Good morning, everyone. Today marks the beginning of the most consequential week yet in the Epstein files. This morning, Ghislaine Maxwell will be deposed and appear before the House Oversight Committee. On Wednesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi will testify before the House Judiciary Committee. I will be on the ground covering that testimony, meeting with survivors and members of Congress throughout the week to report what actually happens and to bring you the truth.
At the same time, new data is coming in from the Super Bowl. Bad Bunny’s halftime performance overwhelmingly outperformed Kid Rock’s alternative show, to the point that newly surfaced footage shows Bad Bunny’s performance playing at a Trump Super Bowl party.
This week will be long, intense, and deeply important. I am ready, caffeinated, and committed to seeing this through.
I cannot do this alone. Since the Epstein files were released, I have been under sustained attack for this reporting because powerful people do not want the truth to come out. If you are able, please subscribe to support this work and help keep this reporting going.
Here’s the news:
- Ghislaine Maxwell is scheduled to appear virtually for a deposition before the House Oversight Committee, though her attorney says she will invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refuse to answer questions while a habeas petition remains pending.
- Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein urged the House Oversight Committee to treat Ghislaine Maxwell’s virtual deposition with “the utmost skepticism,” warning lawmakers not to let her rewrite history or further harm survivors, as her attorneys say she plans to invoke the Fifth Amendment and avoid substantive testimony.
- Thomas Massie said he plans to review unredacted Jeffrey Epstein case files in person at the Justice Department, inviting followers on Twitter to suggest which documents lawmakers should prioritize examining. I personally sent over several files to lawmakers to review, hopefully they will have more information for us soon.
- Emails from Jeffrey Epstein’s inbox suggest he met with Mohammed bin Salman just three days before the October 2, 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi, raising new questions about Epstein’s access to powerful global figures on the eve of one of the most notorious political killings of the decade.
- New DOJ and House Oversight Committee records indicate that Jeffrey Epstein maintained sustained, behind-the-scenes coordination with Steve Bannon from 2017 until Epstein’s July 2019 arrest, advising on funding flows, political strategy, and messaging, facilitating foreign introductions and EU contacts, boasting of planned governmental upheavals, and cautioning Bannon to avoid public association with him—suggesting a far deeper collaboration than previously known.
- Turning Point USA’s “All-American Halftime Show,” created as a culture-war response to Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl appearance, featured MAGA-aligned country acts led by Kid Rock, drew fewer than 200 people in person, mixed memorialization and conservative messaging with sloppy performances and weak spectacle, and—despite inflated online viewership claims—ultimately landed as a flat, forgettable stunt rather than a meaningful alternative to the main halftime show.
- Despite Trump claiming that he would boycott the Bad Bunny show, new footage obtained by MeidasTouch shows that the show was playing inside his own Super Bowl party:
- An Independent report confirms that Turning Point USA’s MAGA-aligned “All-American Halftime Show,” headlined by a visibly lip-syncing Kid Rock and framed as entertainment for “underserved” conservative Americans, drew only about 4–6 million concurrent viewers during its live stream—far behind Bad Bunny’s projected ~128 million Super Bowl audience—and, despite later accumulating ~18 million total views largely from post-game curiosity, underscored that the vast majority of Americans overwhelmingly chose the official halftime show over TPUSA’s politicized alternative.
- Caller reacts to Bad Bunny's Halftime Show: "I've never heard of Bad Bunny... The concept of saying God Bless America, all the flags of the Americas, was a brilliant, wonderful way to bring us together."
- Here are some details that you may have missed from the Bad Bunny show:The show was saturated with Puerto Rican cultural references, pairing songs rooted in island life and memory (“Monaco,” “DtFM,” “CAFé CON RON”) with layered visuals—from a piragua stand and older men playing dominos to Lady Gaga wearing a Flor de Maga brooch (Puerto Rico’s national flower), and Bad Bunny and dancers climbing sparking light poles as a pointed nod to the island’s chronic power-grid failures—turning the spectacle into an emotional, culturally specific portrait of Puerto Rican identity rather than a generic pop showcase.Bad Bunny briefly sampled Daddy Yankee’s “Gasolina” and Don Omar’s “Dale” during his Super Bowl LX halftime show as a deliberate tribute to the reggaeton pioneers who broke into the US mainstream before him, acknowledging their influence even as Daddy Yankee—who previously declined joining the performance—publicly voiced respect and support for Bad Bunny’s success rather than appearing onstage.The show wove diasporic identity into its spectacle by featuring Villa’s Tacos, a beloved Highland Park taqueria, as part of a walk-through marketplace alongside coco frío, nail, and piragua stands—an inclusion personally requested by Bad Bunny that linked his Puerto Rican hometown narrative to Los Angeles immigrant life, small-business survival, and the show’s closing message of unity across the Americas, culminating in his declaration “seguimos aquí” (“we’re still here”).
- The show was saturated with Puerto Rican cultural references, pairing songs rooted in island life and memory (“Monaco,” “DtFM,” “CAFé CON RON”) with layered visuals—from a piragua stand and older men playing dominos to Lady Gaga wearing a Flor de Maga brooch (Puerto Rico’s national flower), and Bad Bunny and dancers climbing sparking light poles as a pointed nod to the island’s chronic power-grid failures—turning the spectacle into an emotional, culturally specific portrait of Puerto Rican identity rather than a generic pop showcase.
- Bad Bunny briefly sampled Daddy Yankee’s “Gasolina” and Don Omar’s “Dale” during his Super Bowl LX halftime show as a deliberate tribute to the reggaeton pioneers who broke into the US mainstream before him, acknowledging their influence even as Daddy Yankee—who previously declined joining the performance—publicly voiced respect and support for Bad Bunny’s success rather than appearing onstage.
- The show wove diasporic identity into its spectacle by featuring Villa’s Tacos, a beloved Highland Park taqueria, as part of a walk-through marketplace alongside coco frío, nail, and piragua stands—an inclusion personally requested by Bad Bunny that linked his Puerto Rican hometown narrative to Los Angeles immigrant life, small-business survival, and the show’s closing message of unity across the Americas, culminating in his declaration “seguimos aquí” (“we’re still here”).
- Keir Starmer rejected calls to resign amid mounting turmoil over his appointment of Peter Mandelson as U.S. ambassador—an appointment now overshadowed by Epstein-related revelations and a police investigation—despite the resignations of two senior aides, growing unrest within the Labour Party, and attacks from the opposition questioning his judgment and ability to govern.
- The documentary Melania, centered on Melania Trump, saw its box-office performance drop sharply during Super Bowl weekend—falling 67% in its second week to $2.4 million—highlighting how the football-dominated weekend and muted audience interest undercut the expensive Amazon MGM Studios release despite heavy marketing and expanded theater counts.
- State election officials told NBC News that the Trump administration has largely withdrawn from election security, dismantling and defunding the federal infrastructure—especially CISA—that once provided threat monitoring, intelligence briefings, and coordination, leaving states to scramble to replace lost resources on their own even as the administration sues states over voter rolls and pushes new voting restrictions, deepening concerns about vulnerability ahead of upcoming elections.
- According to The Guardian, Faber-Castell accused the Costa Rican government of violating a humanitarian-use agreement by turning a donated former factory into a de facto detention center for asylum seekers deported by the Trump administration, after migrants—including children—were held there for months without clear legal basis, prompting Costa Rica’s constitutional court to rule their confinement an unlawful deprivation of liberty despite government denials.
- Donald Trump declared “it’s my economy now” in a Super Bowl–aired interview with NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Llamas, saying he’s “very proud” of current economic conditions despite polls showing broad public dissatisfaction, while crediting himself for gains and blaming lingering high prices on his predecessor, Joe Biden.
- In an exclusive NBC News interview, border czar Tom Homan warned that sweeping, indiscriminate immigration raids risk losing public support, arguing enforcement should prioritize immigrants with criminal convictions and be carried out humanely—comments that gained urgency after aggressive operations under his predecessor sparked protests, deadly encounters involving U.S. citizens, and polling showing most Americans believe ICE’s tactics have gone too far.
- An internal Department of Homeland Security report obtained by CBS News shows that in Donald Trump’s first year back in office, fewer than 14% of nearly 400,000 people arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement had violent criminal records—undercutting administration claims that deportation efforts primarily target dangerous offenders, as nearly 40% of those arrested had no criminal record at all and public support for the crackdown has declined.
- Russian authorities said they detained a suspect in the shooting of Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev, alleging the attack was orchestrated by Ukraine’s security service as part of a wider pattern of strikes on senior Russian military figures, a claim Kyiv has denied amid heightened tensions and limited independent verification of Moscow’s account.
- María Corina Machado said her close ally Juan Pablo Guanipa was kidnapped by heavily armed men in Caracas just hours after being released from prison, raising alarm among human rights groups and opposition leaders amid claims that Venezuela’s new government under acting president Delcy Rodríguez—installed after the U.S. capture of Nicolás Maduro—is freeing political prisoners while still violently suppressing dissent.
- Jimmy Lai, the outspoken China critic and founder of the shuttered Apple Daily, was sentenced to 20 years in prison under Hong Kong’s national security law for conspiring with foreign forces and publishing seditious materials, prompting international condemnation and deepening fears about the erosion of civil liberties and rule of law in the city amid Beijing’s crackdown.
See you soon.
— Aaron
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