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WOW! Epstein Assistant DROPS BOMBSHELL Claims During TESTIMONY
by Katie Phang
May 22, 2026

Jeffrey Epstein’s long-time personal assistant and traveling companion, Sarah Kellen, provided some information to House Oversight yesterday, including what Rep. James Comer is claiming are the names of 3 “new” abusers. But, reporting suggests that those names aren’t new, so what else did Kellen say of value? Katie Phang has the details from that closed-door interview & analysis on the value of Kellen’s information.

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Lutnick Makes $5 Million Donation BEFORE Epstein TESTIMONY?!?
Legal AF
May 25, 2026

Popok reports on embattled Commerce Sec Howard Lutnick looking like he was greasing the skids and encouraging that only softball questions be thrown his way by the Republicans on the House Oversight Committee by making a well-timed $5 million personal donation to the House Republicans main Super PAC while he was negotiating to appear for testimony about his Epstein connections. And your jaw will hit the table when you see who Lutnick originally listed as his "Employer" and as his "Title" (hint: It's NOT Commerce Secretary!)

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Melania PANICS as Michael Wolff Prepares NEXT MOVE in LAWSUIT!!!
Legal AF
May 26, 2026

Popok explains that Michael Wolff, the journalist and chronicler of all things Epstein x Trump x Melania, can now either appeal to try to get Melania under oath in a deposition about where she really lives (i.e. in New York or at Mar a Lago), or can just file first in Florida before Melania does first, in an effort to avoid Judge Cannon presiding over any "Billion Dollar" defamation case between the two of them. Even the Trump appointed Fed Judge in NY that dismissed Michael's case, observed that she DID NOT rule on the merits of his claims that everything he has said or written about Melania and Epstein are true or his opinion that can't form the basis of a threatened libel suit.

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White House in TOTAL PANIC MODE As LEAKS GO PUBLIC!!!
Legal AF
Jun 12, 2026

Who in the White House Situation Room that devised the Epstein files coverup will be investigated by the House, and who will be impeached? Bondi, Patel, JD Vance, Susie Wiles, and/or Todd Blanche? The Legal AF podcast with Popok and Lisa Graves takes a look at the reported "freakout" leak and its ramifications.

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Epstein Lawyer EXPOSED as DAMAGE CONTROL BACKFIRES!!
Katie Phang
Jun 22, 2026

Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime friend and elite lawyer, Kathy Ruemmler, is trying to do reputation damage control in advance of her House Oversight interview by doing a fluff interview in the NY Times, where she claims she was used by Epstein. But the reality of the evidence publicly available suggests that she doth protest too much. Katie Phang brings the receipts and describes how this lack-of-apology tour isn’t helping Ruemmler.



Transcript

So, you folks know me and I'm not really quick to judge or criticize fellow
legal analysts or journalists uh for the stuff that they write. They're entitled
to investigate, research, and write what they want to write. But I do think in
the sphere of talking about Jeffrey Epstein, we have to take a little bit more of a critical eye in the way that
we report on Jeffrey Epstein. Um there is a lot of information yet obviously
not enough as as evidenced by the illegally redacted uh DOJ files here and the fact that the DOJ continues to sit
on 3 million plus documents. But when but when you're going to interview
a person who was intimately involved with Jeffrey Epstein despite their
protestations otherwise when emails and other communications as well as other media reporting corroborates that this
person had an incredibly intimate relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. I don't think I don't think it's enough to
just ask them why did you associate with Jeffrey Epstein? Why did you stay in his orbit? I don't think that that's enough.
I think you actually have to, especially if you are a fellow lawyer, I think you need to probe and I think you need to probe with evidence and even exhibits as
in I think you need to show the subject of the conversation certain emails and text messages that would
belly their assertions that they weren't close to Jeffrey Epstein at all, that it was just a
professional relationship. And the person I'm talking about, the subject of this piece or this article in the New
York Times from yesterday is a woman named Kathy Rumler.
And the person who wrote this piece in the New York Times is a former federal prosecutor by the name of An Kush
Kadori. Now an Kush I know and I am beyond disappointed in the fluff piece
that is an apology to no one by Kathy Rumler.
In fact, it is a New York Times and listen I'll say this. Ankush wrote an opinion guest essay for the New York
Times. And yet now I'm pissed off at the New York Times for allowing this apologist
email or excuse me piece to even be published. Because if Kathy wanted to be
able to speak directly to this, then then she should number one sit down with
somebody who's actually going to probe probe her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
3 minutesThis is not a probe. And then when Ankush Kadori ends his opinion guest essay
with the following paragraph, castigating Miss Rumler will not change the incentives that allowed Mr. Epstein
to evade prosecution for so long and it will not fix the deficiencies in federal law enforcement and the American legal system that ensure people like Mr. Epste
will always find a home. That, ladies and gentlemen, is absurd. Of course, we can castigate
Kathy Rumler. Why? Because she continues to evade responsibility
for the contributions she made to Jeffrey Epstein to allow him to try to put forward into a public-f
facing way some air of legitimacy and credibility.
And throughout this piece in the New York Times,
she continues to say that she had no idea. She says, "I kept up the relationship." Or she tells Ana,
she kept up the relationship with Jeffrey Epstein because of what he could offer, referrals, business, the rarified
professional network. She claims that these emails and text messages have been quoted without context.
And according to Anush Kadori, Kathy Rumler condemned Mr. Epstein repeatedly
and unequivocally, telling me at one point she was overwhelmed with anger and sadness over the harm he had wrought. She had, she
told me, been a victim of sexual assault herself. If I had seen or heard anything to suggest that Epstein was harming women or girls, I would have taken action to stop it, she insisted.
Now, Anne Kush does write. At times, though, she seemed oddly naive. She never knew, she told me, how serious and
extensive Mr. Epste's crimes were until she heard the prosecutors describe the charges against him in court in 2019.
She couldn't understand why so many people assumed she was complicit.
So, I'm just going to let that sit for a second with you.
She tells Ankush that she had no idea about the nature of the charges against Jeffrey Epstein until he was charged in
2019, as we know, by the Southern District of New York, federally charged and indicted.
And yet in this piece that Ankush says is the quote first in-depth interview since all
of this became public, she says to Ankush that she looked into
the case against him, meaning she looked into the 2008 prosecution in Florida against Jeffrey Epstein. She says she
reviewed the underlying procedural history and spoke with Epstein. Oh, I'm sure Jeffrey Epstein was such a reliable
narrator of what was going on in his sex trafficking international ring of children.
She said she was particularly persuaded by a 2008 letter written by one of Mr.
Epstein's lawyers. Again, not skewed in any way or biased, right? And she said
she knew that federal prosecutors in Miami were aggressive. Footnote. Yeah.
back then. Now, not so much against people unless you are a Trump opponent.
Rumbler assumed that these federal prosecutors in Miami had looked long and hard at the evidence against Epstein and that they eventually reached a very
lenient deal. So, she says, "Oh, then it could not have been that bad of a case." The fact that Epstein got extensive work release privileges just a few months
into his short sentence said to her, "Oh, that case was never really that strong." And then Epstein said that he had been meeting and socializing over the years
with a former federal prosecutor who had overseen the investigation and plea deal. So again, it suggested to her that the underlying case against Epstein had
been weak. All of that being said, she then tells Ankush what I told you a couple of minutes ago, which was, "But no matter what, I kept this relationship
with Epstein because it was purely professional. I got referrals, business, and access to a quote rarified
professional network." Okay, well let's get into the details because as I like to say here at Katy Fang News, the devil
is in the details and I want to make sure that we get into those. Now, when Jeffrey Epste was arrested in 2019, he called three people, okay?
One of the people he called, Marty Weinberg, was a criminal defense lawyer that he had known for years.
He called Darren Indk who we know has been a longtime attorney for Jeffrey Epstein. In fact, he's the co-executive
of Epstein's estate alongside Epste Epstein's longtime accountant, Richard Khan.
And then he called Kathy Rumler. He called her at 7:15 p.m. on her cell.
And this is when he was arrested. Okay. Now,
while on July 6, 2019, he's being arrested. At approximately ,
Jeffrey Epstein spontaneously told the FBI and other law enforcement, quote, "Is this sex trafficking?" And then
about a minute to s later says, quote, "Is this about underage?" Same date, July 6, 2019, after he tried
calling Marty Weinberg, whose name you're going to see again in just a minute. Darren Indk and Kathy Rumler.
Think about this. The feds have come for you. You're under arrest. You're being transported. You've been given the chance to be able to call somebody. Who
do you call? In my opinion, I would call my trusted advisors, and that would be
my lawyers, right? I'm under arrest by the feds. I am spontaneously uttering to law enforcement, "Is this sex
trafficking? Is this about underage? So, who am I going to call?" Marty Weinberg, Darren End, and Kathy Rumler. Same date, July 6th, 2019, a little bit after .
He says again, Epstein says, quote, "This is going back to 2002, 2005.
Oh, this is bad. This is really bad." So, if you're Jeffrey Epstein
and you know that something going on is quote really bad, you're going to call the people that you trust the most to
help you, right? And one of those people is Kathy Rumbler.
I find it hard to believe from everything that I have heard and read about Jeffrey Epstein that he would be such a not present
over-the-top large figure like larger than-l life figure in your life. And listen, let's be very clear. The emails and the texts and all the documents in
between Kathy Rumler and Jeffrey Epstein corroborate what I am saying. He had an outsized presence in her life.
And so now she's saying no, no, no, purely professional. Nothing nothing personal. never represented him. No, no, no, no, no. Okay, look. Here's a little bit inside baseball as a lawyer.
You don't need some formal engagement agreement for somebody to be your lawyer, right?
You don't. And and and it's amazing to me because Kathy Rumler could be Jeffrey Epste's lawyer when it kind of helped
her financially, right? When it helped her be able to garner Bill Gates as a client, right? But she's quick to say, "No, no, no. The firm, Laam Watkins,
myself, no, no. Jeffrey Epstein himself was never a client." Okay, I got it. Fine. Let's just run with that, Kathy.
Even though I I don't necessarily agree with you. Fine. So, given the fact that he calls her Kathy Rumler, you would
think, "Yeah, that professional relationship sounds pretty close." Well, look, Kathy Rumler, just as a reminder,
keeps on saying, "In 2014, quote, I barely knew Jeffrey Epstein." As in,
this is 5 years earlier than when he gets arrested. And she's like, "Back then, I barely knew him." She had just
left the Obama White House in the summer of 2014 and she was going back to her White Glove White Shoe International
Cajillion dollar law firm, Laam and Watkins.
And then this is what we learn that she goes back to Laam and Watkins.
However, before she even started her new job at Laam,
she received a phone message from a man she had never met. He wanted to set her up with Bill Gates to oversee legal work for a new investment fund that would
provide grants to specified charities over time.
But before long, the three of them were eating together at the Four Seasons Hotel in Manhattan. The middleman was Jeffrey Epstein.
So, let's say generously fall of 2014, she gets introduced to Jeffrey Epstein, who introduces her to Bill Gates.
So, now she's like, "Shit, I hit it big.
White whale of a client in Bill Gates." Let's just say for argument's sake, she
still has no idea what's going on. Visav Jeffrey Epstein. Well, after that
meeting, what happens? Jeffrey Epstein says, quote, "I have a Google history, and if you have any questions about that, I'm happy to talk to you about
it." And that's when she looks into that 2008 Florida prosecution into Jeffrey Epstein, which I have just told you she
claims just seemed to be such a throwaway [ __ ] case.
Okay, so let's keep going. Remember, generously I said fall of 2014, she
doesn't know Jeffrey, but he's landed her this white whale of a client, Bill Gates, which is going to bring in potentially tens of millions, if not
more, in attorney's fees, of which she will get the benefit because she's the originating partner on that file. So, she'll get a whole lot of money for
that, right? Well, look at this. Friday, February 13th, 2015.
So, just a few months after her initial meeting with Jeffrey Epstein,
Jeffrey Epstein and Kathy are emailing because on February 12th,
Jeffrey reaches out to her. She says, "I'm on my way to David Axelrod's book party. I'll email you when I escape."
And the next day on February 13th at 7:28 in the morning, Kathy Rumler emails Jeffrey Epstein. Quote, "I told you that
this CVR case is about money." That was the Crime Victim's Rights Act. Remember, this is the series of lawsuits that were
brought pursuant to the CV by the victims that were never notified by the Southern District of Florida's US Attorney's Office. that a deal that
sweetheart plea deal had been reached where he wouldn't be federally prosecuted and that he would only have to plead to those [ __ ]
charges in state court. So, and and and let me underscore something. As a condition of that [ __ ] sweetheart
plea deal, Jeffrey Epste was supposed to pay restitution to the victims. So, at a minimum at a minimum, the CVR case was a
well-taken case. And somebody who's a former federal prosecutor like Kathy Rumler should know should know that a CVR case is a good case because when you
violate the Crime Victim's Rights Act, it means that the prosecutor's office has done wrong. And yet she tells
Jeffrey, I told you that this CV case is about money. Then she writes him again.
Does AD Allen Dersowitz know who at Boy is doing it? Boy Schiller is one of the preeminent law firms that has been
involved in representing several of the Epstein survivors. She says, "I'm so pissed off right now that I can't see straight." To which Jeffrey Epste
replies, "Ing as in Ingred, who is one of the lawyers at Boy Schiller, who has
been representing several of the Epstein survivors." Okay.
in Jeffrey says victim's rights woman to which Kathy Rumler on February 13, 2015
writes back quote victim's rights my ass end quote
well Kathy it doesn't sound to me like that's a very professionalon only
email that sounds like a very personal response sounds like a level of indignation by you
to the fact that there's a a lawyer that's out there working to represent the Epstein survivors. And no, it's not
about money. It's about justice. I would note the stupidity about this is Jeffrey Epstein got the name of the boy Schiller
lawyer wrong. It's not Ingred, it's Cigrid McCaulay who is one of the most spectacular lawyers ever and especially
when it comes to working on behalf of these Epstein survivors. So that's just a few months after Kathy
claims that she was introduced in her purely professional relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Okay, now let's fast
forward a little bit, okay? because this is incredibly important. Just a few months later from that February 13th,
2015 exchange with Jeffrey Epstein calling a Epstein survivors lawyer who Jeffrey Epstein said was a quote
victim's rights woman. What did Kathy say? Victim's rights my ass. What do I have here? A June 16th, 2015 email
exchange between Kathy and Jeffrey Epstein. Now, Kathy Rumler, I'm going to remind you, keeps on saying, "I just had
a professional relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. I wasn't really close to him at all. Horrified by what he did." She
fords to Jeffrey Epstein on June 15, 2015 an incredibly detailed,
heartfelt, and very private email that Kathy Rumler had received from the wife
from the wife of Reed Wine Garden. Okay.
Now, this email from Cheryl Gould tells Kathy Rumler, quote, "I certainly do
hope that this time you understand the finality of your quote relationship with my husband. I hope now you can find true
happiness without having a relationship with someone else's husband. I really hope you do." And it keeps on going on.
And it basically says that Reed Weingard admitted to his wife that he had been having a yearslong affair with Kathy Rumler.
And Kathy sends this email that he received from that she received from Reed Wine Garden's wife to Jeffrey. And
Jeffrey responds, "Call me again." And then Kathy responds via email. I have reread this 10 times. The fact that he
would permit this message to stand is dispositive.
Now look, when Kathy left the White House in 2014,
another person who helped create a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein between her and Epstein according to C
to according to the Wall Street Journal was Reed Wine Garden.
Okay. So, if there's a June 2015 email from Reed Wine Garden's wife to Kathy
Rumler alleging that they Reed and Kathy have been having an affair for years and that people knew about it, by the way, which is to add insult to injury.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Wine Garden and Rumbler had been in a yearslong romantic relationship. People familiar with the matter confirmed.
20 minutesOkay. So, I don't know about you, but my professional relationships, I'm not forwarding an email from the wife of a
man that I'm alleged to be having an affair to just a professional co contact or professional acquaintance, especially
one that I am counting on to bring me new work and clients into my fancy law firm so that I can make more money and a
bonus in in a relationship and generating partner status, meaning I'm the lawyer. in the law firm that's brought in the work. So, I get a huge
chunk of the billable fees that are collected off this client. You mean to tell me that if I have this armslength relationship with Jeffrey Epstein that I
want him to see the dirty [ __ ] that is going on in my personal life that I've been having a yearslong affair with a married man whose wife has now
emailed me and said that that affair
ready quote has caused damage to Reed to herself as in Kathy to me and to our
blank redact acted who has been fighting tears all weekend because of his mother's pain and because he sees the father figure he has admired his whole life as a weak man who has lied and cheated to his mother.
Yeah. Who does that? And yet it just goes to show that Kathy is not admitting
the full extent of her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and that it went back for freaking years.
And then, hey, guess who was on the criminal defense team for Jeffrey Epstein when he got arrested in 2019?
Reed Weine Garden. Stop people. It's just such an insult to the intelligence of people that we think that we can't
that you think that we can't figure this [ __ ] out, right? Stop.
I can keep going. Let's fast forward a couple of years and look, there's Kathy Rumler. Just the name Rumbler appears
22 minutes9,461 times in the current drop of the DOJ files. And by the way, you don't even have to look up Rumbler. Sometimes you
can look up Kathy and it comes. I mean, this is just a snapshot. Okay, folks. Here we go. Let's fast forward to 2017.
January 27th, 2017.
Jeffrey Epstein is communicating with a person whose identity is redacted, who apparently was in Chicago in
February of 2017 for his American Medical Association Foundation board meeting and on the agenda is a discussion about him
becoming their candidate for surgeon general. H all righty. So this person with whom Jeffrey Epstein is communicating, this is what Jeffrey
Epstein says. Bill as in Bill Gates met met my friend Kathy Rumler Obama counsel for five years. She would love to sit
with Melinda and give her the other side of Jeffrey as in Melinda French Gates.
Now listen people, we know about the Bill Gates relationship with Jeffrey Epste. Do we not? Bill Gates just testified or gave excuse me transcribed
interview to House Oversight just a week and some change ago stating that he was blackmailed by Jeffrey Epstein because of the affairs that Bill Gates was having.
So this person, this redacted person says, "Contry, couldn't hurt." To which Jeffrey Epstein, again, this is 2017.
Jeffrey Epstein tells this person, quote, "Hillary loves Kathy as does Obama. Kathy is an arch feminist who is
my great defender." To which this redacted person tells Jeffrey, "Not sure individuals can influence once impressions are made, but I will try. I
do not know for sure, but I do think he would be unwilling to bring it up with her. As in Bill would be unwilling to bring it up with Melinda. And you know what? Do you remember what Melinda French Gates said? It was one of the
reasons why she wanted to be able to split up from Bill Gates because of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Oh, so Kathy is great defender of Jeffrey
Epste. But Kathy keeps on wanting to say to Ankush Cadori here, "Oh, no. I had no idea. I knew nothing about Jeffrey
Epstein. I had no idea the extent of his criminality. I had no idea. No idea. Okay, let's keep going.
February of 2019, Jeffrey Epstein on the 22nd of February emails Brad Karp. Talk about him a lot here. Remember him? Paul
Weiss stepped the very first big law law firm to bend the knee to Donald Trump.
Jeffrey Epstein emails Brad Karp and Kathy Rumler February 22nd, 2019 talking about how Marty Weinberg was hoping that we could get a letter from the
Department of Justice stating that they will keep their promises regarding the nonprosecution agreement. Better than a deck judgment, but we should be prepared
to intervene. Stop. Jeffrey Epstein here is talking about the non-prosecution agreement that he benefited from from
the Southern District of Florida footnote that actually had four co-conspirators that were not to be prosecuted, including but not limited to, huh? Sarah Kellen and Leslie Grath.
Both of whom claimed they had no idea that their names were in the NPA. But I digress. But Marty Weinberg, again, one of the three that Jeffrey Epste called
when he was arrested in July of 2019 by the FBI. Marty Weinberg telling Jeffrey Epste, who wanted to make sure that Brad
Karp, why is Brad Karp getting involved in this? H because we knew that Brad Karp was also sending his emails and his going to these special events and
special parties, um, these unique events, right, with Jeffrey Epstein.
Marty saying, "A letter from the Department of Justice about the nonprostitution agreement. It's better than a declaratory judgment, meaning it's better than a court stating that
the nonprosecution agreement applies in this case of Jeffrey being investigated by the Southern District of New York.
So, of course, now Kathy Kathy who swears never had Jeffrey Epste as a client, but whatever. I gave him
informal advice. Yeah. Okay. Then March 2nd, 2019, just maybe a week and a half
later. Jeffrey Epstein emails on March 2nd, the following people. The
subject timesensitive, Ken Star, Marty Weinberg, Alan Dersowitz, Kathy Rumler,
and Darren Indk. And he says, "Now that the New York Times, the paper of record, has gotten so many facts and conclusions wrong, I thought a direct response to the editorial board was now appropriate.
thoughts on more than one member of the team. The team on the by line starting with the suggestion that five professional
criminal defense attorneys somehow colluded with Alex Aosta. Remember him?
The former US attorney for the Southern District of Florida who signed off on and got and got approval for that sweetheart plea deal is preposterous.
Later on, a Florida case of sex for money. This is Jeffrey Epste talking to his quote team that included Kathy Rumler. A Florida case of sex for money.
The ages of a minority of the women actually under 18 at the time. Oh, so Jeffrey admitted that Kathy, that case that you thought was so weak. Jeffrey's
telling you that a minority of the women are actually under 18 at the time.
Okay. Do you actually ask him about that? No. Kathy, what do you do? You respond by this. You say the following.
This is great. Highly recommend that we not let perfect be the enemy of the good. And get the submitted. ASAP while fresh and New York Times editorial board should feel pressure to publish.
And then there's this whole conspiring going on between Jeffrey Epstein's legal team about trying to get this push to the New
York Times op-ed board about who's going to sign off. Marty Weinberg thinks, "Hey, Ken Star says Alan Dersuit should
cosign with Jeffrey Epstein." Marty says, "Let's drop Allan in the middle of the signitories." Allan is in there
editorial, so his absence as a co-signatory is noticeable. Lily as in Lily Anne Sanchez. Now remember,
Lilianne Sanchez was a former federal prosecutor who worked at the Southern District of Florida and then jumped to
go beyond the Epstein criminal defense team when he was being prosecuted in the mid 2000s and helped negotiate his state
charges and that deal. A little bit tight timing, don't you think, Lily?
Good to have female. I think we pick a time for Roy as in Roy Black, the late criminal defense attorney who was on Jeffrey Epstein's criminal defense team,
Lily, and send to editors, then follow up to push for publication.
Okay, so this is March of 2019. Purely professional, right? Okay. March 7th,
five days later, Jeffrey Epstein is texting with Steve Bannon, who again, I do not understand why Steve Bannon has not had his ass hauled before House
oversight to answer questions about Jeffrey Epstein. But here we go. March 7th, 2019. Steve Bannon texts to Jeffrey Epstein a copy of a Daily Beast article
about Jeffrey Epstein and Alan Dersuitz and pals accused of sex trafficking ring. It's a picture of Jeffrey Epstein and Alan Dersowitz. To which Epstein
says, "More incoming, I guess." Hunker down. Wait until the wave stop.
Thoughts? And Coulter also went after me. Bannon says she's obsessed with you.
Epstein. She should get in line, but I'm not a Democrat. Bannon, how did she come after you? She can make you a household name and not on a positive way. And then
he sends Anne Coulter. Subject: media magic. How a Democrat pedophile became a Trump scandal. Oh, I'm sorry. That is
Jeffrey Epstein sending that to Steve Bannon. I'm on her team. That's why this is nuttier. Don't you have stroke with her? Saying this to Steve Bannon. Bannon says, "Not on this topic." Zero.
Epstein. Understood. Is there anything I can do except for perfecting the art of being a punching bag? Bannon, it's bad.
Never seen anything like it. I agree with you, Steve Bannon, about that.
30 minutesEpste says, "Billy Bush, at least Trump had some supporters fighting back." Rumbler proposal. Meaning, now this is
what Jeffrey Epste is sending on March 7th, 2019 to Steve Bannon. And this is the proposal from Kathy Rumler that she gave to Jeffrey Epstein about having to
fight back on all of the bad news and bad print that was coming out about Jeffrey Epstein. Quote, this is Kathy
Rumler. The criticism is wrong and reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of both the facts underlying Mr. Epste's case and how it was prosecuted by both
local and federal authorities. Far from receiving a sweetheart deal, Mr. Epstein was subjected to a lengthy, aggressive, and highly unusual federal investigation
for what were in essence local offenses of sexual solicitation. He accepted responsibility, served time in prison, and paid significant monetary settlements to the victims involved.
Bannon says, "This is awesome. What is it?" Epstein. This is what Kathy suggests we tell WAPO, as in the
Washington Post. This is to push back on what the Washington Post was reporting.
I mean, okay, Kathy, I I I'm I'm still speechless, right? I I
find it so hard to believe that you have no idea because you keep on telling Ankush Cardori and this ridiculous apo
lack of apology to the victims of Epstein, right? But like you sit there and and Kush, I'm also still still disappointed with you because this is a
ridiculous like fluff piece about Kathy Rumler blaming law culture as to and the fact that she's a woman in a legal field
which by the way I speak out all the [ __ ] time about and I still think it's terribly terribly skewed against women. It is so hard for them to become
equity partners and I totally agree. But guess what? Some of us go and start our own law firms and some of us bring a create our own clients so that we can be
picking and choosing who we want to represent so that we don't feel the pressure internally for being able from being forced to have to bring on clients that we don't want to represent.
Gosh, I wonder how hard that would have been leaving the Obama White House and having access to all of that money means
and influence. But no, you wanted you wanted to stay in Epstein's world. Why?
Oh well gosh. Let's keep going with the emails and the text messages.
Remember this is Kathy saying only professional relationship, nothing more.
April 16th, 2015. Kathy, we have a birthday gift to deliver to you. Are you back in New York? Morning Kathy. We're
ready to deliver your birthday gift from Jeffrey. Can you please let me know if we should bring to your apartment and leave at the doorman or do you prefer to your office? Thanks. Redacted. Kathy
writes back. I think my door man at the apartment is best. Thank you. Is there a reason why you didn't want to get it at the office? Well, according to this puff
piece by Ankush Cardori, Kathy Rumler says, "Oh, this is part for the course. Gifts from clients all the time." Okay.
Do we also say to our to our professional clients am totally tricked out by Uncle Jeffrey today, Jeffrey
boots, handbag, and watch to which client says yay. This is uh January 4th, 2019.
before then on June 22nd, 2018 when Jeffree sends forward the Daily Beast article, How Did Trump and Clinton uh
escape. Oh, I don't know. Something about me, Too. I'm not even going to bother clicking on the link. But then Kathy writes back, "Good lord, a nolla
of rehashed crap." Yeah, sounds like friends. But wait, there's more.
Gifts to Kathy from Jeffrey for her birthday. flowers, spa certificates, a 2018 Valentine's gift of hair and makeup
services, plus the $25 tip charged on his credit card, a wire payment of $53,750 to a private jet charter company.
34 minutesAccording to Kathy Rumler's spokeswoman, Kathy did not accept the private jet gift.
Epstein tried to give Kathy 1 million American Express rewards points. When that proved too difficult, his team instead sent $10,000 of Burgdoff Goodman
points. And in September 16th, Jeffrey Epstein sent a $9,350 Hermes handbag. And then in 2019,
January, she also ended up getting a Apple Watch with an Hermes band. And
that's when she wrote, "Oh, I'm all tricked out today by Uncle Jeffrey."
Sorry folks, I didn't write like that with my clients. And my clients weren't sending me to the spa, nor were they, you know, uh, sending private jets, um,
nor were they sending me Birkin bags, etc., etc.
I'm not saying that it isn't done. I'm just saying it just doesn't feel like this was par for the course of a simply
professional relationship. I could keep going, but I think you get the gist of this. And so I'm really really kind of
gonna underscore my disappointment that this New York Times thing was Kathy
Rumler's way of getting ready getting ready for her house oversight interview. And and here's one thing I
want to share with you before you and I left before you and I part ways. Are you ready? Kathy left Laam in 2020 and became the general counsel at Goldman
Sachs and she's now stepping down from that role, but she will remain as a quote advisor at the request of the chief executive at Goldman Sachs, a guy
named David Solomon. But as she leaves at the end of this month, at the end of June, she'll walk away with $25 million
for the work she did last year in 2025 in $80 million in stock options.
Listen to this. The New York Times recently reported that Goldman Sachs had at one point hired an online reputation management firm, Terraite, to promote
positive content about Ms. Rumler amid the stories about her dealings with Mr.
Epstein. I never had any contact with Terit. Now, this is Ankush Kadori saying, "I never had contact with Terra." It's so transparent.
Kathy Rumler reached out to Ankush Cardori. According to Ankush in this piece, he stated, "She contacted me in
March and asked if I would like to hear her side of the Epstein story." So, this is March. Now, we're in June, and now she's about to go to House Oversight. I
mean, this is such a transparent attempt by Kathy Rumler to whitewash her reputation because she knows that what's going to come out at House Oversight's going to be just as bad, if not worse.
and that this apologist piece just really kind of says,
you know what, I know it smells bad, but trust me, I didn't do it. I I I just I got problems with it.
Thanks for sticking through this with me. I know it was a little bit longer of content, but if you like this type of deep dive, which I feel like we don't
get otherwise in mainstream, just like, subscribe, share this, let people understand
that folks from Epstein's orbit are scrambling now. They know there's serious fallout from this. And this
piece blames the law firm culture for Kathy Rumler's bad judgment.
And I just don't even think that's fair to the bad law firm culture, which is exists. Let me be very clear. I'm not an apologist for the bad law firm culture.
But that doesn't explain the personal nature and the intimate nature of her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. It
just doesn't. So I call [ __ ] Kathy Rumler, you are welcome to have a conversation with me. I am happy to sit down and interview you, but I do think
you should be prepared because there is documentary evidence that suggests that you are not being forthcoming when you
spoke to Ankush Cardori for this New York Times piece. Be mad, be outraged, man accountability. I'm off to rattle some more cages. Katie Fang here. We
launched the Katy Fang news channel in partnership with the Midas Touch Network so we could bring you the latest in legal and political news. Straight, no
chaser. So, if you're a fellow trutht teller, hit that subscribe button and share the word about this channel so we
can build a highinformation America

[admin]

How Epstein Linked Up With the Maxwells (MOSSAD Family) (w/ Maureen Tkacik)
The Chris Hedges YouTube Channel
Jun 22, 2026



*******************

Epstein, the Russian Mob, & the Hidden Assets of the Maxwells (w/ Moe T.) | The Chris Hedges Report
The Chris Hedges YouTube Channel
Jun 4, 2026

Investigative journalist Maureen Tkacik uncovers Jeffrey Epstein’s role at the epicenter of the billionaire cabal’s global information and financial network by exploring the hidden assets of the New York Daily News, and the 1991 Larry Summers-spearheaded privatization scheme of Soviet Russia's state assets.

[admin]

Trump EXPOSED as Journalist FORCES Trump’s OWN Epstein Files RELEASED to the PUBLIC!!!
Legal AF
Jun 26, 2026

Katie Phang joins Popok to exclusively brief our audience on her trailblazing, historic successful suit against the Trump Administration and Todd Blanche, as a federal judge grants her injunction and orders that Blanche comply by "July 2nd" with the Epstein Act and release the Trump/sex assault victims files and all "foreign language" files to the public.

[admin]

Ritual Child Abuse Scandal Rocks Israel / Will Syrian Terrorists Invade Lebanon? w/ Vanessa Beeley
Reason2Resist with Dimitri Lascaris
Jul 17, 2026

Within the past year, Israeli media and politicians have been forced to address overwhelming evidence that ritual child sex abuse is rampant in Israel.

Independent journalist Vanessa Beeley, who is based in Beirut, has reported extensively on these appalling revelations. She joins Dimitri Lascaris for a discussion about the perpetrators of these crimes and the decades-long cover-up.

Vanessa also has extensive experience in Syria. In the second half of this report, she and Dimitri discuss Trump's request that Syria's dictator send his terrorist mercenaries into Lebanon to attack the Lebanese resistance.

LINKS:

Vanessa Beeley's May 31, 2026 article on ritual sexual abuse in Israel:
https://open.substack.com/pub/beeley/...

The May 2026 investigative report of Shomrim on ritual sexual abuse in Israel:
https://www.shomrim.news/eng/breaking...



Transcript

Good day. This is Demetri Lceris coming to you from Montreal, Canada for Reason to Resist on July 17th, 2026.
In recent months, Israel has been rocked by a massive ritual child sexual abuse
scandal. The scandal involves the ritual sexual abuse and torture of children as
young as three years. The victims were abused and tormented in many of these cases by members of their own family.
And up on the screen, uh, I'm showing you the headline from a an article published in May of this year, uh, by
the investigative news outlet Schomadim, the Center for Media and Democracy in Israel. Uh according to Inbball Brener
uh who was quoted in this article and he is the chairperson of the Israeli Society for Sexual Trauma Treatment and Prevention, the perpetrators of these
1 minuteheinous crimes, quote, in quite a few cases were high status community members. They either held respected
religious or spiritual authority like a rabbi or occupied other influential prominent positions. And elsewhere in
this article, another mental health expert in Israel is quoted as saying uh that at least one of the perpetrators was a judge and numerous of them were doctors. I repeat, medical doctors.
Now, if your only source of information about world events uh was the western corporate media, then almost certainly
you would know nothing about this scandal because the western corporate media predictably have avoided the scandal like the plague. one of the few
Western journalists or at least someone who originally hails from the west who has covered uh this astonishing scandal
uh is joining us here today and she's none other than uh a wonderful independent journalist Vanessa Bey uh
who is coming to us today from Beirut, Lebanon. Uh Vanessa, I've long been an admire of your work. I know many people in our audience have as well. If I'm not
mistaken, this is the first time we've had you on this program or were you on once before?
No, I think it is the first time. I know that we were on together on um our dear friend uh Betbe with Kerim, but no, it's
the first time I've been on. So, thank you.
Sadly, I'm I'm coming on for a very uh dark and sinister um topic.
Indeed. And uh it is not I want to alert our audience the only topic we're going to cover today. Van Vanessa has also a
wealth of knowledge about Syria. I'm going to ask her in the second half of this interview about some important recent developments in Syria, particularly as it pertains to uh the
war of aggression on Iran. But first, let's turn to this uh uh really uh sorted story. And uh I want to caution
people in advance that you may hear things that will be very disturbing. But we think it's important uh that uh the
breadth and uh horror of this scandal be uh exposed particularly to Western audiences who know so little about it.
So uh before we begin, I just want to remind people Vanessa, if they find this video to be informative, please like and share it. And if you're not already a subscriber to Reason to Resist, we warmly encourage you to become one.
Please help us to expand the reach of our on the ground unapologetic resistance journalism.
So, um, uh, because you might find it difficult to believe what we're about to hear, uh, I am going to include in the
description to this video, uh, a link to that chamom investigative report. Uh, and in addition, I'm going to provide a
link to an article that Vanessa authored and it's available on her Substack uh, in May of this year. We're going to talk
a little bit about that article uh at in a few m moments time, but you can if if you want to see that this isn't simply,
as many people who are favorably disposed towards Israel might want you to believe, conspiracy theory, uh it is
coming from uh Israeli authorities and the corporate media in Israel after many years of suppression. And you can we're
going to help you to verify that for yourself if you so wish. Now uh with that, Vanessa, let's begin. First, could
you please talk to us about uh the nature of the ritual abuse and uh the people who typically were involved uh in
committing these crimes against very young children.
Yeah. Well, first of all, um just a few statistics and I know statistics are always a little bit shaky. People can
always find a counter to um whatever statistics we put out publicly, but I have looked into them and I think I'm
pretty safe in saying that the incident of sexual abuse against underage minors
in Israel is around 20% for boys and girls. Now the percentage
of abuse across a much wider range so including domestic violence um and the
sexual abuse and uh other forms of psychological abuse is 52%
which is pretty uh huge and I also looked just as a a comparison at the UK
which of course is a much bigger population um there it's around 5% % of sexual
known sexual abuse against minors. But what people really need to to grasp in
this while it that is a relatively high percentage of Israeli minors, in other
words, children that are sexually abused, not only through the ultra orthodox communities, which is what
we're largely talking about in these Knesset uh inquiries that have literally only just surfaced, although these
crimes have been going on for apparently decades.
But only 5% of those crimes are reported and a tiny
tiny percentage are actually followed through. So what this means is that all
elements of society in Israel are responsible for covering it up and that includes the police. And this is this is
actually recorded in a a prior investigation done by another Israeli media outlet, Israel Hyom. And I've
written about that investigation where they said the police were actually responsible for not following up on
these uh cases of ritual abuse and that is what it comes down to. So 63%
of these crimes are committed by the heredi the ultraorththodox communities
and remember that that they also span the United States. There have also been multiple cases uh in Brooklyn and New
York which is the second largest population of ultra ultraorththodox herd
Jews uh after Israel. So 63% of that 20%
are crimes committed by this community, 5% reported and what they include and
and this is where it kind of gets horrifying.
So the hered community is known for uh basically growing exponentially. Most
families have around six children and by in the next 30 years they're
expected to uh make up around 40% of the Jewish is Israeli population. So that
just gives you an indication of how big this sector of Israeli Jews actually is
within Israel itself. Right. Now, what we're talking here is, as you mentioned,
is ritual abuse, ceremonial abuse of children as young as three, as you said.
And it can be conducted by doctors, by rabbis, by family members. I mean, you had the case of uh sorry, I need to
check her name because I always forget it. Shashana Strick, who was the daughter of Orurit Strok, the the
far-right uh um national missions minister, who mysteriously died, of
course, in March of this year, having um basically released information about her own childhood abuse and the fact that
her father was even involved in in sex trafficking her herself.
many of these um testimonies which are horrifying, they're very disturbing. I mean, you are talking mass
rape. You're talking teenage boys who go through the ceremony of raping a female
9 minuteschild as a passage as as a right of passage into adulthood. Within these communities, children are threatened
that if they don't submit to whatever abuse they they are intended to be u um
exploited with, then other members of their family will be taken in their place. So there's a huge degree of kind
of blackmail, gaslighting, psychological pressure on these children to take part in these ceremonies which can sometimes
include up to 15, 20 men, many of them members of the family. Many and and the
ceremony itself is usually led by a rabbi. The men can often be dressed in these ceremonial um robes. There are
cases of uh the use of pentagrams, red pentagrams, and I actually looked into that. That isn't a Judeaic symbol.
That's normally considered a symbol of occultism or Satanism.
Now, there there's a plenty of evidence, I understand, that these children were tortured, not just raped, uh but for example, the strangulation, starvation.
Could you talk to us about that? What do we know about the forms of torture that were applied to these children and how frequent that was?
Yeah, I mean it was very frequent in a in in a sense it was a way of softening of psychologically
humiliating and and putting the child in a state of mind where they would accept
these ritual abuses. Um, for example, in the Israel Hyam uh report, there was a
case where a child was consistently uh held underwater and she was then told, "See, you've been brought back to life
when when they released her from being held underwater and the bringing back to life means that you should submit to
what abuse we are going to to carry out against you." um
really the the the cases of physical abuse also against children. There was another article in
Herets's um a few years ago talking about in the heredi schools where teachers would regularly torture and
abuse children even in the class not necessarily sexually abuse them but they would be beaten they would be um
psychologically tortured humiliated in front of their classmates and so on. But the level many of the children that went
through sexual abuse in these ceremonies were drugged were given um drugs. And I
think the greatest abuse Ditri is the fear of speaking out. If we think that only 5% of of these cases have come to
light, that for me is abuse in itself because that means there are uh 95% of
of other cases that are simply not being exposed where the perpetrators are continuing to abuse children. And going
back to I think it was 2020, there was an article in Jerusalem Post. Again, this is all in Israeli media. This isn't
some kind of conspiracy theory that that Dimmitri and I are making up. Um, back in 2020, Jerusalem Post uh reported on
something like uh a 100 thousand or tens of thousands of pedophiles were
operating inside Israel. In Harets 2022,
a 100 rabbis, teachers, all known for their pedophile crimes had been given refuge in Israel. And that's a really
important point. Israel is effectively a haven for pedophiles. So if there are known cases again that I've documented
13 minuteswhere um child abusers for example in the United States have converted to Judaism and then been given refuge in Israel.
And this isn't only um something which is happening inside the Heredi communities. It's something that is also
happening outside. Even more recently since October the 7th, the refugees, the the the colonialist refugees from uh the
north of the occupied territories who came to refugee hotels uh in areas of the occupied territories themselves
faced sexual abuse and potential trafficking of minors and so on. So it's it's a societal
um rot within Israel which again then it's it's perpetrated against Palestinians on a far more regular basis
of course and that's what I wanted to raise next. This is the headline of your excellent article from May 31st of this
year. Ritual child abuse and rape is a societal norm in Israel according to latest investigation by Zionist media outlet. And you begin this article
talking about an absolutely mind-bogglingly sadistic crime committed by Israeli soldiers. I believe it was
against a Palestinian child and his father. Can you talk to us about that particular incident and the connection
between this ritual abuse network that exists in Israel and the treatment of Palestinian children?
Well, I mean, I think people are fully aware of the extent of rape of Palestinian prisoners now, particularly
in state tan, but I mean, it's endemic across all of the Israeli prisons and
detention centers. This was a case in Gaza where the father had basically left
his house and was trying to find food and water for the family and he was stopped at a checkpoint. He'd taken his
baby boy with him. He was stopped at a checkpoint and he himself was stripped
down to his underwear, which of course we've seen multiple times. Um the Zionist forces forced Palestinians to
strip and and then line them up naked next to each other. Um, and in order to
make him basically confess that he was a part of Hamas or that he had conducted any kind of military operation against
the Zionists occupying Gaza. They um put out cigarettes on his child in front of
him and they also drove a nail uh into the child's body in front of him.
Wow.
And presumably uh Vanessa, there were no uh condemnations from Western governments you're aware of of this uh demonic crime.
No, I mean you know historically Demetri what do they always even the UN I mean what is the result is Israel is going to investigate its own crimes.
This this is almost always the result we we end up with and and even the fact what I find very disturbing is that now
expose of these crimes is reaching the Knesset right but what does that actually mean to me that means that it has reached a
saturation level where they can no longer ignore it they can no longer pretend it's not happening
so for how many years has this been ongoing for how How many years have children been abused in this way? And
I'm certainly not going to let um Zionists off the hook in any way, shape, or form, but the abused very often
become abusers. And if these children are growing up in an environment where abuse of minors is prevalent,
then we see it even in the IF. I mean, it's not psychologically correct or normal for soldiers to start putting on
women's underwear or or or to start abusing children's toys in the way that they do or even the abuse that was
conducted against um the the global Sumud flotilla participants for example
which was across the board sexual abuse, harassment, humiliation.
Yeah. Now, in your article of May 31st, you also talked about an important admission that was made uh by uh a
council in the in Israel's religious Zionist settler sector. This was the Gush Etsion regional council in the
Israeli occupied West Bank. Uh could you tell us a little bit about what they fest up to? And are you aware of any others?
Remind me. Sorry, my I've I've gone blank. I've written so much about it all. just remind me what they did first
up to. [laughter] I'll share it with our audience and you can chime in if you have any uh information you want to offer by way of elaboration. So according to your
article uh the Gush Etsion regional council and this was reported I believe by Israel Hayam
uh or perhaps it was the Ken news network publicly admitted that ritualistic sexual abuse of children occurred within its communities and it
was a confession that marks the first time a governing body in Israel's religious scientist settler sector broke ranks with years of denial. Yes, it was
the con 11. Uh, right. So, does that uh ring a bell?
Yeah, it does. I mean, you know, all of these um basically since about 2025, it's been coming to the surface and
there have of course also been cases in [clears throat] Brooklyn.
um but that are also very much under reportported um by western media even though it's
it's in New York itself and of course the response from um Israelis is always
this is blood liel you know or anti-semitism this is you're not allowed to talk about it in in the west basically
um and the fact that there is an admission I don't know I I As I've said, I just
find it sort of creepy that there's suddenly an emission now when this has clearly been ongoing for decades. And if
you look at how um the Heredi community itself operates, it's a very closed community, very similar to a cult. It
has its own uh education facilities where boys and girls are segregated, by the way. and and that is one of their um
objections to joining the IOF is that most of the brigades are not segregated.
20 minutesSo there is apparently a special heredi brigade. Um I think there's about 1,800 heredi fighting for the but of course
there are protests against um conscription of the heredi and and the hassidi which is a a subsect of the
heredi ultra as they're known the al ultraorththodox Jews. Um so the very
fact that it's such a closed community uh is what has protected it from
scrutiny basically both in Israel and externally uh in New York. And I think
that's the scary part for me is is that we just don't know to what extent. Mhm. It is absolutely endemic and systemic.
And and when you look at what is happening as regards sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners, both men and women and children, I mean across the
board, right? and and total sexual degradation, humiliation, um
internal damage to these people that are that are raped in all manner of ways, including with dogs. And people look at
me as if I'm insane when I talk about that. But, you know, the Americans have used such measures also, particularly in
Iraq, against um prisoners there. It isn't actually a new thing.
Mhm. and and the fact that these prisoners are really reduced down to in their
minds the lowest form of life where any kind of punishment or humiliation or sexual abuse can be conducted against
them. It does make you wonder where this comes from.
But I just want to be clear, I mean, and please correct me if I'm wrong about this. My understanding is that although these practices may be present, these
ritual sexual abuse practices to a disproportionate degree in the Haded community, this is not by no means confined in Israel to the head community
that there's a broad range of uh perpetrators coming from across uh Israeli society apparently. Absolutely. Yeah.
you know, covering the story, Vanessa, obviously would be very difficult for any person of conscience like yourself, and I really appreciate that you've you've done that and helped uh to
enlighten us about uh these horrific acts. I want to turn now to the question of Syria. Uh I know you've spent a lot
of time there. You have u many connections uh inside Syrian society, I assume. Uh and so you're able to provide
us some insights. A few of us have. Uh, and I want to talk to you in particular about uh something that Donald Trump
said last uh month about uh, you know, Al Galani, the Syrian dictator, coming
to the rescue of Israel in Lebanon. Uh, here is what uh, the Donald had to say.
Israel's fighting asma too long and too many people are being killed. And you don't have to knock down an apartment house every time you're looking for
somebody because there are a lot of people in those apartment houses and they're not all Hezbollah that I can tell you. And I suggested to Israel to
let Syria take care of Hezbollah because to be honest with you, I think they do a better job of doing it. Israel's fighting Hezbollah too long.
Now uh that uh little clip is remarkable on a variety of fronts and I you know I I I invite you to comment on any aspect
of it that you think is notable. But the part that I want to focus on is the invitation to Al Galani to send his terrorist uh mercenaries into Lebanon.
Now, after this uh little uh doozy from Donald Trump, Al Galani did tell the
media uh that his country uh was not interested in intervening in Lebanon. Uh
and there has been some more recent developments. I think Al Galani was uh seated beside Trump in a recent press conference where Trump was again making
noises about Syrian mercenaries terrorists intervening in Lebanon. And in that instance, it didn't seem as I
recall that Al Galani really put up any kind of express any kind of objection to that idea. So the bottom line, what is it here Vanessa based on the information
available to you? What do you think the intentions of Al Galani are?
Yeah, I mean um I I I have actually written two articles about this and I'm about to write a third one as as a kind
of catch up because of course um the operational tactics are changing depending on the situation on the
ground. But Trump also after the NATO summit he made a very clear response to a journalist that asked him if Gelani
had committed to anything and according to Trump yes he did. Um now I'd written um a couple of articles prior to the
NATO summit where I was talking about the fact that again there are Ukrainian forces on the ground inside Syria. Um
and they had previously in 2023 been on the ground in Edib helping uh Golani
prepare for the operations of November December 2024 when Syria finally fell
after 14 years of um resisting and um so the Ukrainians back then were
providing drone technology and surveillance and and radar and so on and also training for Galani's militias in
return for for some of the militias to go and fight with uh Ukraine against Russia. Now, according to intelligence
that I've received from uh my very good sources, Ukrainians are back on the ground uh particularly in the coastal
area to the north of uh the border, the the northern border with Lebanon. Mhm.
Uh Golani has built up a strike force of around 70,000 which include um factions that come under the influence of Turkey.
So that's also why in my opinion uh Trump has released the F-35s to Turkey.
uh the Israeli ambassador to the US uh Michael Lighter I think his name is was basically backing off on the kind of
Israeli uh condemnation of supplying F-35s to Turkey and kind of saying well you know if the Americans need to do
this for strategic reasons then we'll accept it. uh and he also buted up Erdogan in the sense of of kind of
27 minutesbigging him up as being his partner in in in basically bringing Galani to power in Syria. There was a lot of sweet
talking of Erdogan at the NATO summit from Trump and I think this is partly to ensure that Turkish proxies
are prepared to take part in whatever operation Galani has agreed to, but also perhaps to um give the green light for
Turkeykey's influence in the north of Lebanon, which has always been part of
uh the Turkish Marvi Vatan doctrine, which is to control the maritime corridors of the eastern Mediterranean,
the Aian Sea, and the Black Sea. Um, and so Turkey has has been, according to my
sources, they've been holding off waiting for these assurances from Trump, which I believe they received at the
NATO summit. At the same time, of course, the the terrorist uh designation or for for Syria was removed. A number
of other sanctions were removed which I think was the sweetener, the political sweetener for Galani and uh his
so-called um HTS government which of course is nothing more than a rebranded alqaaida. Mhm.
Um at the same time um we are seeing in the last few days I
I'll just mention the memorandum of understanding also between elements within the Lebanese government that are
aligned with Washington and Tel Aviv who have uh tried to sideline the Iranian
pressure on Israel to withdraw from pretty much all the region where they are unlawfully occupying territory in
Lebanon, in Syria, of course, in Palestine.
Um, with thisou, uh, there's a very important section where basically they are talking about
29 minutesthe state having control of the defense of Lebanon and any other non-state actor
that is defending the country is doing so, I'm I'm paraphrasing, is doing so without the express permission of the
state. So therefore they become unlawful. Now Galani is making statements to to the extent where he's
saying we're not going to intervene but I will defend the territorial integrity of Lebanon and the state institutions of
Lebanon. So see where I'm going with this. So that they're framing it in theou as Hezbollah being outside the
state being a proxy of Iran and Galani's rhetoric is very much I will protect the
state institutions in Lebanon. So what does that mean? According to the language of theou, he can intervene to
defend the Lebanese state against Hezbollah. Right? So that that's how they're framing it. So it's it's not an
it's not an invasion as such. Um now on on the other hand what Israel
wants to achieve out of this is that much of the Hezbollah weapons
manufacturing storage missile storage etc is in the mountainous area deep underground. I think you've been to the
Becka region um as have I. And that entire range of mountains on the eastern
border between Lebanon and Syria is where Hezbollah basically stores the majority of its weapons and where they
also manufacture weapons. So Israel, just as they did in Syria, they need people on the ground to secure these
areas so they can destroy them because they can't really destroy them from the air because they're so deep underground.
And they had the same problem in Syria prior to Galani being brought to power by the entire Zionist uh Persian Gulf
state um alliance. Um and so we don't yet have a clear picture of what is
going to happen, but in the last couple of days there's been a ramping up of rhetoric. both Iran and Iraq, the resistance in Iraq, have threatened um
to intervene should Galani lead any kind of military attack against Lebanon or against the resistance in Lebanon.
Yesterday, Iran bombed Alan, which was formerly the American uh base in Syria on the border with Jordan and Syria.
Um, Galani has been desperately having talks with um the government in Iraq to try
and increase border security with Iraq because he knows if if he takes a step towards Lebanon, then he's going to be
attacked from the rear by the uh Iraqi resistance. But there's also around 70,000 Syrian Arab Army soldiers who
left the country in December 2024 and who are now in Iraq. There's around 30,000 also here in Lebanon.
Um I was talking to uh a former uh Syrian military commander the day before yesterday.
[snorts] His theory is Galani will try and and enter northern Lebanon where he has some sympathy among some of the
Sunni communities there. So they will effectively open the door to him which they've already been doing in Tripoli um
and in Tarablas in the north right on the border with Syria.
Um and from there they'll they'll advance from the north and they'll try to cut roads off so connecting the north
with the central areas and the south. Um and and that is a more likely I can't
personally see him leading a direct military attack. I think that is going to be suicidal for him from from both
ends from the Iranian Iraqi side and also from the Hezbollah Syrian Arab army side
here in Lebanon. Although he has been moving positions forward in the Homs area.
What's your best e estimate uh Vanessa of the number of men under arms in this terrorist uh entity?
According to sources around 70,000. So it's not a it's not a small uh force.
It's a strike force and and they've established um radar and surveillance systems along the border also including
of course the British watchtowers which were installed about 3 years ago that I reported on that are not for um gathering information on ISIS.
[laughter] They're effectively for spying on the resistance inside um Lebanon. And also Turkey supplied um air
defense radar HTRS100 that's been reported in Israeli media to Damascus civilian airport which has the
capability to surveil pretty much all of Lebanon. So they also have other equipment. Turkish military is also now
entering that there were uh warships that arrived at the Latakia naval base I
think two days ago and there are Turkish military putting up Turkish flags um in
the Latakia mountain area also in the last and what's your best estimate of the
number of uh combat capable fighters who remain in the resistance in Lebanon do you have any sense of that figure.
Um there's a lot of figures kind of floating around. Um you probably know those as well that overall there's about a 100,000.
But um what I've also been hearing is that there are numerous um supporters of the resistance coming
in from regional countries who are being told to stand down at the moment because they're not needed. So that's
reinforcement. You also have, as I said, the former Syrian Arab army who, as far as I know, are located uh the majority
of them in the Beckar area, so on that eastern border. And so there is potential for them also to be mobilized
to deal with any threat from Galani. Um yesterday also, it's kind of the start of the narrative
building. Um, Galani accused Hezbollah of operating inside Syria and he also made a big deal of stopping uh, weapons
that were allegedly being sent to Hezbollah. Now, why I'm smiling at this is because weapons have been coming in
36 minutesthrough Syria. Why? Because not because Galani is some kind of, you know, um, white hat in all of this, but because
Syria is is controlled by mercenaries now. It's controlled by by takiri mercenaries who will do anything for
money. And so therefore, the resistance in Lebanon has been benefiting from that to still bring weapons in through
[clears throat] Syria, through the borders because they're just paying to smuggle them in. It's it's nothing new, but the fact that this narrative was
being blown out of all proportion yesterday means that they're starting to build a narrative and a pretext for some kind of operation against Hezbollah.
Yeah. So, as you mentioned, and I put this up on the screen as you were speaking, this is a report from Geopolitics Prime, which itself is a summary of a press TV report.
Yeah. that the operation Nasser uh this is one of the operations currently being carried out by the Iranian military
against US forces in the region. Uh they sent an 11th wave, took out radar systems and multiple special ops helicopters inflicting heavy casualties
they say on US forces uh in this uh area Alan which is uh near the border with Iraq in Syria. And my
understanding is that this is the first time that Iran has struck Syrian territory uh since the Ramadan war began
on February 28th. Is that at least publicly acknowledged that it struck Syrian territory? Is that your understanding as well, Vanessa?
Yeah, I don't think actually they I'm trying to think. I don't think they've ever struck Well, they've certainly not
struck Syrian territory since uh Golani was brought to power that I'm aware of.
There there have been reports of um attacks from inside Iraq at various
points um but not from Iran. This is the first time that we've seen a direct attack. The Alanf base I mean what is
kind of interesting is that the US under Trump um actually reported that they had
withdrawn from all Syrian bases. My understanding again is that they have
been building up uh again in Damascus countryside in the central Syria area around Palmira
to the east of Homs and it appears that they're building up again in Alanf because Alanf kind of straddles Jordan
and Syria. So that's another point. I don't know if they hit the the Syrian part of Alanf or they hit the Jordan
part of Alanf. That's not 100% clear, but the fact that that they have targeted that entire area which still
seems to retain um radar systems is very interesting. And they've been hitting Jordan quite hard as well.
The Press TV report does appear to say it was Syrian territory. Whether whether that's accurate or not, we can't be sure. But in any case, it seems to me,
Vanessa, that this attack uh served a double purpose. The one was to retaliate for the ongoing aggression
against the the Iran and quite possibly to send a message to Al Jolani that uh that the Iranians are fully prepared if
he should uh you know engage in an aggression against the Lebanese resistance to target his forces in Syria. Uh so uh if I were him uh and
thank God I'm not uh I would be very concerned about what this uh this uh attack on Alanf is intended to communicate. And even if even if you
just put this aside the the the sort of overall landscape that you've drawn for us very capably. This sounds to me like a perilous situation for Al Galani.
70,000 men uh and he doesn't really have a firm grip uh on all Syrian territory. Uh
these people as you mentioned are mercenaries. Uh so how deep is their loyalty to uh this criminal in Damascus
really at the end of the day? Uh you know Yeah. So so they they could end up having if you'll excuse my French their
asses handed to them by resistance forces both in Iraq and Lebanon. and maybe even some uh elements of the
Syrian population would take the opportunity to uh uh engage in armed resistance against Al Galani's mercenaries. In any case, uh thank you
very much for that description. This is obviously something we need to follow very carefully. Uh and uh if in fact uh
the Algelani uh mercenaries move on Lebanon, I I think we're going to see the region go up in flames even to a greater degree than we have until now.
One one other thing I just also wanted to point out here uh Vanessa is you were talking about the framework agreement between Lebanon and the Israeli
government. This provision caught my eye. It was article 4 and I talked about it when they first published this thing. It says last sentence, the government of Lebanon
herewith requests the support of international and particularly Arab partners under the leadership of the United States to achieve the outcome of
exactly, you know, disarming uh resistance groups and achieving a monopoly over the use of force in Lebanon. So that that to me was
a not so subtle call to people like Al Galani to come to the aid of these uh Oh yeah. And and I mean you've seen
visits by NAF Salam, you've seen Assad al- Shibani, the foreign minister who was also one of the founders of al-Qaeda
in Syria to uh the north in particular um where of course he was greeted um you
know uprooriously by the takuri elements that are in the north of Lebanon. So yeah, I I mean this is a collusion
between uh President Al Noaf Salam the the prime minister and Golani and Trump and Israel of course. Yeah. And Saudi Arabia also.
Right. Well, thank you very much Vanessa. It's been a pleasure talking to you today and I hope you'll come back on our program soon so we can continue the conversation.
Sure. I'd love to. Thanks Dmitri and welcome back.
Thank you very much. We're signing off today, July 17th, for Montreal and Beirut.