Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at Background Briefing.org. I'm Ian Masters,

and today we'll examine a number of stories and issues in the news. We'll begin with some of the breaking stories today as uncertainty grows over the economy

and the House Oversight Committee moves to subpoena the Epstein files,

and Trump's favorite influencer, Laura Luma, has yet another Oval Office meeting

with her hero after White House Insiders did everything they could to keep her away from Trump.

Joining us is Jacob Halbrun, the editor at the National Interest and a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center, and a columnist for The Spectator.

His books include they knew they were right, The Rise of the Neocons, and America

Last, the right century-long romance with foreign dictators. He's also editor-at-large of the

Jerusalem Strategic Tribune, and his latest article at the national interest is, The American

Economy is Paying for Trump's Tariffs. Then we'll look into the dirty deal already made between Galane Maxwell and Trump's lawyer,

now the Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who has already rewarded Maxwell by springing her

from a violent and putrid prison to a club-fed minimum security camp that is not supposed

to take in a sexual predator, but somebody obviously

pulled strings for the depraved socialite.

Joining us to speculate on what Maxwell has already offered Trump is Stephen Harper, a professor

at Northwestern University, and regular contributor to the American lawyer.

He's the author of several books, including The Lawyer Bubble,

A Profession in Crisis, and Crossing Hoffer, a teamster story.

He blogs at the Belly of the Beast and has an article,

At Common Dreams, We will discuss,

Galane Maxwell seems to have new friends in high places.

Then, with Netanyahu planning to reoccupy Gaza against the wishes of the

...