Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at background briefing.

I'm Ian Masters, and today we'll examine a number of stories and issues in the news.

We begin with the assault on the First Amendment by Trump and his Maga cabinet of yes men and

women, with the wannabe mob boss and dictator claiming 97% of the mainstream media's

coverage of him is negative, and therefore ABC, CBS and NBC should lose their broadcast licenses.

Joining us is Jacob Halbrun, the editor at the national interest in a non-resident senior

fellow at the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center and a columnist for The Spectator.

His books include They New They Were Right, The Rise of the Neocons, and America Last,

the right century-long romance with foreign dictators. He's also the editor-at-lar rise of the neocons, and America last, the right century-long romance with

foreign dictators. He's also the editor-in-large of the Jerusalem Strategic Tribune and has an

article at the national interest, the Franklin Fellowship newest acolyte, as well as an article

at the spectator, what the Tyler Robinson indictment reveals about the Charlie Kirk murder.

Then we'll look into the real Epstein file story, which are the 7,000 plus SARS files,

that's suspicious activity reports at the Treasury Department, which Secretary Bessent is

refusing to turn over to Senator Wyden, along with the other aspect of the story,

which is the central role of Robert Maxwell and his depraved daughter, Gilein,

who was much more than Epstein's pimp and procurer of underage girls,

having inherited her father's contacts with the KGB and Mossad,

with which she introduced Epstein to powerful figures and the

shadow world of finance. Joining us is James Henry, an economist, lawyer, and investigative

journalist who has written extensively about global banking, debt crises, tax havens, and

economic development. A global justice fellow at Yale, he's the

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