https://rare.us/rare-politics/biden-becomes-enraged-screams-in-the-face-of-reporters-over-hunter-biden-evidence-video/
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/how-jeffrey-epstein-s-island-politics-helped-elect-congresswoman-stacey-plaskett/ar-AA1d7Hb3?ocid
Business Insider
How Jeffrey Epstein's island politics helped elect Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett
Story by jshamsian@insider.com (Jacob Shamsian) • 1h ago
Court filings show how Jeffrey Epstein exerted power in the US Virgin Islands, two of which he owned.
He generously donated to local politicians, including now-congresswoman Stacey Plaskett.
His consigliere was the islands' first lady, who helped him weigh in on a sex-offender law, records show.
It was 2018, and Rep. Stacey Plaskett was running for reelection in Congress. She expected to win a third term easily, running unopposed in both the Democratic primary and the general election.
Plaskett had a list of people to ask for money. It included previous donors, alumni, and "individuals who were interested in the same topics for which committees I sat on," she said in the deposition.
On that list, she said, was Jeffrey Epstein.
A financier worth hundreds of millions of dollars, Epstein owned two islands in the US Virgin Islands (there are roughly 50 islands overall). His main residence, on the island of Little St. James, was lavishly furnished in the style of a resort. He had even shipped in more sand and palm trees to make it look exactly as he desired. Plaskett wanted to persuade Epstein to donate $30,000, the maximum amount an individual could donate to a national campaign committee at the time.
There was just one issue for Plaskett. Epstein was a convicted sex offender, having pleaded guilty 11 years earlier to soliciting sex from a minor. Law enforcement had separately concluded he sexually abused scores of underage girls at his home in Palm Beach, Florida.
Plaskett was focused on hitting her $250,000 goal. A $30,000 donation was a feasible ask for Epstein. He had donated generously to Democratic politicians from the US Virgin Islands for years. In exchange, recent court filings say, he got $300 million in tax incentives and was able to fly girls to his islands without customs batting an eye.
With the assistance of the US Virgin Islands' first lady, Epstein navigated the territory's political waters unscathed. He weighed in on an overhaul of sex-offender laws, considered putting a lawmaker "on retainer," and made a customs office look the other way by simply buying all 78 staff members turkeys for Thanksgiving, court filings say.
After all, Plaskett had taken Epstein's money before, for her own campaign.
Earlier that year, on July 12, Plaskett sent an email to Epstein's assistant Lesley Groff, inviting the pedophile to a fundraiser for her campaign. She said she would be "grateful" for whatever support Epstein could provide.
Epstein responded just two minutes later in his typically typo-marred prose.
He wrote: "get maximum ampounts allowed."
Epstein kept up the generosity. In September that year, a consultant on Plaskett's campaign invited Epstein to two dinners on St. Thomas and St. Croix, the two main islands in the US Virgin Islands, emails show. Epstein swiftly promised he would donate the "max" but said he didn't want his name attached.
At some point in fall 2018, Plaskett visited Epstein at his Manhattan mansion. Plaskett said Groff greeted her at the foyer and brought her to Epstein, who was sitting at a long dining-room table. He agreed to give the full $30,000 that Plaskett had asked him to contribute to the DCCC.
The committee ended up rejecting the donation.
"He had not passed their vetting," Plaskett said in the deposition. "I was informed by my chief of staff that the DCCC informed him that Mr. Epstein's contribution would not be accepted by the DCCC."
A representative for Plaskett didn't respond to multiple requests for comment.
Just a few months after Plaskett's 2018 reelection, federal prosecutors in Manhattan brought a sex-trafficking indictment against him. He died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial, so he had no other chance to donate to one of Plaskett's campaigns.
She did, however, accept money from him on previous occasions.
Epstein donated $5,400 to Plaskett's campaigns in the 2016 campaign cycle, hitting the contribution limits for the primary and general elections, Federal Election Commission records show. He maxed out his donation to her unopposed campaign in the 2018 cycle as well.
His financial support of Plaskett's political career stretched back to 2014, the first year she won her seat in the House.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/founder-of-minnesota-based-precision-lens-dies-when-vintage-airplane-crashes-in-montana/ar-AA1daki7?ocid
The Associated Press
Founder of Minnesota-based Precision Lens dies when vintage airplane crashes in Montana
7m ago
HAMILTON, Mont. (AP) — The founder of the Minnesota-based medical products company Precision Lens died when a vintage plane crashed shortly after takeoff at an airport in Montana.
Paul Ehlen was piloting the plane that went down at 8:07 a.m. Tuesday at the Ravalli County Airport, the company's chief financial officer, Bill Henneman, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. The aircraft was a World War II vintage P-40E registered with the Federal Aviation Administration to one of Ehlen's LLCs.
“Precision Lens is saddened by the passing earlier today of its founder Paul Ehlen,” the company said in a statement. “Paul had a passion for restoring and flying vintage military aircraft, and he was killed this morning when the single-engine P-40 he was flying back to Minneapolis suffered a mechanical failure on takeoff.”
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate, authorities said.
Ehlen was alone on the plane and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to a news release from the Ravalli County Sheriff's Office. The airport is in Hamilton, Montana, near Missoula, where Ehlen had a home.
Precision Lens is based in Bloomington, Minnesota.
In February, a federal jury found Ehlen and his Cameron-Ehlen Group Inc., which does business as Precision Lens, violated the federal anti-kickback statute and False Claims Act. A judge ordered damages of $487 million. The company said at the time that it planned to appeal.
Prosecutors at the trial said Precision Lens paid eye surgeons through luxury ski vacations and trips to exclusive sporting events to induce them to use their products in cataracts surgeries that were reimbursed by Medicare.