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The Def Con hacking conference banned hackers Pablos Holman and Vincenzo Iozzo, as well as former MIT Media Lab director Joichi Ito, from attending the annual conference after their reported connections with Jeffrey Epstein.
For years we've been told that grand juries in the US are just a rubber stamp for prosecutors (i.e. that they will indict even pork-based comestibles). But increasingly what we're seeing is that grand juries are the last line of defense against an administration that is hellbent on perverting the justice system. From the NYT:
"Federal prosecutors in Washington sought and failed on Tuesday to secure an indictment against six Democratic lawmakers who posted a video this fall that enraged President Trump by reminding active-duty members of the military and intelligence community that they were obligated to refuse illegal orders, four people familiar with the matter said."
"It was remarkable that the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington — led by Jeanine Pirro, a longtime ally of Mr. Trump’s — authorized prosecutors to go into a grand jury and ask for an indictment of the six members of Congress, all of whom had served in the military or the nation’s spy agencies."
"But it was even more remarkable that a group of ordinary citizens sitting on the grand jury in Federal District Court in Washington forcefully rejected Mr. Trump’s bid to label their expression of dissent as a criminal act warranting prosecution."
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/us/politics/trump-democrats-illegal-orders-pirro.html
According to the Epstein files, he had a "personal hacker" working for him. The FBI document says Epstein's personal hacker was an "Italian citizen born in Calabria who developed zero-day exploits and offensive cyber tools and sold the tools to governments."
https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01683874.pdf
"[Redacted] sold a zero-day to Hebollah. [Redacted] was known as the first person to hack and find vulnerabilities in Blackberries and iOS. He was known for finding Firefox vulnerabilities. [Redacted] former company was acquired by CrowdStrike in fall of 2017 and was currently a vice president there."
"S//NF= was very good at finding vulnerabilities was friends with "old school" European hackers. "Received a trunk of cash from Hezbollah when was in Italy; drove the money to Switzerland and deposited it in another ba [redacted]. [redacted] owned a theater company in California and he used the theater company to launder his zeroday money
"Made six figures from the sale of his zero-days. He sold his tools to United Kingdom GCHQ and provided training to the organization. He also sold his zero-days to a Central African government, as well as Hezbollah for political reasons. The Italian Government asked for help, but [redacted] declined because he felt the Government was incompetent. Calabria was mob-controlled an did not have much loyalty for his birth country.
"[Redacted] sold his exploits to the United States and United Kingdom, but he would not sell to Asian countries because he a is racist. He was also anti-Semitic. [Redacted] was terrified of Russia, however, and would never travel there. He lived in Dubai at one time, and was acquainted with the [redacted] lived in Oman as well. He may have an Iranian and Israeli passport, in addition to his Vatican City passport"
Looks likely the top commenter here is correct about "Epstein's hacker":
ICYMI, the Small Business Administration (SBA) has suspended more than 1,000 small business contractors in the 8(a) Business Development Program, designed to provide contracting opportunities and training to small business owners that are socially and economically disadvantaged.
On December 5th, SBA announced that every 8(a) firm would be required to provide detailed financial information to the agency with limited guidance. The SBA initially provided just 31 days to comply with their request, over the holidays, before extending the deadline to January 19th.
On Monday, Defense News said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Jan. 16 "lambasted a decades-old contracting program that provides business opportunities for small and disadvantaged businesses, calling it a breeding ground for fraud and disparaging it as a “DEI” effort."
"In a video posted on social media, Hegseth described the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) Business Development Program in harsh terms, connecting it with diversity programs he has strongly criticized and ordering a strict review."
“We’re actually taking a sledgehammer to the oldest DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] program in the federal government,” Hegseth said. “A program few people outside of Washington have ever heard of, that I hadn’t heard of. It’s called the 8(a) program.”
We knew this was coming, but now the clock is running. From Privacy International:
"Yesterday the Trump Administration announced a proposed change in policy for travellers to the U.S. It applies to the powers of data collection by the Customs and Border Police (CBP)."
"If the proposed changes are adopted after the 60-day consultation, then millions of travellers to the U.S. will be forced to use a U.S. government mobile phone app, submit their social media from the last five years and email addresses used in the last ten years, including of family members. They’re also proposing the collection of DNA."
PI linked to and summarized a Federal Register entry describing the proposed requirements:
-All visitors must submit ‘their social media from the last 5 years’
-ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization) applications will include ‘high value data fields’, ‘when feasible’
‘telephone numbers used in the last five years’
-‘email addresses used in the last ten years’
-‘family number telephone numbers (sic) used in the last five years’
-biometrics – face, fingerprint, DNA, and iris
-business telephone numbers used in the last five years
-business email addresses used in the last ten years.
The Federal Register entry says comments are encouraged and
must be submitted (no later than February 9, 2026) to be assured of consideration.
Federal Register entry: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-12-10/pdf/2025-22461.pdf
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