Episode Details

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5️⃣ Lutnick’s Epstein Web Grows Deeper

New details from the Epstein files reveal Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s extensive financial ties to Jeffrey Epstein, including a Manhattan mansion at 11 East 71st Street — next door to Epstein’s own residence — that Lutnick acquired through a chain of Epstein-controlled trusts for just $10. An FBI whistleblower who worked in the securities business for 32 years told agents that Lutnick “instructed all the fraud” at Cantor Fitzgerald and that the firm laundered money for the Russian mafia through an affiliate called Parabridge International Services, which was connected to Deutsche Bank. The whistleblower complaint identifies 37 separate instances involving Lutnick in money laundering investigations, all hidden from public view until the files were released. Lutnick was also tied to Liquid Funding, Epstein’s offshore vehicle at Bear Stearns that was the only fund saved during the 2008 crash — with $6.7 billion from the U.S. Treasury. “This guy’s as crooked as you can get,” Zev said, noting that the FBI flagged Lutnick in two major cases before he was confirmed as Commerce Secretary, and the warnings were simply ignored. Dean pointed out that Lutnick’s sons have since set up a company at Cantor Fitzgerald allowing businesses to take advances on tariff refunds — profiting from the very tariff chaos their father’s boss created.

HOW DID THE LUTNICK STORY RATE ON GROUND NEWS?

We checked it on Ground News and the bias meter tells you everything. The Lutnick-Epstein connection — a sitting Commerce Secretary tied to money laundering, the Russian mafia, and Jeffrey Epstein's financial network — is virtually invisible in right-wing media. It barely registers in mainstream outlets. The only places covering it consistently are independent journalists and a handful of left-leaning sources. That's the kind of blind spot Ground News was built to expose. When you can see who's covering a story and who's burying it, the silence becomes the story. Get 40% off Ground News at groundnews.com/fivestack.

4️⃣ Anderson Cooper Walks as CBS Turns to State TV

Anderson Cooper has left CBS’s 60 Minutes after 20 years, and while the network cites personal reasons, the real story is what’s happened to CBS News under editor-in-chief Bari Weiss. Since taking over in October 2025, Weiss spiked a 60 Minutes report on CECOT — the El Salvador prison Trump flew migrants to — heavily edited Cooper’s January story on Trump’s South Africa refugee policy, and is reportedly planning to fire correspondents including former anchor Scott Pelley and Sharon Alfonsi. The censorship extended to late night when CBS blocked Stephen Colbert from airing an interview with James Talarico, the born-again Christian Texas Democrat mounting a serious challenge to flip the state. Colbert was told he couldn’t air the segment, couldn’t explain why, and couldn’t discuss the conversations that led to the decision — but because he owns the content rights, the interview appeared on YouTube anyway. “She is turning CBS into a propaganda arm of the government,” Zev said. Meanwhile, Warner Brothers has reopened negotiations with the Ellison family for a sale that would include CNN, threatening to consolidate yet another major news network under the same forces dismantling independent journalism.

3️⃣ DHS Subpoenas Social Media Over ICE Criticism

The Department of Homeland Security has been issuing hundreds of administrative subpoenas to Google, Meta, Reddit, and Discord demanding the personal information of users who posted negative comments about ICE. The subpoenas target