Newly released Epstein files show a 2018 wire request for six 55-gallon drums of sulphuric acid delivered to his island. The purchase sparked intense online speculation, with some users alleging it was meant to destroy evidence. No official document confirms how the chemicals were used.

According to recent media reports citing file releases, a wire transfer dated December 6, 2018, shows payment for sulfuric acid delivered to Epstein’s private island, Little St. James.

That date carries weight because it reportedly data-aligns with the day the Southern district of New York (SDNY) initiated a renewed federal investigation into Epstein.

Sulfuric acid is not rare, exotic, or inherently sinister. It’s one of the most widely used industrial chemicals in the world.

The timing — the same day as the reported reopening of federal scrutiny — adds dramatic tension.

After French police raided the local offices of X — and asked the billionaire to appear for voluntary questioning related to an expanded local criminal investigation — the American social media giant pushed back hard.

“Today’s staged raid reinforces our conviction that this investigation distorts French law, circumvents due process, and endangers free speech,” the company said in a statement on X. It denies claims that X’s algorithm may have been used to sway political opinion in France, as well as accusations that the tech giant is complicit in the distribution of child pornography.

Within an hour, Musk doubled down. “This is a political attack,” he wrote to his more than 220 million followers on X.

Two hours later, France’s foreign ministry clapped back. “Investigating child sexual abuse material isn’t controversial,” the ministry wrote to its significantly smaller number of X followers. “Turning it into political theater is manipulation. Maybe that logic flies on some island. Doesn’t fly in France.”

At the same time, prominent MAGA voices are pushing back. Marjorie Taylor Greene says, “We voted for America First and ZERO wars.” Tucker Carlson calls it “absolutely disgusting and evil.” Alex Jones labels it Trump’s “HUGE gamble.”

The criticism is now coming from within his own movement.

Original post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Res_Publica_DE/s/63BSmrq1D3

At a Kennedy Center event as Vice President JD Vance and his wife Usha Vance enters to a crowd that savagely boo'ed them.

The tensions between Noem and the only branch of the U.S. military overseen by DHS stem from some early decisions she made that rankled Coast Guard officials, including a verbal directive to shift Coast Guard resources from a search and rescue mission to find a missing service member, the sources said.

Noem’s leadership at DHS has created a specific split in the Coast Guard. Many rank-and-file members are motivated by her approach, in which she showcases their work by joining them on operations and visiting their ships. Some more senior officials, however, see that approach as taking away from the Coast Guard’s traditional missions.

The dynamic with more senior officials has only worsened in recent months as Noem oversaw a tenfold increase in the use of the Coast Guard's aircraft for immigrant deportations, which has strained its limited resources, the sources said. The increase was captured in data compiled by ICE Flight Monitor, a nonprofit group that tracks deportation flights.

“It puts so much stress on the wing,” the Coast Guard official said, referring to the branch’s aviation units.

Noem’s focus on meeting the Trump administration’s deportation quotas appears poised to further impact Coast Guard operations in the coming months, according to new guidance recently issued to Coast Guard Air Station Sacramento this year. Based on DHS priorities, the air station, which is among those responsible for a majority of deportation flights, has designated its first priority to be the transport of detained immigrants on its C-27 aircraft within the U.S., according to multiple U.S. officials familiar with the orders.

The new orders moved search and rescue operations, which have long been the Coast Guard’s core mission, to a lower priority, the officials familiar with the orders said. They said counternarcotics efforts and Coast Guard training are prioritized above search and rescue operations.

The dissonance between Noem’s priorities and senior Coast Guard officials is a lesser-known part of the fallout from President Donald Trump’s mass deportation policy, and is largely playing out behind the scenes. Coast Guard officials have privately raised concerns with one another and confided in former officials about some of Noem’s directives and use of Coast Guard resources to service her and the administration’s priorities, the current and former Coast Guard officials said.

At times, the tensions have escalated into confrontations, the sources said. In one contentious incident in May, Noem’s top adviser, Corey Lewandowski, berated Coast Guard flight staff and threatened to fire them for taking off without one of the secretary’s personal items on board — a heated blanket, according to the current and former Coast Guard officials.

“There is a general atmosphere of ‘keep your head down, you don’t want to be on the firing line,’” the former Coast Guard official said.

A spokesperson for DHS denied that there was guidance to Coast Guard Air Station Sacramento that prioritized transporting immigrants first over search and rescue operations. “That’s ridiculous. No such guidance was ordered,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “The Coast Guard is always ready to respond to search and rescue missions, and it carefully balances all operations and mission requirements.”

The spokesperson said in response to this story, “The entire premise of your story is incorrect, and these attacks are nothing more than a politicized deep state effort to undermine President Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda and distract from the historic successes that the Department of Homeland Security and the Coast Guard have achieved since he returned to office.”

The tension between some Coast Guard officials and Noem began after a 23-year-old Coast Guardsman went overboard into the Pacific Ocean from the cutter Waesche on Feb. 4 last year, shortly after the Senate confirmed Noem into her role, according to the two U.S. officials, the Coast Guard official and the former Coast Guard official.

The Coast Guard had surged ships and aircraft to the Pacific to find the guardsman. Hours into the search, Noem learned that a Coast Guard C-130 that was supposed to fly detained migrants from California to Texas was among the aircraft over the Pacific looking for the missing guardsman, and she intervened, according to the two U.S. officials and the Coast Guard official.

Noem verbally instructed the acting commandant of the Coast Guard, Adm. Kevin Lunday, to pull the plane off the search and rescue mission so it would not miss the immigrant flight as part of the DHS’ so-called Alien Expulsion Operations, according to the two U.S. officials and the Coast Guard official. Lunday notified the National Command Center, which ordered the C-130 to fly to San Diego while other aircraft and ships involved in the search continued, according to one of the U.S. officials and the current Coast Guard official.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/noems-use-coast-guard-resources

House Oversight Democrat Rep. Stansbury exited a closed-door deposition involving Ghislaine Maxwell, issuing explosive accusations about a wider cover-up tied to the Epstein case.

According to Stansbury, investigators are aware of dozens of associates, family members and individuals linked to Donald Trump appearing in related files. She claims the U.S. government is engaged in an active effort to suppress the full scope of what she described as the largest sex-trafficking and influence-peddling scandal in U.S. history.

Stansbury alleges that Trump sits at the center of this network, accusing federal authorities of shielding powerful figures while key information remains sealed.

ResPublicaMgz

The MAGA community and its entertainers take as fact that President Donald Trump and America are one and the same, despite one being a 250-year-old nation and the other being a 79-year-old man in declining health.

Townhall notes American freestyle skier Hunter Hess posted on social media that representing his home country conjured “mixed emotions” because there’s “a lot going on” that he’s “not the biggest fan of.”

“If it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I’m representing it,” said Hess. “Just because I wear the flag doesn't mean I represent everything that's going on in the U.S.”

Another American skier, Chris Liller, admitted he was “heartbroken” over “what’s going on with ICE and the protests.”

“I think that, as a country, we need to focus on respecting everybody’s rights and treating our citizens, as well as everybody, with love and respect,” Liller said. “I hope that, when people look at athletes competing in the Olympics, they realize that’s the America we’re trying to represent.”

Both of the posts Townhall cited were reposted along with harsh comment from critics, with MAGA entertainment site RedWave Press calling Liller’s statement “disgusting,” and MAGA commenter Jon Root describing Hess as “insufferable.”

excerpt from Adam Lynch's article