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Every time a new batch of Epstein files drops, we’re all told to brace for impact. But this time, the impact story isn’t about some washed-up political relic whose name everyone already expects to see. It’s about a much quieter player. The ones who live in the shadows and hold a ton of institutional power.

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These releases are revealing a shadowy web of Deep State operators who slithered comfortably between government, intelligence, law, and private power. These are the people whose influence and power come from access to the highest people in the country. And that’s where today’s bombshell thread comes into play…

Mike Benz walks us through a series of new details involving a woman by the name of Kathy Ruemmler. Who is she? Well, she served as Barack Obama’s White House Counsel and later became one of the most powerful legal figures in elite private practice.

Mike reveals that Ms. Ruemmler received a CIA Agency Medal in 2015 (from John Brennan) and emailed Jeffrey Epstein about it just hours after receiving the award.

That little move raises eyebrows, but Benz lays out why it really matters.

The award was never publicly reported and isn’t listed in Ruemmler’s bios. Mike believes it was deliberately kept out of the public record. That matters, because CIA Agency Medals are usually disclosed when recipients are comfortable with it. But in Ruemmler’s case, she wasn’t. Why?

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It turns out that non-CIA civilians can receive this award privately if they’ve played some kind of meaningful role in enabling CIA operations by clearing legal or political obstacles. Keep in mind, at the time Ruemmler received her award, she was no longer in government. She was a private citizen working at Latham & Watkins, a firm that would later play a lead role in the Russiagate hoax.

Mike explores whether this was run-of-the-mill political back-scratching or something more. Benz also says that Ruemmler was so close to Epstein that she was the backup executor of his will.

Mike Benz:

A couple interesting notes on the reveal that Obama’s White House Counsel (top lawyer to the President) Kathy Ruemmler emailed Jeffrey Epstein she was awarded the CIA Agency Medal just hours after getting the award

2) When I saw this, I wondered why I’d never heard this before. Her CIA Agency Award in 2015 was not and still has never been reported by any press outlet whatsoever, not even a fringe one. It’s not in her Wikipedia. It’s not in her extensive current Goldman Sachs bio.

3) I’ve covered many times, for example, how BlackRock’s Vice Chairman proudly lists his winning the CIA’s Director’s Award openly on his official BlackRock bio.

4) The award is a big deal and she was clearly so excited and proud of it she rushed to tell Jeffrey Epstein mere hours after CIA Director John Brennan awarded her, and then sought validation from Epstein over it.

5) Now, this is where it gets interesting. Ruemmler had already left government and returned to private practice at Latham & Watkins 8 months earlier. When she won the CIA Agency Medal, she was a private citizen. A civilian.

6) As it turns out, non-CIA civilians can receive the CIA Agency Medal — privately with no public release — if they have played a meaningful role in enabling CIA operations, providing critical access, or helping clear high-stakes legal or operational obstacles the CIA faced

7) The reason the CIA doesn’t publicly disclose CIA Agency Medal winners who are non-CIA civilians is because those winners, as nominal civilians with no CIA overlap, may not want the public to know they covertly helped the CIA overcome sensitive legal or political obstacles.

8) Of course, you can’t rule out simple cronyism back-scratching. It was Ruemmler who fought to legally block CIA disclosures on Benghazi from Congress to save not-yet-CIA-Director John Brennan’s Senate confirmation bid, 2 years before Brennan gave her the CIA Agency Award.

9) Worth noting Kathy Ruemmler, who fought to make John Brennan the CIA Director and then won the CIA Agency Award, was so close to Epstein she was the backup executor of Jeffrey Epstein’s will.

10) But the pure cronyism explanation doesn’t sit right with me. For one, anyone can get a CIA Agency Award at any time. It’s not “once a year” doled out in one batch. Brennan became CIA chief in March 2013. He didn’t give her the award until 2 years later, after she left gov’t

11) Second, if Brennan had given Ruemmler the CIA Agency Medal earlier while she was still White House Counsel, she could forever-after confidently share the honor publicly without needing to hide it, since everyone would presume it related to her official White House legal role

12) Now, it’s possible Brennan issued her the award while she was White House Counsel but then kept it in CIA custody until she left gov’t, if political sensitivities or the covert operation the award related to were still ongoing. I found examples of that in declassified docs

13) But still, something doesn’t sit right. Even if you never announce the CIA Agency Award to the public, there’s still a real benefit to getting one: privileged inside access, weight & deference, plus more opportunities channeled to you in ongoing and future CIA relationships.

14) So wherever Ruemmler worked when she got the award, the CIA effectively had “their woman” in the room for all manner of “informal consultation” or info-sharing. Well, in 2015, when she got it, she was at Latham & Watkins: a central firm in the CIA-led 2016 Russiagate affair

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And this is where the Epstein story keeps getting misunderstood by the masses.

Everyone’s been on high alert to look for the loudest names and the most obvious villains. But Epstein was a connector. The people who mattered most in his orbit weren’t the ones flying on planes or making headlines. They were the ones who understood how power actually works behind closed doors.

Like Ms. Ruemmler.

When you look at Mike’s thread, someone like Bill Clinton starts to look less like some power player and more like a managed asset. The real danger isn’t the puppet. It’s the hands on the strings.

Like Ms. Ruemmler.

And speaking of Epstein narratives being aggressively misused, that brings us to last night.

During the low-rated Grammy Awards, unfunny “DEI” host Trevor Noah alleged that President Trump visited Epstein’s island. That claim is false. Trump responded almost immediately, calling it defamatory and saying he plans on suing Noah into oblivion.

Here’s a closeup of President Trump’s statement:

Image

Lately, Dems and their media buddies have been hoping the Epstein files would deliver a fatal blow to Trump. They haven’t. So once again, instead of facts, the next move is “fake news.”

Of course, that tired tactic only works if people stop asking questions.

Which brings us to the next disturbing layer of this story.

As more documents come to light, another bombshell has exploded. According to reports, Epstein wasn’t just was running a massive intelligence honeypot operation.

Newly released info claims he had Russian/KGB connections. Some intelligence sources believe this could help explain how Epstein was able to maintain his uber-wealthy lifestyle that never quite matched his legitimate business career.

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Daily Mail:

Jeffrey Epstein was running ‘the world’s largest honeytrap operation’ on behalf of the KGB when he procured women for his network of associates, intelligence sources believe.

The release of more than three million new documents relating to the late sex offender gives credence to incendiary claims made by senior security officials: that Epstein was working on behalf of Moscow, and possibly Israel, when he facilitated assignations for some of the world’s most powerful men.

The files include 1,056 documents naming Russian President Vladimir Putin and 9,629 referring to Moscow. Epstein even seems to have secured audiences with Putin after his 2008 conviction for procuring a child for prostitution.

The sources say it could explain why Epstein appeared to enjoy an ultra-wealthy lifestyle out of kilter with his career as a financier, although there is no documentary evidence linking Putin and his spies directly to Epstein’s illicit activities.

But the sources also claim that while US security services ‘monitored’ Epstein’s Russian connections for years, their UK equivalents were hesitant due to Epstein’s connection to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

The cache includes an email claiming Bill Gates asked one of Epstein’s advisers to provide medicine to treat sexually transmitted diseases due to ‘sex with Russian girls’ – something he has dismissed as ‘completely false’.

It also contains a document confirming The Mail on Sunday’s October report that Epstein offered to introduce Andrew to a ‘beautiful’ 26-year-old Russian woman in August 2010 – two years after Epstein’s conviction.

American intelligence experts believe Epstein was inducted into the world of espionage via business deals with Robert Maxwell, the disgraced media magnate who – like Epstein – died in murky circumstances; in Maxwell’s case his body was found floating in the

If Epstein was functioning as a honeypot, it makes Mike’s X thread even more alarming.

Because that would mean his closest legal, political, and institutional allies weren’t just social acquaintances. They were part of a system that thrived on secrecy, leverage, and quiet cooperation across borders and agencies, and they existed within the Obama White House.

That’s why the focus on Kathy Ruemmler matters. She represents the kind of power that never needs to explain itself. These types are used to operating way above the scandal meter and beneath public scrutiny.

And that’s the real story the Epstein files are starting to tell.

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