sale that would include CNN, threatening to consolidate yet another major news network under the same forces dismantling independent journalism.
3️⃣ DHS Subpoenas Social Media Over ICE Criticism
The Department of Homeland Security has been issuing hundreds of administrative subpoenas to Google, Meta, Reddit, and Discord demanding the personal information of users who posted negative comments about ICE. The subpoenas target anyone who criticized the agency on social media, with legal threats for noncompliance. Half the targeted companies have already handed over the data. “They’re going to go after them,” Dean said, noting the chilling effect on free speech. Zev connected the compliance to the broader broligarchy, pointing to Peter Thiel — who he reported is functioning as a Russian asset — and the pre-2016 dinner where Musk, Thiel, and others sat with Epstein plotting what would become their current grip on American power. The Epstein files now show Thiel’s email exchanges with Epstein describing daily GHB use, raising serious questions about the compromisability of the men holding the keys to America’s data infrastructure through Palantir and DOGE.
2️⃣ U.S. Sends 50 Fighter Jets Toward Iran
The United States has moved more than 50 fighter jets toward the Middle East in the past 24 hours as round two of Iran nuclear talks began. A framework has emerged but the posturing continues, with Israel potentially acting unilaterally. Dean flagged that an Iranian official recently claimed the Trump regime called Tehran asking them to stage a fake war — a claim that went largely unreported in American media.
1️⃣ Canada Cuts Out the U.S.
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a sweeping national defense and trade pivot that effectively writes the United States out of Canada’s security architecture. Canada will pursue partnerships with Indo-Pacific nations and the EU, with the United States relegated to an afterthought. Carney referenced his Davos remarks about taking down the shop sign and no longer catering to Washington. Zev also revealed that his Epstein network graph has grown from 20 names to 330, with Epstein at number one, Trump at number two, Robert Maxwell at three, and Howard Lutnick at four — a ranking by data points that tells you everything about the Commerce Secretary’s proximity to the network. The show closed with a tribute to Reverend Jesse Jackson, who died at 84 after a long illness, a reminder of the Rainbow Coalition era and a very different vision for America.
The house of lies is collapsing. From Lutnick’s fraud to CBS’s capitulation to Canada’s defiance, the pattern is the same: the network is exposed, the resistance is growing, and the people dismantling democracy are running out of places to hide.
