“One Man Intelligence Operation”: How Epstein Grew & Maintained His Power

Written By Guest User

Plus: Trump Deletes Racist Post Portraying Obamas As Apes After Sparking Outrage, Now Blames Staffer

Good afternoon,

Before we get to the news, here’s a taste of what we’re up to this weekend in our weekly Cheers To The Freakin’ Weekend section:

What We’re Watching:

What We’re Reading:

What We’re Eating:

Mo News Team

🚨 ONE IMPORTANT THING

Trump Pulls Racist Video Portraying Obamas As Apes After 12+ Hours On Truth Social

After being widely condemned by leaders from both parties for posting a racist social media video portraying former President Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes, President Trump deleted the video Friday afternoon — more than 12 hours after it was first posted.

  • The video pushes a conspiracy theory about voting machines during the 2020 election, and ends with a two-second clip of the Obamas' faces on the bodies of apes.

    • BIGGER PICTURE: The post relies on a centuries-old racist trope depicting Black people as monkeys or apes. Depictions of Black people as apes were used to justify slavery, lynching, and the creation of Jim Crow laws.

The White House initially called criticism of the post “fake outrage” and criticized the media for asking about it, but later on Friday pivoted to blaming a staffer for posting the video. (The Trump press office reflexively defends the president, regardless of the controversy).

The original statement from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt: “This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King. Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”

WHAT WE KNOW
The Obama clip comes from a video, originally created by a MAGA meme account, that depicted prominent Democrats as animals and Trump as a lion. The animals then bow to Trump. Trump has leaned into re-sharing AI memes from conservative content creators since retaking the White House.

  • REACTIONS: Democrats and a number of Trump supporters condemned the post as racist and called on Trump to delete it and apologize.

  • REWIND: It’s not the first time Trump has been accused of racism against people of color. He was the driving force behind the Obama “birther” movement, falsely claiming Obama was born in Kenya. In 2018, he called several nations with majority non-White populations “shithole countries.” During the 2024 campaign, he said undocumented migrants were “poisoning the blood of our country.”

  • DIGGING DEEPER: If it’s true that a staffer has access to Trump’s social media and can post throughout the middle of the night, that raises serious alarms. His account is where he announces major policy decisions, and those posts can have immediate, real-world consequences for geopolitics and financial markets.

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🚨 ONE THING WE DUG DEEPER INTO

Inside The Epstein Files: Journalist Vicky Ward On The Money, The Abuse, & The Men Involved

Investigative journalist Vicky Ward visited Jeffrey Epstein’s home in the early 2000s — and she says the red flags were impossible to miss. On a special edition of Mo News’ premium Ask Mo Anything podcast, Ward tells Mosheh that’s why men named in the Epstein files cannot plausibly deny knowing Epstein was engaging in misconduct.

  • Ward (Vicky Ward Investigates on Substack) says the latest emails and documents, released by the Department of Justice under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, provide further proof: “All these men who said, ‘Oh, yeah, you know, I really hardly knew him.’ Well, the proof is there for us to see. They absolutely did know him.”

  • REWIND: Ward first covered Jeffrey Epstein in 2002, before there were any allegations against him regarding child abuse or sex trafficking. Her assignment for Vanity Fair at the time was to dig into how he made his money. But she ended up uncovering his abuse of two underage girls — and got a first-hand look at how he lied, manipulated, and threatened those who aimed to expose him.

    • Editors blocked Ward from including reporting of the abuse in the first article (we discuss that in the podcast). The details were later exposed when Epstein pled guilty to child prostitution in Florida in 2008 and was charged with sex trafficking in 2019.

Ward sat down with Mosheh on Thursday for a wide-ranging conversation about all things Epstein — including what’s missing from the latest DOJ documents, whether President Trump is hiding anything, and why it’s unlikely Epstein was working for the CIA or Mossad (as theories have suggested).

WHAT’S IN THE DOCUMENTS
Millions of documents released by the DOJ in recent weeks reveal Epstein at the center of two vast networks: one where he was engaging in and coordinating sexual abuse of minors, and another where he connected rich power brokers.

  • Ward says Epstein approached both in the same way: “Jeffrey Epstein was a brilliant manipulator, not only of young, teenage, vulnerable girls. He was actually a brilliant manipulator of the uber elite.” Sometimes, she says, there was crossover between the two networks.

  • On Trump: President Trump’s name appears in at least 4,500 documents, including references to a 2016 “Jane Doe” rape allegation involving an accuser who said she was 13 at the time. The case was voluntarily dismissed the same year, and Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing tied to Epstein.

    • But Ward, who covered Trump in New York before he became president, says she believes his frustration — and often anger — toward reporters asking about Epstein stems more from his inability to control the narrative than from culpability in any crime: “It’s that Trump just can’t get a lid on this. And Trump is used to being in charge of the narrative.”

WHAT’S STILL MISSING
Ward points out that most of the documents are from after the year 2000, which leaves out the prior decades when Epstein accumulated much of his wealth. “Without the money, there would have been no sex crimes,” Vicky says. “When Jeffrey Epstein had no money in the 1970s and 1980s, there's no evidence at all that he indulged in this sort of predatory behavior.”

  • Vicky calls attention to the minimal mentions of Ohio billionaire Les Wexner — former CEO of Victoria’s Secret and other brands — who is widely known to have given Epstein massive credibility and access to wealth by hiring Epstein as his money manager.

    • Wexner is set to testify before Congress about his relationship with Epstein on Feb. 18, after the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform subpoenaed him. He is expected to fully cooperate — unlike Epstein’s convicted conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, who will be deposed Monday.

  • Epstein the spy? Mosheh and Ward also address the various theories that Epstein may have been working for the CIA, Mossad (Israel’s intelligence agency), or Russia’s intelligence service. She calls it highly unlikely, considering he was essentially running his own intelligence agency within his network of connections. “He’s a one man intelligence operation with the ability to blackmail some of the most powerful people on earth,” Mosheh concludes.

🎧 Our full episode on the Epstein files with Vicky Ward is available now on the Mo News Premium podcast feed. Not a premium member? Join today to listen!

⏳ THE SPEED READ

🚨NATION

  • Neighbor spotted mysterious white van before Savannah Guthrie’s mother vanished from home (FOX)

  • Trump unveils TrumpRx website he says will help Americans buy lower-priced prescription drugs (ABC)

  • 3 killed, 6 injured after elderly driver crashes into Westwood grocery store in Los Angeles (KTLA)

🌎 AROUND THE WORLD

  • Iran refuses to end nuclear enrichment in talks with U.S. (WSJ)

  • U.S. and Russia agree to reestablish military dialogue after Ukraine talks (AP)

  • Top Russian general shot in Moscow; Kremlin blames Ukraine (CNN)

  • Famine spreads to more towns in Sudan’s Darfur region, hunger experts warn as war rages on (NBC NEWS)

  • Trump endorses Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in Sunday’s general election (JAPAN TIMES)

📱BUSINESS, SCIENCE & TECH

  • Uber found liable for sexual assault in first of thousands of similar lawsuits (THE VERGE)

  • ​​TikTok could be forced to change app’s ‘addictive design’ by European Commission (GUARDIAN)

  • Companies can now claim ‘no artificial colors’ if they add plant-based color to food (AP)

  • Scientists threw a tea party for apes and discovered they can use their imagination and play pretend (EURO NEWS)

🎬 SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT

  • Previews show this year’s Super Bowl commercials are playing it safe (NPR)

    • Altman lashes out at ‘clearly dishonest’ Anthropic Super Bowl ads (CNBC)

    • White House: Trump prefers not to watch Bad Bunny at Super Bowl halftime show (FOX)

  • Actor Timothy Busfield indicted on four counts of sexual contact with a child (AP)

  • Proposed California bill targets bots, limits profits on ticket resales (ABC)

  • Empress’s crown dropped by thieves in Louvre heist to be fully restored (FRANCE 24)

ICYMI FROM THE 📲

In case you missed it… Officials at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan–Cortina are investigating claims that some male ski jumpers may be injecting their penises with hyaluronic acid to gain a competitive edge. 👀⛷️

  • The allegations suggest the injections can artificially inflate body measurements taken during mandatory 3D scans. A larger scan gets skiers larger jumping suits, which gives them an aerodynamic advantage.

But don’t get cocky. The hyaluronic acid only provides temporary bodily enhancements, and can even cause infections, so any doping athletes are in for an interesting après ski…

Guest User
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