Ex-Obama Lawyer Excuses Epstein Relationship with Baffling Defense

Luis Cornelio
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Ex-Obama Lawyer Excuses Epstein Relationship with Baffling Defense

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The embattled former Obama White House counsel offered a series of explanations in a New York Times interview for her close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, citing cultural dynamics and patriarchy.

Kathy Ruemmler, who most recently served as general counsel at Goldman Sachs, was interviewed by her friend Ankush Khardori for a June 11 column about her record.

In the interview, Ruemmler defended having ties with Epstein even after his prior criminal conviction. She claimed that her career effectively forced her to engage with individuals accused or convicted of crimes.

“I would not have been very effective in my job if I took the position that I would not meet with people who had been convicted of crimes or accused of crimes,” she told the newspaper.

Her relationship with Epstein spanned from 2014 until 2019, when a federal grand jury indicted him on sex trafficking charges. He was found dead before trial.

Emails later released by the DOJ showed Ruemmler referring to Epstein as an “uncle” and saying she “adored him.” The correspondence also touched on sexual offense-related legal issues, including age of consent laws and prostitution.

She dismissed criticism over Epstein showering her with expensive gifts, including designer bags and a fur coat, saying Epstein was not the only client who did so.

Despite being considered one of the most prominent attorneys in the country, Ruemmler suggested she was misled by Epstein in the lead-up to his 2019 grand jury indictment.

She claimed she was “overwhelmed with anger and sadness” over his conduct and disclosed that she had been a victim of sexual abuse.

“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 told the Times.

Ruemmler also attempted to justify the tone of her communications with Epstein by pointing to “the cultural demands of working as a woman in a space heavily dominated by men — both competing lawyers and clients.”

As “the only woman in the room oftentimes … you have to figure out how to get people to listen to you,” she claimed.

Ruemmler is expected to step down from her lucrative role at Goldman Sachs on June 30. But she will receive roughly $25 million in compensation, along with $80 million in stock options. She will also remain as adviser at the firm, reportedly at the request of Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon.

The disclosures have triggered scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., demanding answers from Solomon in a June 10 letter.

Man Who Killed Minn. House Speaker Pleads Guilty

Luis Cornelio
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Man Who Killed Minn. House Speaker Pleads Guilty

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The man who killed former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, pleaded guilty to a series of federal offenses in connection with the murders, the DOJ announced on June 11.

Vance Luther Boelter entered the guilty pleas in exchange for federal prosecutors sparing him from the death penalty. He is expected to be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Boelter also pleaded guilty in connection with the stalking and shooting of Minnesota State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, as well as the attempted shooting of their daughter, Hope Hoffman, according to the DOJ.

U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen praised the guilty plea in a statement, describing political violence as “a scourge in our nation.”

“We now expect Vance Boelter will spend the rest of his natural life in prison without parole,” Rosen said. “To all of those who would commit political violence: this Justice Department will seek and obtain the longest prison terms for your offense.”

Boelter carried out the violent attacks on June 14 as part of an effort to intimidate government officials in Minnesota, according to prosecutors.

He specifically pleaded guilty to two counts of stalking, two counts of murder through the use of a firearm and two additional counts of federal firearm-shooting offenses.

The killings sent shockwaves across Minnesota and the nation, adding to a series of political violence that included the killing of Charlie Kirk and two assassination attempts against President Donald Trump.

Boelter began his attacks at about 2 a.m., when he arrived at the Hoffmans’ home and opened fire, according to the Associated Press.

Twenty-four minutes later, Boelter arrived at the home of state Rep. Kristin Bahner but did not find her there as she was away on vacation.

At 2:36 p.m., Boelter traveled to the residence of State Sen. Ann Rest. According to investigators, he left after encountering police officers outside the home.

At about 3:30 a.m., Boelter arrived at the Hortmans’ residence, where he fatally shot the speaker of the Minnesota House and her husband.

According to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, a Brooklyn Park police officer had been dispatched to check on the Hortmans’ home, but Boelter had already arrived.

The state government launched an aggressive statewide manhunt that ended with Boelter’s arrest. Boelter faces several state felony charges in Hennepin County District Court.

12 Killed in Missouri Plane Crash

Headline USA Editor
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12 Killed in Missouri Plane Crash

(Headline USA) A plane carrying passengers planning to spend a sunny afternoon skydiving crashed Sunday in Missouri, killing all 12 people aboard, authorities said.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol said in a statement that troopers were on the scene, assisting the Butler Police Department & Bates County Sheriff’s Office. The crash occurred near the Butler Memorial Airport. The small town of Butler has a population of around 4,300 people and is roughly 65 miles south of Kansas City.

Missouri Highway Patrol Sgt. Justin Ewing said the plane was taking people up to skydive. Emergency responders got a call that a plane was down and engulfed in fire around 11:30 a.m. Sunday morning, he said.

Emergency responders were able to extinguish the fire shortly after the crash, Ewing said, calling the scene “brutal.”

“It landed in a field adjacent to the airport, but I think they’re shutting down the roadway just as a precaution,” Ewing said.

Teams from the National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration were en route to the crash site Sunday afternoon to investigate, according to the Missouri State Patrol.

The private plane was operated by Skydive Kansas City, said Dennis Jacobs, the acting airport manager and Bates County Emergency Management Agency director.

“It had just taken off and made a left turn” before the crash, Jacobs said. “In my opinion I think it was losing power, and he was trying to make it over to the highway and land, and he stalled and went down nose first and caught fire.”

First responders have checked the area under the flight path and did not find anyone who might have tried to jump out before the crash, Jacobs said

The Pacific Aerospace 750XL that crashed is a single engine turboprop plane model that’s popular for skydiving but has also proven useful for other uses, including cargo, aerial surveying and medical evacuation flights. The aircraft can carry as many as 17 skydivers and is capable of taking off and landing on short runways. The plane that crashed Saturday was manufactured in 2010, according to FAA records.

The small airport serves around 30 aircraft, all privately owned, including crop dusting companies and sky dive operators, Ewing said.

Sky diving companies operate in the region eight or nine months a year, with the season usually starting in late March or early April and lasting into October or November.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Spencer Pratt Declares ‘War’: Says One Dem Candidate Will Resign in Disgrace

Luis Cornelio
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Spencer Pratt Declares ‘War’: Says One Dem Candidate Will Resign in Disgrace

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Spencer Pratt declared “war” in an apparent concession video for his Los Angeles mayoral campaign Friday, announcing a “phase II” in his activism and hinting at a potentially damaging recording of one of his Democratic opponents.

Pratt posted the video on social media days after he was surpassed by two Democratic candidates Karen Bass and Nithya Raman in the primary. Bass is the embattled incumbent, while Raman serves in the Los Angeles City Council.

In the video, Pratt did not formally concede the race but seemed to acknowledge that he did not advance to the general election.

Instead, he suggested his campaign would expand to stop “commie animals” and expose further fraud in the city.

“My goal hasn’t changed,” Pratt stated. “I’ve been laser focused on stopping these commie animals, and I will stop them. If you think we uncovered a lot of fraud and evil in the campaign, just wait. We have some recordings of one of your exalted candidates doing and saying something that would make her resign in shame.”

“I was saving it for the general election,” he added.

Pratt went on to direct his comments toward Bass and Raman.

“Go ahead and pick your demon, certify your choice, and then you get to see it,” Pratt continued. “So, Karen, Nithya, ask yourself: is it possible that one of your employees may have a recording of you doing or saying something that would force you to resign in disgrace?”

Asked about the video during an appearance on MS Now on Saturday, Raman claimed she was unaware of what Pratt was referring to.

Pratt entered the race for Los Angeles mayor after the Palisades Fire destroyed his home.

He has accused the city of failing to adequately respond to the wildfire and has warned about lawlessness in the city.

While he initially held second place after polls closed, he was ultimately surpassed by Raman in later-counted mail ballots.

Podcaster Calls for Blacks to Repatriate Africa Due to ‘White People Problem’

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Podcaster Calls for Blacks to Repatriate Africa Due to ‘White People Problem’

(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) A prominent Atlanta podcaster and self-proclaimed “spiritual leader” sought to stoke further racial tension in the wake of Karmelo Anthony’s murder conviction, but ultimately offered a solution that some white nationalists may support also.

Larry Reid, a self-styled impresario in the ATL, called for a “mass exodus” of black Americans to their ancestral homeland in Africa, citing irreconcilable differences with the white race, Breitbart reported.

“I want you to begin to think about this America and the white people problem that we have,” Reid said. “… As a collective, let’s drain this place of its benefits and make our mass exodus and go home and build.”

Reid refuted the idea that black lives had improved since the era of Jim Crow and the Civil Rights movement led by fellow Atlanta native Martin Luther King Jr., saying that the problem of racism was passed down from one generation to the next, like a genetic disease.

“Civil rights did not make white people that are infected with whiteness stop being racist,” he said. “They still raised racist children that run this country to this day.”

By contrast, Africa offered a paradise free from the problems that American identity was imbued with, such as the need to coexist with honkeys while having black cultural contributions go unrecognized and unappreciated.

“You come from a land that flows with milk and honey,” Reid said.

“They pulled you out of that land ancestrally and brought you to a place to where your royalty was not recognized,” he continued. “Used your black power, your black mysticism, your African spirituality, and your physiological superiority to build this country and give everybody reparations except you.”

The latest indignation comes after a Texas jury sentenced 19-year-old Karmelo Anthony to a prison sentence of 35 years over the stabbing murder of then-17-year-old Austin Metcalf at a Dallas-area track meet.

Despite Anthony’s claim of self-defense, evidence and witness testimony made clear that he had initiated the conflict and threatened Metcalf, who later bled to death in front of his twin brother.

Some black leaders, such as lame-duck Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, have exploited the situation to provoke racial animus.

“He simply didn’t want to be put out in the rain by some random kid,” Crockett said in defense of Anthony’s actions.

But with the current climate seeing something of a backlash to the 2020 race riots sparked nationwide by the death of George Floyd while in police custody, black radicals have struggled to gin up the same level of outrage over the Anthony verdict.

Reid’s solution, encouraging black separatists to repatriate Africa, has been attempted before with limited success.

Notably, the American Colonization Society sought to return some 15,000 former slaves to what is now Liberia during the 19th century, but many of them eventually perished after finding life there more difficult than they had anticipated.

As recently as 2022, black leaders like Jonathan Capehart, a Washington Post associate editor, have urged blacks to flee the country, supported by statistics from the Southern Poverty Law Center that showed white people were becoming more crazy.

But Capehart’s call seems to have fallen largely on deaf ears. Grok estimated that, over a roughly five-year time span, the “Blaxit” diaspora had inspired an exodus of around 2,000 to 5,000, “with the true net permanent migration probably on the lower end of that range.”

Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.

Poll Shows Plummeting Support for LGBT Agenda Due to ‘Queer Overreach’

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Poll Shows Plummeting Support for LGBT Agenda Due to ‘Queer Overreach’

(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) A newly released poll from Gallup showed that support for the LGBT agenda was continuing its multi-year plunge after a record high surpassing 70% in 2022.

The findings, first released on June 3, also signaled a rise in those who deemed LGBT behavior to be “immoral,” to its highest level in 10 years.

And it continued to convey waning support for the transgender movement, which fell to just 38% after debuting in its first Gallup poll, in 2021, at 46%.

The trend lines followed several recent incidents of transgender terrorism last year, including the September assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk by an alleged gunman who had a transgender romantic partner.

The most recent high-profile incident occurred in February, when a trans-identifying individual by the name of Robert Dorgan, aka Roberta Esposito, killed three at a Rhode Island youth hockey match.

Gallup blamed Republicans for the declines, noting a 21-point drop in their moral tolerance of homosexuality.

“The change has come as conservative leaders have pushed back against diversity, equity and inclusion programs that were intended to foster greater acceptance of LGBTQ+ people and other historically disadvantaged groups,” it claimed.

But conservative outlets pointed to the overreach by LGBT activists themselves as the catalyst, noting that the pushback was in response to the ubiquity of insufferable acts of LGBT virtue-signaling, including the annual “Pride” month festivities.

“Google Trends data demonstrates ‘Pride Month’ has been consistently declining in interest over the past six years, in the United States and worldwide,” The Federalist observed in an analysis of the new poll.

The article also cited criticisms by Andrew Sullivan, an LGB activist who has been openly foreboding in recent years about the transgender and queer elements whose moral deficiencies have eroded goodwill and mainstream acceptance of the gay community at large.

“History strongly suggests that periods of toleration of gay men and lesbians can swiftly end if the public senses an overreach,” Sullivan wrote in a 2025 op-ed for the New York Times. “That may be where we now are.”

The two outlets differed on wherein the tipping point lay, with The Federalist noting the ever-expanding inclusion of different fetishes, lifestyles and sexual proclivities on the LGBT spectrum.

“Sullivan fails to appreciate that when you set yourself to toppling natural, universal sexual norms, you open yourself up to lots of wild things,” The Federalist wrote, referencing the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling that legalized gay marriage. “Many of us warned of this, but people like Sullivan and his colleagues derided us as slippery slopers.”

For his part, Sullivan blamed much of the overreach on transgender people, whom he suggested were the polar opposite of the gay community and, thus, more akin to heterosexuals.

“Gay men are, after all, in a profound way defined by their sex; trans people are defined by their rejection of it,” he wrote in a 2024 Substack post.

Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.

Karmelo Anthony’s Family Turn on Jurors, Witnesses After Conviction

Luis Cornelio
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Karmelo Anthony’s Family Turn on Jurors, Witnesses After Conviction

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The parents of convicted murderer Karmelo Anthony launched a media campaign last week attacking the criminal justice system, claiming they were “delusional” to expect a fair trial.

One stop on the media tour was CBS News, where Andrew Anthony and Kala Hayes suggested on June 10 that their son’s guilty verdict had been predetermined.

Anthony was sentenced to 35 years in prison after a Texas jury convicted him of murdering 17-year-old track star Austin Metcalf in April 2025.

“To have mercy on my son. That’s what I told the jury. I know they had their minds made up already; there really wasn’t much I could say to change their minds,” Hayes claimed.

Her husband echoed the sentiment.

“We were delusional. We thought we were going to get a fair shake,” Andrew added.

The couple also attacked the trial witnesses, whose testimony largely contradicted Anthony’s claim that he stabbed Metcalf in self-defense.

“Everyone lied on the stand,” Hayes said, without identifying what specific testimony she believed was false. “All of the witnesses’ statements were inconsistent. All of them.”

Andrew similarly argued that his son had been judged long before the verdict.

“If you look at the news, he was already convicted. It was already done. There was no ‘innocent until proven guilty,’ he was already guilty,” he said.

Anthony’s conviction has puzzlingly become a flashpoint in broader debates over race and criminal justice.

Some left-wing activists are using Anthony’s prosecution to claim that the criminal justice system is biased against black defendants, despite the jury’s verdict and the evidence presented at trial.

Yet the family’s complaints and those of the activists stand in contrast to what critics described as a relatively lenient sentence.

Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis said Anthony faced a maximum sentence of 99 years or life in prison after being convicted of murder.

Anthony’s attorneys attempted to persuade jurors that he stabbed Metcalf in self-defense and under “sudden passion” after allegedly being assaulted by Metcalf.

The sentencing window would have been capped at 20 years had the jury accepted that defense. However, jurors ultimately rejected the defense after witness testimony failed to corroborate Anthony’s account of the confrontation.

Anthony has vowed to appeal his conviction.

Clinton Judge Blocks Paxton’s Lawsuit Against ActBlue, Claims ‘Political’ Motives

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Clinton Judge Blocks Paxton’s Lawsuit Against ActBlue, Claims ‘Political’ Motives

(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) A woke Massachusetts judge appointed by former President Bill Clinton quashed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s lawsuit against dark-money umbrella ActBlue on the basis that Paxton is running for office against a candidate who relies on the fraudulent fundraising site for campaign revenue.

“The lawsuit in Texas is undoubtedly an adverse action,” U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns wrote in a 15-page order released Thursday, according to Just The News.

In addition to scolding Paxton for a “bad faith” effort to undermine his Democrat rival, state Rep. James Talarico, the judge maintained that ActBlue’s shady operations were protected under the First Amendment.

“Having previously found bad faith, the court agrees with ActBlue that the evidence in the record compels the conclusion that, far from protecting Texas consumers, the action was filed in retaliation for ActBlue’s fundraising on behalf of Talarico, Paxton’s current political rival for the Senate seat.”

Paxton issued a response on Saturday saying he planned to appeal the “flawed ruling” from Stearns.

“Texas has every right to enforce its own laws to protect our citizens, and we will continue to fight to hold ActBlue accountable,” he wrote.

Paxton filed the lawsuit in April, well before securing the GOP nomination for Senate in a primary runoff last month that toppled longtime incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

He alleged that ActBlue’s “smurfing” operations misled donors and sought to skirt campaign-finance restrictions by, among other things, acting as a pass-through for otherwise illegal foreign donations.

The organization’s practices have been under scrutiny for several years, including an ongoing investigation by the federal Justice Department.

Journalists such as James O’Keefe have previously exposed how it relied on below-the-radar micro-donations from past donors, often without their knowledge or consent, to break up its big-money funds from billionaire oligarchs while avoiding donor restrictions or scrutiny from the Federal Election Commission.

In testimony on Wednesday before the House Administration Committee, ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones pleaded the Fifth Amendment to avoid self-incrimination while dodging questions under oath about its operations.

“On the advice of my counsel, I respectfully decline to answer this question pursuant to my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution,” she said in response to questions about whether ActBlue had illegally funneled foreign donations into Democrat campaigns.

Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.

Musk Fans Demand Crucial Correction from AOC over Commie Disinfo

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Musk Fans Demand Crucial Correction from AOC over Commie Disinfo

(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) After SpaceX’s record-breaking initial public offering on Friday officially turned company founder Elon Musk from the world’s wealthiest billionaire into its first trillionaire, supporters sought a correction from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez, D-N.Y. over a recent attack on Musk.

In March, the socialist ‘Squad’ leader derided the erstwhile DOGE director, claiming that “Elon Musk is not a scientist, he’s not an engineer, he’s a billionaire conman with a lot of money.”

Musk, who also owns X, responded at the time with a post that garnered more than 17 million views, stating simply, “*trillioniare” [sic].

At the time, Musk’s official net worth was estimated to be around $840 billion, according to Forbes. But upon his crossing the trillion-dollar milestone the comment was resurrected by online supporters, including Libs of TikTok, which called for a formal correction from “AOC.”

It wasn’t the only comeuppance, however, that Musk’s admirers were relishing in.

Another unearthed tweet, which was highlighted by the New York Post, came from then-California Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzales in May 2020, before Musk had purchased X or entered the political realm by expressing his support for President Donald Trump.

After Gonzalez wrote “F**k Elon Musk,” he responded “Message received,” and shortly thereafter announced the decision to relocate his businesses from California to Texas.

“This single tweet cost California hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes, revenue, and jobs,” wrote investment banker John LeFevre.

Despite the humiliation, shameless left-wingers had no intention of letting Musk take a victory lap over his newfound status.

Many lashed out using Musk’s own social-media platform, including perennial class-baiter Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who appeared to lodge her complaints about the wealthy from the back seat of a limousine.

Undeterred, Musk basked in the moment with a speech to SpaceX employees on Friday, ahead of its first public trade, during which he expressed his own surprise at the company’s unlikely upward trajectory.

“It is certainly hard to believe that a little company that started in a warehouse in El Segundo is now going public with the largest IPO ever,” Musk said. “And let me tell you, if people had told me this was going to happen, I was like, ‘Man, you must be smoking some really good crack.’”

Obama Linked to Ukraine Biolabs that Deep State Tried to Cover Up

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Obama Linked to Ukraine Biolabs that Deep State Tried to Cover Up

(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) After out-going Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard unveiled new evidence confirming the long-suspected existence of secret U.S.-backed biolabs in Ukraine and elsewhere, conservative outlets like the Gateway Pundit were quick to connect the dots to prior reporting that implicated former President Barack Obama.

An article from Pundit editor Jim Hoft revisited many of the past reports — which were denounced during the Biden administration as baseless conspiracy theories — linking the CIA-supported labs to highly risky experiments such as the gain-of-function research that resulted in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hoft furnished copies of tweets and documents that censors had sought to scrub from the internet, including those from a now-banned X account linked to the Russian news agency Ria Novosti. It accused Ukraine of trying stealthily to destroy the biological agents prior to an invasion.

The links to Obama came from a 2022 report by Natalie Winters, who was writing at the time for the National Pulse.

Her reporting, in turn, referenced a deleted 2010 article from the website BioPrepWatch.com that showed uniparty officials like former Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., openly celebrating the launch of a lab in Odessa, a Ukrainian port city on the Black Sea.

Lugar said the illicit experimentation was part of a “threat reduction” program first launched in 1991 that had “improved safety for all people against weapons of mass destruction and potential terrorist use, in addition to advancements in the prevention of pandemics and public health consequences.”

The article said the program’s initial purpose was to help former Soviet satellite nations “dismantle and safeguard large stockpiles of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons,” and that it also had operations in Eastern European countries like Albania.

Gabard’s newly declassified documents acknowledge 120 such labs, including more than 40 in Ukraine.

Lugar noted in the 2010 article that the Odessa lab’s planning “began in 2005 when he and then Senator Barack Obama entered a partnership with Ukrainian officials.”

The bipartisan deep-state duo “also helped coordinate efforts between the U.S and Ukrainian researchers that year in an effort to study and help prevent avian flu,” the article said.

A decade later, however, the presence of the biolabs evidently gave Obama no choice but to continue to meddle in Ukrainian politics as the country wavered between its delicate Western alliances and cultural ties to Russia.

After a pro-Russian leader, Viktor Yanukovych, was elected into office in 2010, Obama’s State Department, under secretaries Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, backed a 2014 color revolution that installed a corrupt but U.S.-friendly regime.

Obama then turned oversight of Ukraine over to his vice president, Joe Biden, whose son Hunter was appointed to the board of leading Ukrainian energy company Burisma as part of a quid-pro-quo deal to ensure U.S. financial support.

Hunter Biden’s name also surfaced in reports of the biolabs, with the National File reporting in 2023 that he and Jeffrey Epstein madam Ghislaine Maxwell had gone in together on a joint venture to fund Ukraine-based company Metabiota.

Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.

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