IRS declined to audit billionaire who admitted to funding Epstein’s island operation

ALSO INSIDE: How cities can stop ICE from deputizing local cops

Jul 31, 2025

Cam here 👋 bringing you your daily dose of what people are doing – good, bad, and otherwise – in the world of politics. We’re diving into the stories you won’t see anywhere else. And remember, you can also keep up with me over on TikTok and Bluesky.

And if you’re looking for a little more from COURIER, Akilah Hughes talks about ways people can fight back against Trump’s inhumane immigration policy in her new series, “How is This Better?”

Since day one of Trump’s political career, people have desperately attempted to normalize his absurd abuses of power and blatant corruption – and 10 years later, much of corporate media remains a victim of their own attempts to return to a sense of normalcy.

It’s time to stop sane-washing the insanity.

What Happened

A congressional investigation into the assets of millionaire financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein revealed Thursday that the IRS has known for years about a major funding source of Epstein’s sex trafficking operation but did nothing about it.

The US Senate Finance Committee, led by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), sent a letter to IRS Commissioner Billy Long demanding a report on any audit the agency has done of Epstein’s tax filings “to better understand the full scope of the financing of Epstein’s sex trafficking operation.”

The response is expected to be light, however, as the tax agency has so far failed to inspect Epstein’s finances, despite a number of red flags — both official and unofficial.

“Epstein lacked any professional training or certifications in accounting or tax law, yet was chosen by very wealthy people to execute very complex tax-related financial transactions. Despite this glaring lack of qualifications that might lead anyone to double-check Epstein’s work, it appears that the IRS failed over the course of many years to audit major tax transactions involving Epstein,” Wyden wrote. “Highly complicated tax arrangements between Epstein and one of his billionaire funders have never been audited by the IRS.”

Spokespeople for the IRS and US Treasury did not respond to requests for comment on this story.

The billionaire funder in question is former Wall Street executive Leon Black, who admitted as part of a $65 million settlement with the US Virgin Islands that “Epstein used the money Black paid him to partially fund his operations in the Virgin Islands.” Those operations are alleged to include an extensive, international sex trafficking ring that forced underage women to have sex with Epstein’s wealthy clients.

Over 200 victims have come forward to testify against Epstein, including former Mar-a-Lago employee Virginia Giuffrie. President Donald Trump admitted in late July that he was aware Epstein used Mar-a-Lago to target and groom teens for years before he barred him from the property. Now, as president, Trump has proven to be a roadblock to transparency and accountability, closing the criminal investigation into Epstein and blocking Congress from accessing Treasury documents.

“There has been a concerted effort by the Trump administration to play down these important records that we have worked with for more than three years,” Wyden said. “We saw what was going on in Florida, we saw what was going on in New York. We saw wire transfers that were moving money and young underage girls into sex trafficking all over the world.”

Black told the committee in 2023 that the IRS had not audited his financial ties to Epstein for suspicious activity, even after the billionaire admitted his checks helped keep Epstein’s island up and running; Black had also vastly overpaid Epstein for his high school-level accounting savvy.

Reports from the four banks Epstein had accounts with should also have triggered an audit. In the short time Wyden’s team was allowed Treasury access to review these reports, they found suspicious activity reports filed on nearly 5,000 of Epstein’s transactions. Two of the institutions, JP Morgan Chase and Deutsche Bank, even settled Epstein-related lawsuits for hundreds of millions of dollars over their failure to act responsibly, although both admitted no wrongdoing. Even still, government regulatory bodies declined to investigate.

“At a time when so many Americans think that the political system is rigged, this is about whether there's going to be accountability for the people who were involved and who enabled it,” Wyden said. “The question is, is the government going to look out for victims — people who have no power — or are they going to keep on protecting the rich and powerful who are part of Epstein's network, even when those people have committed horrendous crimes?”

Without the support of Republicans on the committee, Wyden lacks the authority to subpoena the suspicious activity reports. Should the IRS comply with his request, it has until September 1 to deliver a report on any audit conducted into Epstein’s financial dealings.

Attempts to Sanewash

Far-Right Spin

Locals push back against ICE’s mass deputization of local cops

Residents of the largest suburb in the US saw an opportunity this month, when their new police chief was sworn in: they pushed to get their city out of bed with ICE.

Mesa, Arizona, has been part of the 287(g) program’s Jail Enforcement Model since 2009, an incentive through the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that offers local police specialized training in exchange for their assistance in immigration enforcement. The program has three tiers: jail enforcement, where the immigration status of people arrested is checked; warrants, where local cops can serve ICE’s warrants; and task force, which gives police authority to operate as ICE agents do while out on patrol.

The idea of masked, plainclothes police officers smashing car windows, abducting her neighbors, and sending friends to internment camps did not sit well with Jillian, one of the founders of the community volunteer group Indivisible Mesa. She only recently became acquainted with the 287(g) program, and was horrified to learn that the Trump administration could turn her local police force of over 800 officers into deputized ICE agents overnight.

“I don't trust that this is going to be an institution that's not going to be racial profiling; pulling people over for small infractions and then taking them to jail to detain them, and assisting ICE with these quotas that they need to meet,” Jillian said. “I've lived here for a while, and I am really just disturbed to see that this is happening in our city.”

The Task Force Model was removed by the Obama administration in 2012, and revived by Trump earlier this year to supplement his administration’s mass incarceration and deportation efforts. ICE has been actively recruiting law enforcement agencies to sign up for the task force model with great success. Nearly 1,000 agencies have signed up with 287(g), and the 400 departments, like Mesa, that are part of the lower tiers of cooperation are being pressured to switch to join the task force.

Mesa’s new police chief, Dan Butler, was contacted by ICE before he was even sworn in, and backlash to the very idea that Mesa could engage in task force-style immigration enforcement prompted Butler to put out a statement on YouTube explaining his department’s history with 287(g), and reiterating multiple times that Mesa police would only participate in the jail portion of the program.

“We do not go out into the community and actively earch for people based on immigration status,” Butler said. “If someone is arrested, they are taken to the holding facility, and they are asked their immigration status. If they report back to the Mesa Police Department that they are in the country illegally, we have an obligation to notify ICE.”

But Butler’s promise before being sworn in to lead the department didn’t quite cut it for Jillian and the thousands of residents who oppose the ICE-ification of Mesa PD, so she went to the city council meeting to ask the council to formally — and completely — remove the department from the 287(g) program. She was rebuffed by Councilmember Jenn Duff, who dismissed criticism of the program and filled the portion of the meeting's public comment section with other speakers.

I caught up with Jillian after the meeting to find out what she would have said:

US Rep. Robert Aderholt, Alabama’s 4th Congressional District

Since taking office in 2019, Rep. Aderholt has:

Seen his net worth increase from $4 million to $12 million
Sponsored 97 bills
Authored four bills that have been signed into law and one that was vetoed by former President Barack Obama
Asked for prayers after being evacuated during the Jan. 6 Insurrection, then voted in favor of the insurrectionists’ goal to overturn the 2020 election results
Accepted campaign contributions from fraudulent crypto bank FTX

Fun Facts

Rep. Aderholt has spent this year championing the work of disgraced White House employee Elon Musk’s failed attempt to cut government spending, but he appears to play fast and loose when it comes to taxpayer dollars. Aderholt is a commissioner for America 250, the organization that planned Trump’s $45 million military parade earlier this year. He’s also received criticism from voters for using his committee positions not to benefit his district, but to funnel money to the university where his wife sits on the board of trustees.

International affairs seem to be a hobby horse of Aderholt’s: though he doesn’t have any professional experience abroad and doesn’t sit on any related committees, he’s spent a fair amount of time and taxpayer money abroad. In 2010, Aderholt was under investigation for ethics violations related to pocketing per diem money while traveling. During several of his trips, Aderholt met with far-right, anti-Semitic leaders in Eastern Europe, whom he described as close, long-term friends.

Advertise in this newsletter

Do you or your company want to support COURIER’s mission and showcase your products or services to an aligned audience of 190,000+ subscribers at the same time? Contact advertising@couriernewsroom.com for more information.