One of my favorite Trump scandals is his "full and unconditional pardon" of Christopher Wade.

Who is Christopher Wade? No one knows. 🧵 The first time anyone heard of Christopher Wade was when Trump pardoned him before leaving office.

Per his public statement, Wade pleaded guilty to "various cyber crimes."

His pardon was supported by ex-Marvel executive Ike Perlmutter and Mark Templeton.

In 2021, Steve Bannon distributed a trailer for a purported documentary about Jeffrey Epstein.

Bannon got 15 hours of footage of the pedophile, including interviews in his Manhattan mansion.

What happened to the "documentary"?

In reality, sources told me, it never existed.

🧵 Bannon's explanation that he was producing a documentary about Epstein was nonsense, according to people who spent time with both men around the time they were in each other's lives.

In reality, the two were friends.

businessinsider.com/steve-bannon-f…

Donald Trump's criminal trial is off on Wednesdays.

On those days, Justice Juan Merchan presides over Manhattan's mental health court, offering an alternative to incarceration for a select few.

I attended for a couple of weeks. I was the only journalist there. The Manhattan mental health court offered a different view of Justice Merchan.

He still holds everyone to high standards. But he is more avuncular than the strict headmaster we see in Trump's trial.

businessinsider.com/trump-judge-ju…

I've covered both of E. Jean Carroll's trials against Donald Trump.

This one is going even more disastrously bad for him than the last one.

I am beginning to think the damages will be absolutely massive. Possibly enough to bankrupt him. 🧵 It is, of course, a fool’s errand to try to predict a jury verdict. Especially in a damages-only case. A lawyer at one defamation trial once described the jury to me as the “random outcome generator.”

EXCLUSIVE: I've identified Donald Trump is "Doe 174" in the newly unsealed Jeffrey Epstein documents.

Perhaps more importantly, it looks like Trump may have fought to keep his name redacted in the documents before the judge ordered them unsealed.

businessinsider.com/donald-trump-d… Judge Loretta Preska wrote that Doe 174's "association with Epstein and Maxwell has been widely reported in the media already, and his or her name came up during Maxwell's public criminal trial."

✅

businessinsider.com/donald-trump-d…

EXCLUSIVE:

A mysterious 'Doe 183' is trying to keep Jeffrey Epstein documents under seal.

A lot of the documents they object to unsealing seems to be related to one of Epstein's longtime friends and benefactors: Leslie Wexner.

businessinsider.com/doe-183-ghisla… Some of you might remember that, on November 18, Judge Loretta Preska said she would unseal some of the anonymous "Does" in a long-running lawsuit between Ghislaine Maxwell and Virginia Giuffre.

insider.com/judge-unseals-…

I have a major investigation into SBF dropping tomorrow. Stay tuned. 📺 What's the deal with the big chonky ring Sam Bankman-Fried wore to court? An investigation.

businessinsider.com/sam-bankman-fr…

David Portnoy's defamation lawsuit against Insider Inc has been DISMISSED by a federal judge. Portnoy had to prove Insider acted with "actual malice" with the stories about him, and his lawsuit failed to clear that bar, the judge wrote.

Christian Carino, Lady Gaga's former fiancé and an agent who used to represent both Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, is appearing at the #JohnnyDeppVsAmberHeard trial right now via recorded deposition. He is in a very nice house. There are very loud drilling noises in the background. Here are Johnny Depp's tests to him about Elon Musk

Amber Heard's lawyer grills Johnny Depp about whether he took drugs with Marilyn Manson.

“I once gave Marilyn Manson a pill so that he would stop talking so much.” Depp testifies. Asked if Depp drank whiskey in the mornings while shooting "The Lone Ranger," he answered, "Isn’t happy hour anytime?"

Testimony from Johnny Depp's personal sound technician (yes, he had one of those) today. He said Amber Heard was verbally abusive toward him.

He also addressed longstanding reports that Johnny Depp uses an earpiece while acting.
insider.com/johnny-depp-am… Johnny Depp first used an earpiece while directing Marlon Brando on 1997's "The Brave."

Brando used an earpiece, and Depp decided to have one playing Brando's lines to help with his performance, according to the sound technician, Keenan Wyatt.

insider.com/johnny-depp-am…

Paramount+ is streaming a 4-hour docuseries about Ghislaine Maxwell on Thursday. Paramount says it features a new in-depth interview with Juror 50. Ghislaine Maxwell's lawyers heard about the docuseries and asked the judge last week to delay deciding whether she should get a retrial.

haman trying to kill the jews only for queen esther to turn out to be a jew has got to be the biggest self-own of all time lmao

We'll know soon whether Ghislaine Maxwell will get a new trial.

Prosecutors and her defense lawyers filed motions last night following the testimony of Juror #50 last week. insider.com/ghislaine-maxw… Basically: Maxwell's lawyers say Juror #50 — who didn't disclose his own sexual assault experience in a jury questionnaire, but did to the media after the verdict — is a liar. Prosecutors said he made an honest mistake.

insider.com/ghislaine-maxw…

EXCLUSIVE: A lawyer for Anna Sorokin (AKA Anna Delvey) filed a last-minute appeal to keep her in the US due to "serious health issues" just before she was scheduled to be put on a plane back to Germany. insider.com/anna-sorokin-d… As I reported yesterday, ICE had already began the process of deporting her on Monday. Her jail drained her commissary funds and disabled the online services she used to communicate with the outside world.

https://twitter.com/JayShams/status/1503471811895382024

NEW: Anna Sorokin (AKA) is getting deported to Germany. insider.com/anna-sorokin-d… It's only a matter of time before she lands and fires up @theannadelvey again. insider.com/anna-sorokin-d…

NEW: The compensation fund set up for victims of Jeffrey Epstein was a boon for accusers who were afraid to face him in court.

It's also offered a legal shield for Ghislaine Maxwell, protecting her from civil lawsuits. insider.com/jeffrey-epstei… I got a copy of the release form victims had to sign before they could take money from the compensation fund.

It protects anyone who ever worked for Epstein. That includes Maxwell, who was Epstein's household manager in addition to his girlfriend. insider.com/jeffrey-epstei…

At this point, there's almost no chance Ghislaine Maxwell will testify in her own trial.

Her attorneys plan to rest on Monday. Court resumed on Thursday. That gives them just three days to mount their defense. We already know of at least three witnesses Maxwell's lawyers plan to call: A person connected to the Epstein victims' compensation program, a former civil attorney for one accuser, and at least one person who wants to testify under a pseudonym (probably a friend of Maxwell's)

Here's the 58-page handbook for running Jeffrey Epstein's Palm Beach home.

It includes instructions like to "see nothing, hear nothing" when "guests" are at the house, and "Gun placed in beside table drawer" when Epstein is around.
documentcloud.org/documents/2112… Prosecutors entered the handbook into evidence during testimony from Juan Alessi, Epstein's Palm Beach butler.

insider.com/jeffrey-epstei…

For 15 years, Mendy Levy lived in the extremist Jewish cult Lev Tahor, which fled from Canada to Guatemala in the wake of a child abuse investigation.

He plotted his escape and now lives his life as a normal Jewish teenager.

This is his story: insider.com/lev-tahor-jewi… Lev Tahor has been around for a few decades. It was founded by Shlomo Helbrans, who drowned in a river in Guatemala in 2017. Under his son, Nachman Helbrans, it's gotten worse. insider.com/lev-tahor-jewi…

At the R. Kelly trial jury selection. One prospective juror said he thought this whole thing was about R. Crumb, the cartoonist. I haven't seen @JimDeRogatis here, to my surprise!