Documents show USAID funds redirected for Vought’s security detail
USAID will cease to exist in September after Trump ordered it shuttered
WASHINGTON, Feb 13 (Reuters) – The White House budget office is using millions of dollars from the former U.S. foreign aid agency to pay for the security detail of Russell Vought, President Donald Trump’s budget chief and an architect of the government overhaul that has cut thousands of federal jobs, according to three documents seen by Reuters.
The White House Office of Management and Budget, which Vought leads, is allocating $15 million of what remains of USAID operating expenses to cover the costs of his protection by the U.S. Marshals Service through the end of 2026, the documents showed.
Reminder:
What You Should Know About Russ Vought, Trump’s Shadow President
Vought is the architect of Trump’s broader plan to fire civil servants, freeze government programs and dismantle entire agencies. Here are some key things to know about the D.C. insider who wants to take a hatchet to the federal government.
ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.
On the second day of the federal government shutdown, President Donald Trump shared an AI-generated video set to the classic song “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” by Blue Öyster Cult. The star of that video, which quickly went viral, was Russell Vought, the president’s top budget adviser. More than that, Vought is the architect of Trump’s broader plan to fire civil servants, freeze government programs and dismantle entire agencies, and he’s a big reason the second Trump administration has been more effective at accomplishing its goals than the first. In the video shared by Trump, Vought appeared as the scythe-wielding Grim Reaper of Washington, D.C.
Vought’s title is director of the Office of Management and Budget. The OMB directorship is one of the most powerful jobs in Washington, and Vought has used his position to wage a quiet war to change the shape of the entire U.S. government. In Vought’s hands, OMB has acted as a choke point for the funding that Congress approves and agencies rely on to run the government. While he tends to operate behind the scenes as much as possible, his influence in Trump’s second administration is so pronounced that people have described him as akin to a shadow president.
Here are some of the key things you should know about Vought. Read ProPublica’s full investigation here. (Vought declined to be interviewed for the article. A spokesperson for him at OMB would not comment on the record in response to a detailed list of questions.)
2019
In 2019, after the Trump White House pressured Ukraine’s government to investigate then-candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter, it asked Vought, then acting director, to freeze $214 million in congressionally approved security assistance for Ukraine. He obliged.
This impoundment, later deemed illegal by the Government Accountability Office, would trigger congressional investigations and, ultimately, Trump’s first impeachment. During that process, Vought refused to cooperate with investigators, calling the probe a “sham process that is designed to relitigate the last election.”
After the attempt to freeze the Ukraine funds ultimately failed, Vought and Mark Paoletta, an attorney and close ally of Vought’s, spent the years between Trump’s presidencies developing a legal argument that not only are such impoundments legal, but there is a long history of presidents using the power. (Legal experts have disputed Vought’s version of that history.)
2021
In 2021, Vought launched the Center for Renewing America, a think tank devoted to keeping the MAGA movement alive and preparing for a second Trump presidency. According to previously unreported recordings obtained by ProPublica, Vought accepted an assignment from Trump to come up with a way for conservatives to counter Black Lives Matter. He popularized the concept of “woke and weaponized” government — a phrase embraced by GOP politicians and activists to disparagingly label policies, people and even agencies that didn’t fit with the MAGA agenda.
“If you’re watching television and the words ‘woke and weaponized’ come out of a politician’s mouth, you can know that this is coming … from the strategies we’re putting out,” Vought boasted in a recording obtained by ProPublica.
When Vought’s think tank released a federal budget blueprint in 2022, calling for $9 trillion in cuts over 10 years, the word “woke” appeared 77 times across its 103 pages.
2025
Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO and the world’s wealthiest person, may have grabbed the headlines as his Department of Government Efficiency took a chainsaw to budgets and staffing. But court records, interviews and other accounts from people close to Vought show that DOGE’s efforts were guided, more than previously known, by the OMB director.
“I can’t imagine that the DOGE team knew to target all these little parts of the government without Russ pointing them there,” a former OMB branch chief told ProPublica.
In May, an official with Citizens for Renewing America, a group founded by Vought, credited Vought with steering DOGE’s cuts. “DOGE is underneath the OMB,” the official said, according to a video of her remarks. “Honestly, a lot of what Elon began pinpointing … was at the direction of Russ.”
An administration official who has worked with Vought and Musk told ProPublica that DOGE showed Vought that it was possible to ignore legal challenges and take dramatic action. “He has the benefit of Elon softening everyone up,” the official said. “Elon terrified the shit out of people. He broke the status quo.”
OCT 1 shutdown was an opportunity:
Vought has frozen $26 billion in federal funding for infrastructure and clean energy projects in blue states in the days after the federal government shut down on Oct. 1. The government has also followed through on Vought’s earlier threat to fire a massive number of civil servants if the shutdown were not averted.
“We work for the president of the United States,” a senior agency official who regularly deals with the OMB told ProPublica. But right now, he added, “it feels like we work for Russ Vought. He has centralized decision-making power to an extent that he is the commander in chief.”
Grim Reaper achievements by cutting USAID (1 percent of US budget):
Recent estimates suggest that cuts to USAID funding have resulted in over 762,000 deaths, including more than 500,000 children, due to reduced support for global health programs. Projections indicate that if these cuts continue, more than 14 million additional deaths could occur by 2030. University of California University of Minnesota
The US acting alone has reached the limits of its power and may already have lost its role as global leader, Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, warned Donald Trump at the opening of the Munich Security Conference.
Merz also disclosed he had held initial talks with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, over the possibility of joining France’s nuclear umbrella, underlining his call for Europe to develop a stronger self-standing security strategy.
=============
Merz drew most applause from an audience brimming with hostility toward US unilateralism when he directly criticised the current American administration, saying: “The culture war of the Maga movement is not ours. Freedom of speech ends here with us when that speech is directed against human dignity and the basic law. We do not believe in tariffs and protectionism, but in free trade. We stand by climate agreements and the World Health Organization.”
“In the age of great powers, our freedom is no longer a given. It is threatened,” he said, adding that “firmness and willpower will be needed to assert this freedom”. Challenging Trump’s unilateral style, Merz added: “Autocracies may have followers, democracies have partners and allies.”
≈==========
Describing the Munich conference as a seismograph for the state of US-European relations, he said the Ukraine war “had forced Europe to return from a vacation from world history. Together we have entered an era that is once again marked by power and big-power politics.”
Emails reveal a convicted sex trafficker brokering meetings between Trump’s biggest tech backer and Russian state officials — while Thiel shaped the incoming government
On October 3, 2016, Jeffrey Epstein’s assistant Lesley Groff sent him a scheduling email. Subject line: “Churkin? Thiel?”
“Do you wish me to coordinate with Churkin and Thiel appointments for tomorrow?”
Vitaly Churkin was Russia’s Ambassador to the United Nations. Peter Thiel was Donald Trump’s most prominent Silicon Valley backer — Palantir co-founder, Facebook board member, RNC keynote speaker, $1.25 million Trump donor. The email does not state whether Churkin and Thiel were meeting each other or meeting Epstein separately. But it places both names on Epstein’s calendar within the same 24-hour window, five weeks before Election Day.
The Department of Justice emails spanning 2013 to 2016 expose what can be called the Epstein-Thiel node: a pattern in which a convicted sex trafficker brokered introductions between one of America’s most powerful tech billionaires and Russian state-linked figures — while investing $40 million in Thiel’s venture fund through a shell company that moved over a billion dollars in suspicious transactions, including transfers to sanctioned Russian banks.
Reid Hoffman, who introduced Thiel to Epstein — describing him as “mostly fun, very interesting guy, you may find him perverse” — hosted a dinner at Baumé in Palo Alto on August 2, 2015. The guest list: Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, and Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein called the evening “wild.” He and Musk had exchanged at least 16 emails in 2012-2013, including plans to visit Epstein’s island and a SpaceX tour where Epstein arrived with “3 girls” whose passports were sent to Musk in advance. After the dinner, Epstein’s assistant emailed Zuckerberg’s chief of staff with Epstein’s contact details — per “Mark’s request.”
What follows is an evidentiary map: who Epstein was introducing to Thiel, how he described them, and what money was moving through his structures while those introductions were happening.
I. The FSB graduate: Sergey Belyakov
The earliest Thiel-Epstein emails center on a man whose biography reads like a Russian intelligence career track.
Sergey Belyakov was born in Moscow in 1973, enrolled in the FSB Academy in 1993, and graduated in 1998. His career was rapid: adviser to aluminum oligarch Oleg Deripaska’s Basic Element by 28, deputy minister of economic development by 39, chairman of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum Foundation by 41, adviser at the Russian Direct Investment Fund — headed by Putin envoy Kirill Dmitriev — by 42. The Deripaska connection matters: this is the same oligarch to whom Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort owed millions and through whose network internal Trump polling data ultimately reached Russian intelligence.
Epstein corresponded with Belyakov from at least 2013, pitching Russia as capable of “leapfrogging the global community by reinventing the financial system of the 21st century” through cryptocurrency. By 2014, Epstein held a Russian visa that specifically named Belyakov’s ministry as sponsor. That same year Belyakov wrote: “Our meeting was really interesting for me! I do not know many people like you, who can open new horizons and prospects.”
On June 30, 2015, Epstein introduced Belyakov to Thiel: “My very good friend that I’d organizing innovation conference in Moscow — will be in Palo Alto. Any interest??” He described Belyakov as “out of the finance ministry, young 40s. very organized and can get things done.” No mention of the FSB Academy. No mention of Deripaska.
On July 6, Thiel’s executive assistant coordinated a meeting in San Francisco. The cc line included Belyakov, Thiel, Epstein, and names in Cyrillic script. Within a week, Belyakov reported that meetings with “Thiel and Pritzker” were “very helpful” and he hoped to see both “in Moscow.”
The relationship between Epstein and Belyakov was operational, not social. When Epstein needed information on a Russian woman blackmailing a “powerful biznessman in New York,” Belyakov compiled a dossier within days, reported she was in the “sex and escort” business, and recommended cutting off her U.S. visa. The exchange ran both ways: Svetlana Pozhidaeva, a graduate of MGIMO — the Foreign Ministry academy that trains Russian diplomats and intelligence agents — obtained a U.S. visa through a Belyakov recommendation letter and embedded herself in Epstein’s operation, targeting the American AI and supercomputer network.
The St. Petersburg Economic Forum that Belyakov ran was a known hotspot for Russian escort operations and intelligence-gathering through honeytrap operations. Belyakov provided operational support for Epstein’s network of models, several of whom served dual roles as intelligence assets. In February 2016, he asked Epstein to arrange a meeting with Vincenzo Iozzo, described by FBI informants as Epstein’s “personal hacker.”
An FSB graduate performing intelligence favors, requesting access to cyber capabilities, and personally introduced to Peter Thiel — thirteen months before the election.
II. The Russian Ambassador: Vitaly Churkin
Belyakov was the intelligence channel. Churkin was the diplomatic one.
Churkin was not a private businessman whose FSB connections could be explained away. He was Russia’s Ambassador to the United Nations — a senior Kremlin official. He was also involved in bringing Trump to Moscow in 1987. Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse sat a few blocks from the Russian consulate.
Groff’s October 3, 2016 email is the most striking artifact in the correspondence — not because it proves coordination between Thiel and the Kremlin, but because it normalizes proximity. “Churkin? Thiel?” reads like routine calendar housekeeping.
Churkin died suddenly on February 20, 2017 — one day before his 65th birthday — of an apparent heart attack in his Manhattan office. The same month Michael Flynn was fired for lying about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S.
After Churkin’s death, Epstein emailed Thiel: “My Russian ambassador friend died. Life is short, start with dessert.”
After Trump won, Belyakov emailed Epstein: “Congrats with your President.” Epstein replied: “fun.” Simultaneously, Belyakov’s RDIF boss Kirill Dmitriev texted an associate: “Putin won.”
PAID SUBSCRIBERS MAY ACCESS A DEEPER EXPLORATION BELOW:
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Narativ with Zev Shalev to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.
Goldman Sachs chief legal officer and general counsel Kathryn Ruemmler (pictured) has resigned from her position following the recent revelations over her ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
Ruemmler, who joined Goldman in 2020 and was promoted to GC a year later, has faced renewed scrutiny as the extent of her relationship with the convicted sex offender was brought to light in the latest release of the Epstein files.
Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem stepped down as CEO and chairman of Dubai-based logistics giant DP World after newly released U.S. Justice Department documents revealed explicit 2015 emails he sent to Jeffrey Epstein describing a sexual relationship with a young woman; the company announced that Yuvraj Narayan will serve as CEO and Essa Kazim as chairman as leadership changes take effect.
‘I Loved the Torture Video’: The Explicit Digital Trail of Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem and Jeffrey Epstein
With details emerging of visits to Little Saint James and unredacted sexual boasts, the DP World chief remains silent
The most shocking fallout involves the prominent Norwegian diplomat Mona Juul and her husband, Terje Rød-Larsen, both lauded as architects of the Oslo peace accords. The pair are now under investigation by Norway’s financial crimes squad, Økokrim, after it was reported that Epstein left the couple’s two children $10m in a will drawn up shortly before his death by suicide in 2019. Juul resigned from her post as ambassador to Jordan and Iraq on Sunday and is being probed on suspicion of gross corruption; her husband on suspicion of complicity in gross corruption.
==========
And a trove of emails spanning years suggests that ThorbjørnJagland, a former prime minister, foreign minister, Nobel peace prize chair and secretary-general of the Council of Europe may have accepted luxury holidays to Epstein’s Palm Beach resort and his private Caribbean island, sought personal loans and engaged in sexual banter with Epstein. Police at Norway’s economic crimes unit are investigating Jagland on suspicion of aggravated corruption. Jagland has denied wrongdoing and through lawyers says he is “confident of the outcome” of the investigation.
While Juul and Rød-Larsen have said through lawyers that they believe they will be cleared by the investigation, a vignette from 2017 illuminates the spectacular nature of the fall from grace of the pre-eminent power couple in Norwegian diplomatic circles over the past 40 years.
In April of that year, the play Osloopened on Broadway. It was a smash hit, and won a Tony award before transferring to the National Theatre in London; it was subsequently turned into a feature film. Oslo was a dramatisedsequel to the carefully crafted public nimbus surrounding Juul and Rød-Larsen. The husband and wife team made their careers in the 1990s by brokering secret negotiations between Israel and the PLO. The Norwegian commentariat had united in uncritical celebration of the resulting 1993 and 1995 Oslo accords, and of Rød-Larsen and Juul in particular. There were official hagiographies and honorary awards.
Later, there was controversy: in violation of Norwegian archival laws, the couple was accused of placing their Oslo archives at a safe distance from critical Norwegian researchers in closed Israeli archives.
But Rød-Larsen and Juul were depicted in the play as the Oslo accords’ chief protagonists, the heroic drivers of an extraordinary diplomatic achievement. The New York Times called the play a “colossus”.
At a special performance in New York in May 2017, Rød-Larsen personally came on stage on behalf of the IPI, which had sponsored the evening. In the audience was a guest of honour. The guest was Epstein, whom Rød-Larsen had brought in as a benefactor without the knowledge of the IPI’s board. Epstein’s money, we now know from the newly released emails, had paid for the event. Rød-Larsen would later describe Epstein in private texts as his “best friend”, “a great guy” and “deserving to be an angel”.
Three years later, Rød-Larsen resigned as the peace organisation’s CEOover revelations of a loan from Epstein.
Rød-Larsen is now suspected of having used his influence to help procure visas for Russian models to serve as “interns” at his publicly funded peace institute. One of them claims she was later among Epstein’s sexual abuse victims.
Bewilderingly for an erstwhile social democrat, Rød-Larsen, the emails suggest, may have made personal introductions to friends in the international power elite for Steve Bannon.
Note: Trump has a soft spot for Norwegians. He has said, since 2018:
Trump asked why there could not be some people from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, adding, “send us some nice people, do you mind?”
This is a reprise of reported comments by Trump in 2018 at that Oval Office meeting in which he had allegedly asked why there could not be more immigrants from Norway.
Oslo Accords figure deeply linked to Epstein network
Then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, then US president Bill Clinton, and then PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, at the White House in September 1993
Rabin was assassinated 2 years later:
Yitzhak Rabin, the prime minister of Israel, was assassinated on 4 November 1995 at 21:30, at the end of a rally in support of the Oslo Accords at Kings of Israel Square in Tel Aviv.
Arafat’s mysterious death:
Yasser Arafat’s death on November 11, 2004
Wikipedia
Then there is a Los Angeles Talent Agency owner, Casey Wasserman and Ghislaine Maxwell, who he has known for ‘over 20 years’.
What to Know About Casey Wasserman, the CEO Named in the Epstein Files and Dropped by Clients Including Chappell Roan
Emails from Ghislaine Maxwell to Wasserman Media Group CEO Casey Wasserman surfaced in a batch of Epstein files released on Jan. 30
Prominent Hollywood and sports talent agent Casey Wasserman was named in the Epstein files released in January 2026
The documents included flirty emails between the talent agency CEO and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell
Though Wasserman denied having a relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the news prompted multiple of his clients to leave his agency
One of the 3 million Epstein files that the Department of Justice released in January 2026 included email exchanges between convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell and longtime Hollywood talent agent Casey Wasserman.
Following the news, multiple of his high-profile clients — including Chappell Roan and Beach Bunny — announced that they were leaving his agency.
“I hold my teams to the highest standards and have a duty to protect them as well,” the “Pink Pony Club” singer wrote on her Instagram Stories on Feb. 9. “No artist, agent or employee should ever be expected to defend or overlook actions that conflict so deeply with our own moral values.”
Though the DOJ hasn’t accused Wasserman of any wrongdoing, one of the emails in question included an offer for a massage from Maxwell. She was arrested in 2020 for her connection to the late sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019. Maxwell was later sentenced to 20 years in prison for felony sex trafficking charges.
The emails between Maxwell and Wasserman had a flirtatious tone, with the agent writing in one, “So, what do I have to do to see you in a tight leather outfit?”
He told The New York Timesin a statement on Feb. 5 that he “deeply” regretted the correspondence and noted that it happened over 20 years ago, “long before her horrific crimes came to light.” Wasserman also claimed to have no relationship with Epstein.
So who is Casey Wasserman? Here’s everything to know about the Hollywood talent agency CEO and his connection to Jeffrey Epstein.
Wasserman is from a prominent Hollywood family
Wasserman is the grandson of Lew Wasserman, the former CEO of the Music Corporation of America (MCA). Remembered as one of the most important behind-the-scenes names in Hollywood for decades, Lew and his wife, Edie, were responsible for helping stars like Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin skyrocket to fame, per Variety.
Wasserman has run his late grandparents’ charity, the Wasserman Foundation, since Lew’s death in 2002 and Edie’s in 2011.
Casey Wasserman visits southern Israel ahead of Los Angeles Olympics
During his visit to southern Israel, Casey Wasserman, Jewish-American businessman and chairman of the LA Olympic Organizing Committee, meets survivors of the 10/7 massacre and underscores his support for Israel amid ongoing challenges.
Homeland security is increasing the use of undercover techniques to infiltrate and interact with social media users in order to collect intelligence and target individuals, documents leaked to me reveal.
The new program, called “masked engagement,” allows homeland security officers to assume false identities and interact with users—friending them, joining closed groups, and gaining access to otherwise private postings, photographs, friend lists and more.
A senior Department of Homeland Security official tells me that over 6,500 field agents and intelligence operatives can use the new tool, a significant increase explicitly linked to more intense monitoring of American citizens.
More and more people are using Signal:
Signal is widely praised for its strong privacy features, including end-to-end encryption for messages and calls, making it a top choice for secure communication. Users appreciate its ease of use and commitment to user privacy, although some note a smaller user base can make connecting with others more challenging. g2.com cyberinsider.com
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images; Brendan SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
A judge has dismissed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s attempts to retaliate against Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), a former Navy captain and astronaut who incurred the Pentagon chief’s ire when he reminded active-duty service members that they do not have to execute unlawful orders.
Judge Richard Leon, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, wrote on Thursday that Hegseth’s efforts to demote Kelly and relieve him of veterans benefits had “trampled on Senator Kelly’s First Amendment freedoms and threatened the constitutional liberties of millions of military retirees.”
“Secretary Hegseth relies on the well-established doctrine that military servicemembers enjoy less vigorous First Amendment protections given the fundamental obligation for obedience and discipline in the armed forces. Unfortunately for Secretary Hegseth, no court has ever extended those principles to retired servicemembers, much less a retired servicemember serving in Congress and exercising oversight responsibility over the military,” wrote Leon, an appointee of former President George W. Bush. “This Court will not be the first to do so!”
“After all, as Bob Dylan famously said, ‘You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.’ To say the least, our retired veterans deserve more respect from their Government, and our Constitution demands they receive it!” the judge wrote.
Hegseth moved to strip the senator of some of his military retirement benefits and rank after Kelly — alongside other members of Congress who are veterans — encouraged members of the military to honor their oath and “refuse illegal orders,” amid the Trump administration’s bombing of boats in the Caribbean late last year.
Kelly countersued Hegseth in January, writing in a statement on X that his “rank and retirement are things that I earned through my service and sacrifice for this country. I got shot at. I missed holidays and birthdays. I commanded a space shuttle mission while my wife Gabby recovered from a gunshot wound to the head — all while proudly wearing the American flag on my shoulder.”
“If Pete Hegseth, the most unqualified Secretary of Defense in our country’s history, thinks he can intimidate me with a censure or threats to demote me or prosecute me, he still doesn’t get it. I will fight this with everything I’ve got — not for myself, but to send a message back that Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump don’t get to decide what Americans in this country get to say about their government,” Kelly added.
All in all, Judge Leon seems to agree, and used some decidedly colorful language when putting it to paper. The judge called the Defense Department’s case against Kelly a pile of “Horsefeathers!” and “anemic!”
“Rather than trying to shrink the First Amendment liberties of retired servicemembers, Secretary Hegseth and his fellow Defendants might reflect and be grateful for the wisdom and expertise that retired servicemembers have brought to public discussions and debate on military matters in our Nation over the past 250 years,” Leon wrote. “Hopefully this injunction will in some small way help bring about a course correction in the Defense Department’s approach to these issues.”
MS Note: This is a strangely intriguing thing that I noticed a few times previously in polls in states other than Minnesota, but didn’t comment on. Now, seeing it in Minnesota, I think it’s worth pondering what it means.
…. in the same poll, an “overwhelming majority” of Minnesotans still want local police to cooperate with immigration authorities to deport people “in some or all cases” when those individuals are in law-enforcement custody.
But Minnesotans still support custody-based cooperation: “An overwhelming majority” want local police to cooperate with immigration authorities to deport people in “some or all cases.”
These are not random details. Together they suggest something precise: Minnesota’s electorate may be trying to “route” enforcement into a narrower, less socially explosive channel—custody-based processing—while rejecting the broader operational posture and public tactics associated with the crackdown.
The hidden lever is the phrase “some or all cases”
The strongest caution flag in the Minnesota “cooperation” result is also the most obvious: “some or all cases” is a wide doorway.
If you’re looking for real common ground, you have to ask what voters think they’re endorsing when they hear cooperate.
For one voter, “some cases” means: violent felonies, post-conviction, with clear due process, with a simple handoff at release.
For another voter, it means: anyone booked into a jail for anything, including minor offenses, including people never convicted of a crime, including detainers that extend custody.
Both voters can answer “yes” to cooperation, while imagining totally different policy outcomes.
This is why the “custody carve-out” is meaningful—but also why it’s politically dangerous. It creates room for coalitions, but also room for bait-and-switch.
Looking more deeply….
To test whether this “custody carve-out” is real common ground (and not just a polling mirage), let’s separate three different questions that most public debates mash together:
1) Communication vs transfer vs detention
“Cooperation” can mean at least three distinct policy behaviors:
Communication: notifying ICE that someone is in custody, sharing basic information, responding to inquiries
Transfer at the moment of release: letting ICE take custody when the local jail would otherwise release the person
Extended detention: honoring a detainer request by holding someone beyond what local charges would justify
Those three are not interchangeable in civil liberties terms. They also tend to poll differently once spelled out. The Minnesota write-up doesn’t break the concept into these parts; it’s bundled in a broad phrase.
A genuine “custody carve-out” consensus likely exists at the first two steps (communication and transfer at release), while support becomes much shakier as you move into extended detention.
2) “In custody” is not “in the street”
The poll’s anti-ICE sentiment is tied to tactics that feel like public disorder: masks, “war zone” visuals, fear among citizens, and anxiety that enforcement is not staying within advertised limits.
That helps explain how the same voter can say:
“This has gone too far,” and also
“If someone is already in custody, don’t obstruct basic cooperation.”
Those two statements are not inconsistent. They are a demand for containment.
3) The legitimacy problem isn’t “enforcement,” it’s “methods + credibility”
This is the part that shows up clearly in the Minnesota write-up: majorities are worried not only about immigrants, but about spillover risk to citizens; they reject immunity; they disapprove of masks; and they’re skeptical of federal transparency.
That combination signals something deeper than partisanship: it’s a legitimacy crisis. And a legitimacy crisis tends to produce bounded consent—approval for narrow actions (custody handoffs) paired with rejection of broader authorities and tactics.
“Other states do too” isn’t just rhetoric
Minnesota isn’t unique here. Two different kinds of evidence support the idea that a custody-based cooperation lane has broader appeal:
National polling points in the same direction
A recent PBS News/NPR/Marist poll reports that about two-in-three Americans say ICE has “gone too far.”
Yet, the same polling ecosystem reporting on Minnesota has also highlighted majorities favoring state/local cooperation with federal authorities in enforcement contexts.
The pattern is consistent: skepticism of ICE as an institution and disapproval of its tactics can coexist with support for limited cooperation—especially when framed through public safety or custody settings.
Policy reality: the “jail-to-ICE” pipeline is already a dominant channel in several states
Texas is a useful reference point not because it’s politically similar to Minnesota, but because it shows how enforcement often functions in practice: the Texas Tribune reports that more than half of ICE arrests in Texas have come from local jails, and notes that Texas law requires local agencies to support cooperation—an approach it says is also adopted by other states such as Florida and Louisiana.
That’s the key: even where rhetoric differs wildly, the custody channel remains central to how immigration enforcement is operationalized.
The political implication: this is where the fight will move
If Minnesota’s “custody carve-out” is real, it creates a new battleground line that doesn’t map cleanly onto “pro-ICE” vs “anti-ICE.”
It becomes:
Stop the street-surge posture, masks, disorder, opacity, and mission creep
But don’t force local agencies into open defiance when someone is already in custody
That’s a coalition you can actually imagine holding. It includes people who dislike the crackdown, and people who support enforcement in principle but want it constrained to serious cases and controlled settings.
And it puts pressure on both sides:
The administration can’t treat “cooperate with ICE” as a blank check for tactics that majorities reject. Minnesota’s poll suggests the public is drawing lines, not handing over carte blanche.
Anti-ICE local leaders can’t assume that opposition to ICE automatically translates into support for full non-cooperation, especially in custody settings. The public may oppose the surge and still reject local “stonewalling” in jails.
He said his deportation machine would go after only the “worst of the worst.”
But according to newly leaked data from the Department of Homeland Security, less than 14 percent of the 400,000 immigrants arrested by ICE in the past year have either been charged with or convicted of violent crimes.
The vast majority of immigrants jailed by ICE have no criminal record at all. A few have previously been charged with or convicted of nonviolent offenses, such as overstaying their visas or permission to be in the country.
(In the past, alleged violations of U.S. immigration laws were normally adjudicated by Justice Department immigration judges in civil — not criminal — proceedings.)
A large proportion of the people ICE has arrested are now in jail — some 73,000 — and being held without bail. They’re in what the Department of Homeland Security calls “detention facilities.”
Many lack adequate medical attention.
A federal judge has ordered an external monitor to oversee California’s largest immigration detention center, California City Detention Facility, citing “shockingly deficient” medical care, including cases where detainees were denied medication for serious conditions.
A 2025 U.S. Senate investigation uncovered dozens of cases of medical neglect, with instances of detainees left without care for days and others being forced to compete for clean water.
Reports from early 2026 indicate that even children in family detention centers face poor conditions, including being returned to custody after hospitalization for severe illness without receiving necessary medication.
People held in detention facilities are deprived of the most basic means of communication to connect with their lawyers and the rest of the outside world, including phones, mail, and email. Some have been split off from the rest of their families, held hundreds if not thousands of miles away from their loved ones. Some of them are children.
Many are in the United States legally, awaiting determinations about their status as refugees fleeing violence or retribution in their home countries. Or they have green cards that would normally allow them to remain in the United States. Others have been in the United States for decades as law-abiding members of their communities.
They are hardly the “worst of the worst.” Most resemble our parents or grandparents or great-grandparents who came to the United States seeking better lives. We are a nation of immigrants. While this doesn’t excuse being here without documentation, it doesn’t justify the draconian and inhumane measures being utilized by the Trump regime.
These leaked data from the Department of Homeland Security have not received the news coverage they deserve.
Moreover, these data pertain only to ICE. They don’t include arrests by Border Patrol agents deployed by the Trump administration to places far away from the U.S.-Mexico border, such as Chicago and Minneapolis, where Border Patrol agents have undertaken aggressive and sweeping arrest operations, targeting day laborers at Home Depot parking lots and stopping people — including U.S. citizens — to question them about their immigration status.
This is a moral blight on America, a crime against humanity. As Americans, we are complicit.
Who is cooperating?
Does your state partner with ICE? Here’s who does, who doesn’t, who’s wavering
Krystal Nurse
Wed, February 4, 2026 at 9:49 PM GMT
5 min read
Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.
Key takeawaysPowered by Yahoo Scout. Yahoo is using AI to generate key points from this article. This means the info may not always match what’s in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.
Some law enforcement agencies are signing new contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, despite criticism from activists fearing racial profiling by agents.
See more
As scrutiny of how law enforcement agencies collaborate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement increases, some are signing new contracts, seeing it as a public-safety tool. Still, activists criticized the program, fearing racial profiling by agents.
Public reaction to how local law enforcement interacts and works with ICE has become tense in some places as people point to the killings of 37-year-olds Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota. States like Maryland are having second thoughts about police enrolled in the program. Meanwhile, Texas has mandated that all sheriff’s offices with jails sign agreements, KXAN reported.
“The goal in signing this legislation is the goal that you and I have everyday, and that is to make our state more safe,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, said in July when he signed the bill into law. The new requirement went into effect on Jan. 1, and the state has 291 agreements in place, just behind Florida’s record high of 341 contracts.
Yahoo
How and why?
Irishman held in ICE ‘concentration camp’ for five months despite valid work permit
Seamus Culleton has been in a Texas detention centre for more than four months
Seamus Culleton, originally from Co Kilkenny, has resided in the US for nearly two decades and is married to an American citizen.
He was apprehended by ICE agents in September 2025 while driving home from work, recalling how he first noticed a man in blue sunglasses before other agents appeared.
When asked if he had a green card, he said he did not, but that he was married to a US citizen, had a work permit and was due to receive his green card.
He was detained and initially put into a holding cell in Massachusetts before being taken to New York and then to the detention centre in El Paso, Texas. He claimed that ICE agents had tried to get him to sign deportation papers, which he said he “absolutely” did not.
Today Ro Khanna read some of the names uncovered from previously redactd files. This is from The Krassencast Substack:
Congressman Ro Khanna just read aloud the names of six powerful men that had previously been redacted from the Epstein Files, names the public was never supposed to hear.
These weren’t random redactions. These weren’t minor clerical omissions. These were deliberate, intentional black bars placed over identities that someone, somewhere, decided Americans did not deserve to see.
Here are the names that were read into the Congressional Record, please share everywhere:
Salvatore Nuara
Zurab Mikeladze
Leonic Leonov
Nicola Caputo
Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem
The obvious question is also the most important one:
Why were these men protected?
Reported:
Who is Salvatore Nuara? One of Six Men Revealed in Unredacted Epstein Files
Salvatore Nuara’s identity remains largely unknown after file disclosure
By Martin Toledo Published 11 February 2026, 4:27 AM GMT
So this one is a mystery, so too are the Philippine Team Epstein hired:
Jeffrey Epstein Secretly Hired a Philippine Team to Erase His Crimes From Google—Why Were They Never Named?
Emails show a Philippine team manipulated Google and Wikipedia for Epstein
By Martin Toledo Published 10 February 2026, 3:19 AM GMT
Documents from the United States Department of Justice reveal that Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted sex offender, hired a Philippine-based team in 2010 to manipulate online content about him. Email exchanges between Epstein and Al Seckel, who is married to Ghislaine Maxwell’s sister, show efforts to remove negative search results from Google and emphasise his philanthropic work.
The emails indicate that the team was tasked with suppressing searches such as ‘Jeffrey Epstein jail’ and ‘Jeffrey Epstein pedophile’. The operation also targeted Wikipedia pages and other websites to highlight Epstein’s involvement in science, philanthropy and his foundation. The identities of the individuals or firms involved remain undisclosed, leaving unanswered questions about who carried out the digital work.
House Assistant Minority Leader and Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Sarah Jane Elago (Courtesy: Gabriela Women’s Party)Resize Text:
Estimated reading time: 1 minute and 31 seconds
The Makabayan Bloc on Wednesday filed House Resolution 762 to conduct an investigation into the alleged Philippine-based operations and connections of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
House Assistant Minority Leader Sarah Jane Elago of Gabriela Women’s Party filed the resolution to uncover the extent of reported activities involving individuals and entities in the Philippines allegedly engaged by Epstein and his associates, particularly in relation to digital reputation management and online operations following his conviction.
“Any indication that Philippine-based individuals or firms may have been used to shield or assist a known international sex offender demands serious scrutiny,” Elago said.
“The Philippines has long faced vulnerabilities in trafficking, online sexual abuse and exploitation of children, and other forms of gender-based violence. We cannot allow our labor force or institutions to be exploited in ways that may indirectly enable or conceal crimes against women and children,” she added.
According to reports cited in the resolution, email exchanges from the so-called “Epstein Files” allegedly indicate that a Philippines-based team was engaged to perform backend digital work and reputation management services aimed at improving Epstein’s online image.
These revelations raise concerns about possible regulatory gaps and the risk of the country being used as an operational hub for activities connected to transnational criminal networks.
Questions are now being asked in the Czech Republic after new Epstein file documents released:
Epstein in Prague: Hotels, Photos, and Property Talks
According to the documents, Epstein’s visits to Prague included stays at the Marriott Hotel and trips to notable sites such as the Old Jewish Cemetery, where photographs capture his presence. Some emails suggest he considered purchasing property in the country, though no purchase appears to have occurred.
Epstein’s connections in Prague also involved Czech women. One email from June 23, 2009, shows a young Czech woman writing to Epstein in English, explaining she had financial difficulties and requesting a loan.
The correspondence reflects the disturbing nature of his interactions and the exploitation of young women under the guise of personal or financial assistance.
Czech Women and the Epstein Network
Other Czech women appear repeatedly in Epstein’s communications. A Czech woman identified only as Zlata emailed Epstein in June 2013, referencing a “naked, wet chat in the pool” and celebrating the 16th birthday of another girl.
She described plans to bring friends to “special parties” and sent him photos of herself and others, including minors. According to the documents, Zlata exchanged dozens of emails with Epstein in 2013, providing him with images and arranging repeated encounters in New York and Florida.
Another woman, Veronika, also had extensive contact with Epstein dating back to 2009. Emails show he arranged flights, accommodations, and payments for her travel to his parties and properties, including apartments in Manhattan and gatherings on his private Caribbean island.
In one email, Veronika requested financial assistance, and a note in Epstein’s assistant’s files indicated a transfer of $5,000 for her. While Seznam Zprávy knows the identities of Zlata and Veronika, they have not been published. Veronika did not respond to interview requests.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced in a video posted Wednesday on social media that the Polish government would create an analytical team to examine whether Polish children were abused via criminal networks connected to Epstein.
“We cannot allow any of the cases involving the abuse of the Polish children by a network of pedophiles and the organizer of this satanic circle, Mr. Epstein, to be treated lightly or ignored,” he said, adding with out any further detail that, “the first pieces of information have appeared relating to the individuals who informed Mr. Epstein from Krakow that they already had a group of Polish women or girls.”
“We have decided to establish an analytical team and possibly also to launch an investigation if our concerns over the scandal involving pedophilia in the U.S. are confirmed,” Tusk said.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk is seen during a news conference in Kobylka, Poland, Jan. 30, 2026. / Credit: Kuba Stezycki/REUTERS
He added that questions about “links between Epstein and the entire pedophile circle and the Russian special services … must, above all, be clarified by us in the light of security of the Polish state.”
Tusk did not elaborate on any suspected links between Epstein, an American financier who was accused of trafficking girls for sex before he died by suicide in a New York jail cell, and Russian agencies.
The Polish leader made his remarks after the U.S. Department of Justice released around 3 million more pages of documents related to the Epstein case on Friday, revealing new information about his global network of contacts.
Speaking ahead of a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Tusk described the scandal as a “completely unprecedented case,” adding that some of the newly released material pointed to what he called “Polish threads” in the scandal.
“That is why prosecutors and special services will carry out a very detailed and quick analysis, file by file,” Tusk said.
Beyond any potential crimes against Polish citizens, Tusk noted that media reports and analysts have suggested Epstein’s activities may have been exploited by Russian security services to gather compromising material on influential figures. Such material could still be used today, he warned, creating risks for democratic institutions and national security.
The investigative team will be led by Poland’s justice minister and prosecutor general and will include prosecutors, police and members of the national security services.
Spokespeople for the government said the group would be relatively small, operate under classified procedures, and begin working immediately. Poland may also seek further, unpublished evidence from U.S. authorities related to any Polish individuals based on the analysis, and may also advocate for an international investigation with other countries.
Russia has been dismissive of any allegations of links to the Epstein scandal. In December, Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said the Epstein files exposed the hypocrisy of Western elites who had long criticized Moscow.
Many more girls and women used Warsaw’s Chopin Airport as a transit point. One email from April 22, 2019, from Groff to an unknown woman says she will fly Ukrainian Air to Warsaw and then take another flight to Paris, a common destination for the Epstein victims. Another email, this time to Groff, written on April 13, 2019, about the “list for JE [Epstein] guest in Paris” states: “[Name redacted] will fly from Kiev to Paris on the 19th arriving at 8pm. She should have a stop in Warsaw because she needs to have her passport stamped there…”
Many of the women and girls passed through Warsaw on their way to Paris. Photo: justice.gov/epstein
==========
In a statement to the FBI made in 2020, one witness said she “saw [name redacted] procure young, underage girls for [Ghislane] Maxwell about 5 times a week for a period of 2 years from 2002 and 2004.”
============
Further evidence submitted to the FBI alleges that in 2017 Epstein appeared at an event in the U.S. “in a breakfast in a robe (sic) with two young Eastern European girls, who witnesses say looked to be 15-16.”
In an email to Epstein, one of his associates suggests buying into a chain of modeling agencies with offices in Poland and the Czech and Slovak republics saying it “would be a great investment for your purposes.”
“The idea being to cast a very wide net through scouting and development, contests etc. so that there is always a steady stream of fresh new faces.”
Daniel Siad, one of Epstein’s hunters, in 2009 sent an email to Epstein saying that he would spend June and July “scouting in small villages” in Poland, the Czech and Slovak republics and Hungary for girls.
“I will make you a great surprise when you come to Paris,” he concludes.
In the House Oversight email cache, one 2010 message from Jeffrey Epstein to “Daniel Siad” refers to “girls” invited to Ibiza and remarks that someone named Tigran has “the best taste next to you,” or words to that effect.
Other emails from July 2010 show:
Siad writing back to Epstein on the same day.
Follow-up messages where Epstein talks about being in Paris “tomorrow night” and suggests meeting.
Taken together, the thread suggests social and travel coordination between Epstein and someone using the name Daniel Siad in mid-2010. The content focuses on:
Ibiza as a meeting point
Girls and models
A modeling scout named Tigran
The emails do not spell out ages, contracts, or legal arrangements.
References to modeling scouts and Noah Models
Several independent researchers and journalists who have read the same email PDFs have pointed out that one message attributed to Siad mentions a Russian modeling agency whose owner “used to scout for Trump,” widely identified as Noah Models.
In public commentary based on those emails:
Siad is described as being “with Tigran” (a modeling scout) and wanting to meet Epstein.
The context suggests model scouting and high-end nightlife, rather than a clearly defined business partnership.
At the same time, a 2011 documentary called Girl Model examined the Russian modeling industry and included Noah Models, raising broader questions about exploitation in that world.
That documentary is about the agency and industry, not about Siad personally. The connection is therefore contextual: the same agency name appears both in the film and in the Epstein–Siad email, but the documentary does not identify “Daniel Siad.”
Wherever sex trafficking exists in the world we cannot allow it to flourish unhindered. Yet it does so because of a mental sickness amongst perpetrators and an attitude to their victims which degrades their value as human beings.
There is an excellent article written by a survivor in the US who has become a researcher of the legal aspects which require our attention. Here is the final paragraph of the piece:
We need to acknowledge low prosecution rates of child sexual abuse cases, that 14% of all reported – just reported – child sexual abuse perpetrators are convicted or plead guilty. Similarly, in terms of adult rape charges, 1% of cases end in a conviction or guilty plea. So much of this lack of perpetrator accountability comes through this employment of plea deals and dehumanizing and retraumatizing victims during legal proceedings.
So we need to acknowledge when our criminal-legal system is not doing justice to victims whatsoever, and they’re allowing perpetrators to walk free. In the Epstein case, we’re focused on a few people, while hundreds of perpetrators continue to walk free. By employing these tactics, predators will continue to use the societal silence and misperceptions to their advantage. If it takes a village to raise a child, it also takes a village to sexually exploit a child.
The emails are mostly from 2013, five years after Epstein was convicted of procuring a child for prostitution. There is also one exchange from 2017 in which Tisch tells Epstein he was talking “fondly” about him with a friend and wants to “stay in touch.” Epstein was charged with sex trafficking minors in 2019 and died in his cell a month later from what investigators ruled as a suicide.
In another email exchange with the subject line “Ukrainian Girl,” Tisch asks “pro or civilian?” about a woman he met through Epstein, to which Epstein responds “do you want to know if she as sweet as she seems? boyfriends? trustworthy, etc. she is earnest. is a civilian, but russian, and rarely tells the full truth , but fun.”
The Mail on Sunday: Jeffrey Epstein took Romanian model to dinner at Buckingham Palace
It is not so long ago Trump rescued Tate brothers:
Tate Brothers, Accused Rapists, Escaped Romania With The Help Of Their ‘Powerful American Friends’
Allegations emerge that political influence and conservative networks shaped the Tate brothers’ exit from Romania despite ongoing criminal cases.
By Chelsie Napiza Published 19 December 2025, 8:26 PM GMT
=========
In private text messages obtained by investigative sources, Andrew Tate wrote in January 2025 that he had ‘word from the Trump admin that they’re on top of things’ and hinted at plans to return to the United States
Paris prosecutors have formed a special magistrates’ team to analyse newly released Epstein files for evidence implicating French nationals, reopen and reassess the case of Jean-Luc Brunel (a close Epstein associate who died in custody in 2022 after being charged with raping minors), and examine new allegations involving a senior diplomat, model recruiter Daniel Siad (accused of rape in France in 1990), and conductor Frédéric Chaslin, while separate financial crime authorities investigate former minister Jack Lang over suspected tax fraud and money laundering following his appearance in the documents.
And in Belarus:
The Belarusian woman at the center of Epstein’s final days
February 10, 2026 8:12 PM5 min read
A collage shows printed documents available at the Epstein Library on the U.S. Department of Justice website alongside Karyna Shuliak, seen in New York, U.S. on May 30, 2024. (Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto via Getty Images; MEGA / GC Images; Collage by The Kyiv Independent)
On the morning of 21 January, Israeli authorities left eight Palestinian men at a West Bank checkpoint. Disoriented and cold, they were dressed in prison-issued tracksuits and carried their few belongings in plastic bags.
Hours earlier, they had been sitting with their wrists and ankles shackled on the plush leather seats of a private jet owned by the Florida property tycoon Gil Dezer, a longtime business partner of Donald Trump.
Dezer is also a Trump donor, friend of Donald Trump Jr and member of the Miami branch of Friends of the Israel Defense Forces.
Gil Dezer and Donald Trump at an event in 2011. Photograph: Miami Herald/Tribune News Service/Getty Images
His sleek Gulfstream jet – which he has called “my little rocket ship” – was used to transport the men from an airport near a notorious removal centre in Arizona to Tel Aviv. The jet made three refuelling stops en route: in New Jersey, Ireland and Bulgaria.
A Guardian investigation has established the flight was part of a secretive and politically sensitive US government operation to deport Palestinians arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
One of those deported on the January flight was Maher Awad, a 24-year-old originally from the West Bank, who had lived in the US for nearly a decade. Speaking to the Guardian in the town of Rammun, Maher shared photos of his girlfriend and newborn son in Michigan.
Politicians in Ireland have said the use of an airport in County Clare by planes deporting Palestinians from the US to Israel is “reprehensible”.
A private jet owned by the Donald Trump donor Gil Dezer was chartered by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for two separate flights that took detainees to Israel, a Guardian investigation revealed this week.
The flights left the US on 21 January and 1 February. Both made refuelling stops at Shannon airport in the west of Ireland.
Dezer’s family property company has built a series of Trump-branded residential towers in Miami. He recently spoke of his “love” for the US president, with whom he claims to have had a 20-year friendship.
Some of those onboard the flights on Dezer’s jet said they had their wrists and ankles shackled for the duration of the journey. After arriving in Tel Aviv, they appear to have been taken to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The Irish government said in a statement that as the flights stopped in the country for “non-traffic purposes” and were “not picking up or setting down passengers” they did not require prior approval from its transport department.
However, on Friday, opposition politicians expressed concern to the Irish Times about the practice.
Duncan Smith, foreign affairs spokesperson for the Labour party in Ireland, said: “It is absolutely reprehensible that any ICE deportation flights would be allowed stop and refuel in Shannon. The taoiseach and minister for transport must intervene and ensure this ends.” He added: “Ireland cannot in any way be complicit in these ICE flights.”
Gil Dezer is a notable American land designer and financial backer of Israeli beginning. He is the child of Michael Dezer, a notable land designer. He, similar to his sisters Leslie and Estee, works in his dad’s land organization, Dezer Properties, and is most popular for his work on the 60-story Porsche Configuration Pinnacle in Bright Isles Ocean side.
Gil Dezer History Gil Dezer was born in Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel, on April 1, 1941, to Noemi Kerekes and Michael Dezer. Leslie Dezer Salmon (b. 1970) and Estee Dezer Gurwitz are his two sisters (b. 1978). His instructive foundation remembers a double degree for Worldwide Money and Marketing from the College of Miami, where he graduated in 1997.
Gil Dezer Age, Level, Weight Gil Dezer was born on April 1, 1941
borderslynn 
You must be logged in to post a comment.