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 the MAGA meltdown over the so-called Epstein client list that is roiling

among Trump's influences with Laura Luma, who is close to Trump in a number of ways,

calling for Attorney General Pam Bondi to resign for, quote, lying to the American people.

Joining us is James Reisen, a professor of journalism at the University of Maryland,

and a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author,

whose investigative reporting, has triggered a series of political firestorms.

Among his best-selling books are State of War,

the Secret History of the CIA and the Bush administration,

and Pay Any Price, Greed, Power, and Endless War, the secret history of the CIA and the Bush administration, and pay any price, greed, power, and endless war. Formerly the senior national security

correspondent at the Intercept and a former investigative journalist with the New York Times,

his new book is The Last Honest Man, the CIA, the FBI, the mafia, and the Kennedys,

and one senator's fight to save democracy.

We'll discuss his article at The Guardian, MAGA influencer and de facto national security

advisor Laura Luma holds outsized sway on Trump.

Then we'll speak with Nina Burley about her interview with E. Jean Carroll, who is yet to get

the millions Trump owes her from a court

judgment against him for sexual assault. She is a senior editor at the New Republic, bestselling

author, documentary producer and publisher of the Substack American Freak Show, a professor at New York

University's Arthur J. Carter Journalism Institute. Her journalism has been published widely,

and she's written seven books, the latest of which include virus, vaccinations,

...