The pattern tells the story. Multiple strikes in the Caribbean. Eighty-six dead across 22 operations. Zero evidence of drugs. Every detainee released by Colombia and Ecuador as innocent. Videos ordered destroyed. Photographs deleted. Survivors who waved for help killed by follow-up strikes. And now Congress forcing accountability through the one mechanism that works: withholding Pentagon funds until the evidence is released. This is the WMD playbook—create a premise for war, destroy the evidence that contradicts it, and hope no one connects the systematic coverup.
5️⃣ CONGRESS WITHHOLDS HEGSETH TRAVEL FUNDS UNTIL VIDEOS RELEASED
Congress tucked a provision into this week’s must-pass National Defense Authorization Act that withholds 25% of Pete Hegseth’s travel budget unless he provides unedited video of the Caribbean strikes. Trump promised transparency last week—”certainly, no problem”—then immediately backpedaled to “whatever Pete decides.” The House votes Wednesday, the Senate follows, and this bipartisan pressure exposes the coverup for what it is. The boats weren’t even heading to the United States—one was going to Suriname. Survivors waved for help for over an hour before the second strike killed them. 22 strikes total, 86 dead, zero evidence of drugs, and everyone Colombia and Ecuador investigated was released as innocent. Congress is forcing transparency through the one lever that works: money.
4️⃣ PENTAGON ORDERED EVIDENCE DESTROYED IN SECOND STRIKE
Navy veteran Melissa Corrigan broke this exclusive Monday: In October, two survivors from a different strike were brought onto the USS Iwo Jima and photographed per standard military protocol. Then an Admiral-level order came down to delete the video and photographs. Marines and sailors argued on deck about whether to even follow protocol. One survivor was returned to Colombia on a ventilator and unconscious. The other was sent back to Ecuador. Both countries investigated and released them—no evidence of wrongdoing. This is the second coverup. The pattern is clear: strike, capture, realize you got the wrong people, destroy the evidence, release them quietly. Melissa and Army veteran Nick Paro can be recalled to active duty and court-martialed for reporting this. That’s the threat hanging over whistleblowers. This is the WMD playbook playing out in the Caribbean.
3️⃣ SOTOMAYOR CALLS OUT MUSK’S $200 MILLION QUID PRO QUO
Justice Sotomayor didn’t hold back during Monday’s Supreme Court arguments on campaign finance limits. She pointed directly at Elon Musk’s $200 million donation and his immediate government appointment as textbook quid pro quo bribery. The case challenges coordinated spending caps between parties and candidates—currently limited to $3,500 per person to candidates and $44,300 to national parties. Trump’s DOJ refused to defend these limits, forcing the Court to appoint a lawyer to argue for them. Sotomayor noted Musk’s government contracts make this explicit: this wasn’t about salary, it was about billions in federal business. If SCOTUS sides with Republicans, unlimited legalized bribery becomes the law of the land. This is the pipeline of cases Leonard Leo and JD Vance have been feeding into the Court to steal the Constitution.
2️⃣ EPSTEIN GRAND JURY TRANSCRIPTS DUE DECEMBER 19
A federal judge ordered Jeffrey Epstein’s 2006 grand jury transcripts unsealed by December 19 under a new law that overrides traditional grand jury secrecy. These are the 2005 transcripts Trump and Todd Blanche are eager to have released—which tells you everything you need to know. If Trump’s DOJ is pushing for these to come out, they contain something that benefits him. Maybe it’s the grand jury testimony where Trump claimed he cooperated with authorities or called himself an FBI agent. But this is 1-2% of the total evidence. The real documents—350 gigabytes waiting in the House Oversight Committee, millions of pages, hard drives, videos—those tell the complete story. Bannon tried to run a documentary operation on Epstein while Epstein tried to co-opt Bannon. Two espionage operatives running simultaneous ops against each other. Chapter 5 of The Greatest Heist drops today, taking you onto the island to show exactly how the network operated.
1️⃣ TRUMP THREATENS EUROPE AS NATO FRACTURES
The same day Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff sat in the Kremlin with Putin’s aide embedded in their delegation, Trump attacked Europe as “woke” after the EU fined X. His national security strategy was literally written by Russia—Lavrov, Dmitriev, and Putin celebrated all weekend that America is finally aligned with their values. But Europe has had enough. Macron, Friedrich Merz, and Keir Starmer met Zelensky in London, rejecting any Ukraine surrender plan. The Ford Strike Group pulled from the Mediterranean for the first time in 80 years. Within 72 hours, Europe will make a decisive move. The Coalition of the Willing—Canada, Spain, EU nations—will announce that what happens in Europe gets decided by Europeans and Ukrainians first. Not by Donald Trump. Not by Vladimir Putin. The Civicus report confirmed today what we already knew: America is no longer a democracy, it’s an obstructed dictatorship. Europe sees it. They’re boxing Trump in geopolitically, and when that solidarity statement drops, the fur will fly.
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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