5️⃣ MAXWELL MAKES HER MOVE
Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyer filed a letter in Manhattan Federal Court today announcing a habeas corpus petition challenging her 2021 sex trafficking conviction. This comes weeks after Todd Blanche — Trump’s former lawyer, now DOJ’s number two — conducted a two-day interview with her, followed by her quiet transfer from a Florida prison to a minimum-security Texas camp. Maxwell’s gambit: argue that releasing grand jury materials will “prejudice her ability to have a fair retrial” — a retrial she hasn’t been granted yet. She’s filing pro se, without counsel, which suggests her longtime attorney may have severed ties after whatever happened in that Blanche interview. The circular logic is obvious. But with this DOJ and this president, nothing is too absurd to try.
4️⃣ FIRST LOOK INSIDE EPSTEIN’S ISLAND
House Democrats released 14 never-before-seen photos and videos from inside Little St. James Island — footage taken by U.S. Virgin Islands investigators that the DOJ has been sitting on. The images reveal high privacy walls blocking all views from the water, a dozen concealed cabanas surrounding the pool where victims were trafficked to VIP guests, and a deeply unsettling “dental office” featuring a surgical chair, massage table, and walls covered with masks depicting changing faces. Russian spies in Epstein’s network underwent plastic surgery to assume new identities — and the room suggests where that might have happened. As Dean noted: this release is a warning shot. House Democrats are telling Trump they have far more, and they’re coming.
3️⃣ TRUMP’S $310 MILLION EPSTEIN-IDENTICAL LAWSUIT
A civil lawsuit filed in Palm Beach County accuses Trump of running a trafficking operation “identical in every material respect” to Epstein’s, naming the president in both personal and official capacity alongside Elon Musk and Bill Gates as co-defendants. The anonymous plaintiff alleges an eight-year grooming scheme starting in 1998, claims her infant daughter was taken as punishment for filing lawsuits, and accuses defendants of five murder attempts. The lawsuit seeks $310 million in damages and wants a jury trial by December 20. Civil cases require only “more likely than not” — not “beyond reasonable doubt.” Epstein always believed Trump called the cops on him in 2004. Maybe now we’re learning why.
2️⃣ TENNESSEE: 20-POINT COLLAPSE IN MAGA COUNTRY
Republicans barely held Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District — a seat Trump won by 22 points last year. The final margin: under 10 points. Trump spent four days panic-tweeting for candidate Mike Van Epps, including the immortal attack that his opponent “hates country music.” It didn’t matter. Democrats estimate 70 GOP-held seats are friendlier than this deep-red bastion of Christian conservatism. Projections now show Republicans losing 15+ seats in the midterms. As many as 24 House Republicans aren’t running for re-election. The pattern is clear in every district: Trump has erased roughly 20 percentage points of support since November.
For the first time in FiveStack history there’s a tie for number 1:
1️⃣ HEGSETH: “FOG OF WAR” AFTER WATCHING LIVE
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth now claims he couldn’t see survivors clinging to a burning boat because of “fog of war” — the same strike he bragged about watching live, saying “we knew exactly who was in that boat.” Two survivors were killed in a second strike after Hegseth allegedly ordered “no one left alive.” Former military lawyers are unequivocal: targeting defenseless survivors after a shipwreck is prohibited. Period. It’s literally in the handbook. Admiral Frank Bradley meets with senators tomorrow behind closed doors. Pentagon officials worry the administration is setting up a military scapegoat. Senator Warner said it plainly today: maybe the military will save us from Donald Trump.
1️⃣ DOZY DON
Four minutes after raging at a reporter who asked about his health, Trump fell asleep at a press conference. He’s tweeting 400 times in three-hour bursts, then crashing. The Epstein files, Hegseth’s war crimes, collapsing poll numbers, Ukraine corruption — the pressure is visibly breaking him. As Dean put it: when you’re drowning in this many criminal, impeachable, treasonous issues at once, your brain shuts down. We’re watching it happen in real time.
The FiveStack is available as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Advertising inquiries email next@narativ.org. The FiveStack is a co-production of deanblundell.substack.com and narativ.org.
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