Trump Stonewalling UK Police Over Epstein Files
MAGA furious about potential Ghislaine Maxwell pardon, Atlantic reporter says more tips coming in about Kash Patel, Trump's war could prompt major supply shortages soon
Good evening, and welcome to Raw America. I’m John Byrne, in for British Chris.
The Epstein story isn’t going away. Neither is the fight over who gets to see the documents, who might get pardoned, and who’s hoping the whole thing quietly disappears. Meanwhile, the FBI director the Trump administration put in charge of federal law enforcement apparently can’t be roused from behind closed doors, a growing supply chain crisis is creeping toward American shores from Asia, and Republicans are turning on each other over Ghislaine Maxwell. It’s a lot. Let’s get into it.
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Trump Refuses to Give Epstein Files to British Authorities
British investigators are moving closer to formally interviewing witnesses in the Epstein criminal probes targeting Prince Andrew and former UK diplomat Peter Mandelson. They’re now asking for the unredacted Epstein files to use as evidence in the case, but the Trump administration is stonewalling.
Thames Valley Police is investigating Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, King Charles’s brother, for misconduct in public office. The allegation is that he passed sensitive material to Jeffrey Epstein while serving as a UK trade envoy. The Metropolitan Police, meanwhile, is looking at Mandelson for allegedly sharing sensitive government information with Epstein while serving as a cabinet minister. Both men have been arrested and released. Both deny wrongdoing.
But British prosecutors are apparently reluctant to bring charges without seeing the original, unredacted Epstein documents, and those documents are sitting in the hands of the Trump-controlled Department of Justice. Informal requests to hand them over have gone nowhere. Britain’s Met Commissioner personally asked U.S. officials. Still nothing.
The Met has now filed a formal request through the mutual legal assistance process, which is slow and bureaucratic by design. The question hanging over all of this is whether the Trump administration wants these prosecutions to happen. Because right now, it’s their obstruction that’s standing in the way.
MAGA Outraged Over Potential Ghislaine Maxwell Pardon
There’s a civil war brewing inside the House Oversight Committee, and it’s over whether Trump may pardon chief Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
House Oversight Chair James Comer of Kentucky says some committee members are open to the idea of Trump pardoning Maxwell in exchange for her testimony. Comer himself says he’s against it, but the fact that it’s even being discussed has set off a firestorm.
Republican Anna Paulina Luna of Florida bluntly told NewsNation Maxwel was “not getting a pardon.” Former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia went further, warning that a pardon would create a “quid pro quo” where Maxwell would “owe Trump” and potentially lie to protect people he asks her to protect.
Greene also made the obvious point that Epstein’s survivors are adamantly against any pardon for a woman they describe as one of their primary abusers.
Maxwell appeared before the Oversight Committee in February and said nothing, invoking the Fifth Amendment throughout. Her lawyer has been lobbying Trump for a pardon, and Trump himself, when asked about it, said he hadn’t “thought about it” but would “take a look.” That’s not a no.
Atlantic Reporter Hints at More Damning Allegations Against Kash Patel
When The Atlantic published Sarah Fitzpatrick’s report on FBI Director Kash Patel, alleging excessive drinking and unexplained absences, a lot of people wondered: where are the other sources? Turns out, they’re coming out of the woodwork.
Fitzpatrick said this week that she’s been “inundated” with new sources since the story dropped, including people at the highest levels of government reaching out to corroborate what she reported. That’s significant. These aren’t anonymous tipsters. These are high-ranking FBI officials who know what they saw.
The picture she painted is troubling. Patel’s security detail reportedly had trouble waking him up on multiple occasions because he was “seemingly intoxicated.” Meetings got rescheduled. People throughout the FBI, the Justice Department, and the White House reportedly knew about it and said nothing publicly because they’re afraid of him.
Fitzpatrick described Patel as “extremely, extremely vindictive.” Speaking out, she said, means risking your job, your career, and potentially your financial survival through litigation. Patel himself is now suing her and The Atlantic for $250 million, claiming the story was fabricated. The Atlantic is calling his lawsuit “meritless.”
Patel may not survive another bombshell report. Given the recent ousters of top Cabinet officials like Kristi Noem, Pam Bondi, and Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Trump may have little appetite for more scandals in his administration.
Trump’s War About to Create Severe Supply Shortages in U.S.
Gas stations in Asia are rationing fuel. Hospitals are running short on medical supplies. Factories are scrambling for plastic packaging. A condom manufacturer this week said prices are about to surge because it can’t access the materials to make its product.
This is happening now, and Americans should be paying attention, because about half of what people in this country buy comes from Asia.
The cause is the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Trump’s war with Iran has choked off roughly a quarter of two of the most common plastics used in manufacturing around the world. It’s also cut into global supplies of aluminum, rubber, sulphur and fertilizer. Multiple major petrochemical producers have already declared they can’t fulfill their obligations to customers.
Economists say the U.S. isn’t feeling the worst of it yet, but the warning signs are there. The S&P 500’s global supply shortages indicator has climbed above its long-term average for the first time in three years.
Unlike the tariff disruptions, which companies had months to prepare for, this war hit fast. The experts are saying it could take roughly three months for plastic shortages to ripple around the world, and about four months before automakers start cutting production over aluminum shortfalls. That timeline isn’t reassuring. And negotiations between the U.S. and Iran are going nowhere.
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I’m British Chris, with Raw America. Thanks for watching, and have a great weekend.
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Trumpy should be worried. The walls are closing in.
Someone should make Hegseth a general so they can eventually put him in front of a firing squad. However, the gallows should be reserved for Trump and his crime family.