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

I'm Ian Masters, and today we're looking into a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with the press conference today in front of the nation's capital at which

victims of Epstein and Maxwell spoke because House Speaker Mike Johnson will not have them

speak inside the building or release the full tranche of files on Epstein and Maxwell instead of the sanitized

dribble from the DOJ, with references to Epstein's best friend Trump redacted.

Joining us to discuss how Trump's Justice Department is on the side of a depraved socialite

instead of the victims of her sex trafficking is Lisa Graves, the founder of the Corporate Watchdog Group

True North Research, and the managing director of court accountability.

She has served as a senior advisor in all three branches of the federal government,

as Deputy Assistant Attorney General and the Justice Department,

as Chief Counsel for nominations on the Senate Judiciary Committee,

and as a Deputy Chief of the Article III Judges Division for the U.S. courts.

Her new book coming out this month is Without Precedent, How Chief Justice Roberts and His Accomplices

rewrote the Constitution and dismantled our rights.

Then, with U.S. forces building up off the coast of Venezuela and a so-called drug boat

blown up last night in a strike that killed 11 aboard, we will speak with David Smiley,

a professor of human relations and the chair of the Department of Sociology at Tulane

University. He has researched Venezuela for over 30 years, living there most of the time,

and his latest book is The Paradox of Violence in Venezuela, Revolution, Crime and Policing During

Chavismo. He joins us to discuss whether Trump is cooking up a nice little war to take out Maduro as a distraction from the ghost of Epstein that is haunting him.

Then finally, we will speak with Dr. Ariel Cohen, a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

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