Ivana Trump Was Epstein’s Other Madam, Says Beauty Queen

Trump is pardoning pollution violators, a Secret Service agent was Googling a Butler rooftop the exact moment a gunman opened fire from it, and Louisiana's AG has been charged with 16 felonies

Good afternoon. I’m Ryan Rose, and this is AlterNet America.

A former Miss Switzerland now says Ivana Trump funneled women into Epstein’s orbit the same way Ghislaine Maxwell did. Trump is poised to pardon a slate of people convicted of tampering with diesel pollution controls. A Secret Service operator was at his desk Googling a rooftop in Butler, Pennsylvania at the exact moment a gunman opened fire from that rooftop. And Louisiana’s attorney general was indicted on 16 felony counts, and the governor is already promising to pardon her.

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Now, let’s dive in.

Ivana Trump Was Epstein’s Other Madam, Says Beauty Queen

Turns out the scariest part of a 1990s beauty pageant wasn’t the swimsuit portion.

Beatrice Keul, 55, a former Miss Switzerland and Miss Europe contestant said that Ivana Trump funneled young women into Epstein’s orbit at high-end events where his circle could scout and later isolate them.

“Ivana played a major role in this whole cosmos, bringing in women in the same way as Maxwell,” Keul said. “Was Maxwell a madam or an enabler? However you would describe her, Ivana was the same.”

The claims have not been independently verified, and no evidence suggesting Ivana knew of or took part in any crimes has been released. Ivana, the mother of Don Jr., Ivanka, and Eric, died in 2022 at 73 and was never charged.

Keul previously alleged that Trump, then 47, groped her at his 1993 American Dream Pageant when she was a 23-year-old banking executive, and threatened her if she spoke. She also says Epstein once told her she was his intended “prey.”

Trump has denied all allegations, calling them “unequivocally false.” The White House says he “has been totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein.” You’d think a “totally exonerated” man would be racing to release those files, not sitting on them.

Trump Is About to Pardon the People Who Sabotaged Pollution Controls

Make America Healthy Again, except the lungs.

Trump is poised to pardon a slate of people convicted of emissions and Clean Air Act violations, according to sources familiar with his plans, with Friday’s list expected to be exclusively related to Clean Air Act violations. He was scheduled to meet Friday afternoon to decide based on recommendations from advisers.

Last year, Trump pardoned Wyoming mechanic Troy Lake, who served seven months for disabling air pollution-control equipment on diesel engines. That pardon was helped along by a Wyoming lobbyist who got the case on the White House’s radar.

Meanwhile, Trump is privately weighing clemency for higher-profile figures, including Sean “Diddy” Combs, convicted in 2025 of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, and transportation to engage in prostitution. Combs wrote Trump a letter asking for a pardon, but so far neither he nor the other big names were expected on Friday’s list.

Also seeking clemency: Fugees rapper Pras Michel, convicted in a foreign-lobbying conspiracy with financier Jho Low, who is accused of embezzling $4.5 billion from Malaysia’s 1MDB fund. Low is reportedly seeking a pardon too.

Clemency has been a fixture of this term since day one, when Trump granted relief to over 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants. If you’ve been convicted of anything lately, you might want to check your mailbox.

Pardons are flying out the door. So is the news cycle. Become a paid subscriber today so you never miss what matters.

Secret Service Agent Googled Location of Trump’s Shooter the Moment He Fired

Apparently, Secret Service protocol reads: see something, Google something.

A Department of Homeland Security inspector general report released Thursday found that a counter drone operator was still searching online for the rooftop’s location when Thomas Crooks fired his first shots at the July 13, 2024, rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

At 6:09 p.m., local law enforcement called the communications room warning of a suspicious person on the American Glass Research complex’s roof, just 155 yards from the stage. The supervisor didn’t even recall learning about it, because he’d delegated the matter to the counter drone operator during a “busy time” on the radios.

Instead of asking the officers on the phone where the building was, the operator searched the internet for it. Two minutes later, at 6:11 p.m., Crooks fired eight shots, grazing Trump’s ear, wounding others, and killing one rally attendee.

The report found the agency never established a joint communications room, which meant 102 radio transmissions about the gunman went unheard. One at 5:42 p.m. warned of “a younger white male long hair lurking around the AGR building” viewed “with a rangefinder sighting the stage.”

Trump’s protective detail was never told any of it. The report also found that Trump’s campaign staff waved off Secret Service from parking trucks between the AGR building and the stage. The reason: the trucks would be “too close to [Trump’s] press shot.”

Louisiana’s GOP Attorney General Indicted on 16 Felonies

Louisiana has managed to combine the indictment and the pardon into a single news cycle, which is impressive even by the standards of this administration.

An arrest warrant for Attorney General Liz Murrill was issued Thursday, minutes after a 16-count felony indictment came down in New Orleans Criminal District Court. Her bond totals $400,000, or $25,000 for each charge.

Murrill, a Republican, is accused of eight counts of malfeasance in office and eight counts of intimidation. A New Orleans grand jury reviewed whether she sought to intimidate local officials, including Mayor Helena Moreno and District Attorney Jason Williams.

The allegation: Murrill told the officials in May that they had imperiled their jobs by pushing back on a new law to combine the city’s criminal and district clerks of court.

Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican and a Murrill ally, took to X to call it a “kangaroo grand jury” and pledged to pardon her “as fast as the law allows.” While he was doing that, Murrill was reportedly dispatching law enforcement to the doorsteps of the very people who charged her.

Nothing like proving your innocence on an intimidation charge by intimidating people.

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