The Truth Behind the LEGO Scandal Gets Messier

PDS Published 06/11/2026

• Coffeezilla Claims RecklessBen's Missing LEGOs Aren't Worth $200K

  The reckless Ben Lego theft scandal that's taken over the internet just had another shocking twist after Coffeezilla got as opposed to Miss Rachel scandal as some of the worst people on the internet calling her a monster. Trump's Epstein problem is back and crazier than ever after a new bombshell report, and a daughter hunted down her mother's killer in Mexico. Talking about all of that and even more on today's brand new Philip DeFranco show.

  Your daily dive into the news. So buckle up, make sure you're subscribed, and let's jump into it, starting with — you thought it was done. And then Coffeezilla came in like a wrecking ball and just blew the lid off of this reckless Ben Lego scandal situation. Appearing to possibly uncover the true value of a collection, seeming to many online to catch the CEO of Bricks and Minifigs in lies, and even accounting for the majority of the Legos.

  Quick recap for the stragglers. Or maybe you're coming in late. And just also to refresh your memory — in Oregon, a man by the name of Brian Manzo entered into a consignment deal with a Bricks and Minifigs location in Salem, Oregon, to sell his father's massive collection of Star Wars Legos for a 65% cut. At that time, the store's owner, Crystal Gorman, made an announcement saying that the collection was estimated to be worth around $200,000.

  But then back in 2024, the store was seized by corporate and taken over by two men by the name of Josh Johnson and Brandon Bast. And when that happened, Brian's Legos, they went missing. He said he was not paid.

  And so then enters reckless bandit, turns the whole thing into a viral investigation that quickly spirals out of control — gets arrested twice on accusations of stalking, his car searched for heroin. His Airbnb was raided for the missing Legos. He flees to Mexico, and now he's facing a RICO lawsuit by Bricks and Minifigs. A lawsuit that's now silenced him on the topic, with his latest video saying that if he talks about it again or even mentions the company at all, Ben is going to lose his lawsuit and all the money that the GoFundMe raised for Brian.

  So with this whole thing, there have been a number of big pressing questions, starting with — where the hell are these damn Legos? Crystal is accusing the new owners of stealing them. Corporate Bricks, in many cases, accusing Crystal of stealing them. And there's also accusations that Ben stole them. And on and on and on. Stolen Legos all the way down.

  And that is where Coffeezilla comes in. Because he does a supposedly deep dive investigation into the whole situation, interviewing Crystal, Ben, and Eamon McNabb and his brother Matt, the respective CEO and COO of Bricks and Minifigs corporate. Even for Coffeezilla, it was a long, winding path to get to the real heart of this whole story, with very conflicting stories.

  The McNabbs stood by the claim that there was only between 2 to 5K worth of Brian's Star Wars Legos when the store was seized by Brandon Bassett on November 14th, 2024. And saying that anything else left from the collection was either stolen by thieves, Crystal, or held off site — with Matt McNabb claiming at one point that he saw Crystal take a car full of Legos out of a car with a jacket draped over it.

  But you've got Crystal saying that all of the remaining unsold Legos listed on her spreadsheet were in the store when it was taken. She did confirm that Brian's Legos were briefly kept off site to prevent theft while the store installed safes. She also firmly claimed that they had been returned to the store before the night of the takeover.

  But one of the main takeaways is that by this point, Coffeezilla obtained photos and videos from both Crystal and the McNabbs, as well as the spreadsheet Crystal kept regarding Brian's collection and the sale records for the last couple of years at the Salem store. And so he and his team, they comb through all of it to answer the question of — where is this $200,000 Lego collection? Where did it end up?

  Well, the first big thing that you should know is that apparently it is not worth $200,000. In Crystal Gorman's inventory, which has a high and low estimate value of these various Lego items, the real estimated value is about $107,000. They give high estimates and low estimates, but that's right there in the middle. And for simplicity, I'll just be using averages and estimates here. But understand that these numbers are not firm, given that they're unsold Legos. It's just rough possibilities. But the point is it's worth nowhere near $200,000.

  And the idea that the $200,000 figure is incorrect — that's something that Bricks and Minifigs has actually been saying for a while. But Crystal also confirmed it to Coffeezilla.

  "The spreadsheet says about between $85,000 to $120-something thousand, in the midpoint about $107,000 or something like that, of what was inventory. Does that sound right to you?"

  "My original assessment of about $200,000 was going up to his father's house and looking in three different rooms with all the sets. It was before I had actually gone through and had set numbers and done an actual evaluation. I looked at it and went based on… As things progressed and as I started to delve more into the actual inventory and evaluating it, that number changed. But we put out the press release well in advance of the event itself. So that press release went out before I had those full numbers. So we went — this is a nice even number that will grab attention and bring people into the store."

  But of that $107,000 average, Crystal's records show that about $24,000 worth of the collection was sold, and that Brian was paid $17,000, which ends up matching up with that 65% deal that was made with the store.

  So then the basic math here says that there should have been more than $80,000 worth of the collection left in the store when it was seized. Except the McNabb brothers, remember, claim that there was a max five grand worth of Brian's collection in the store.

  So Coffeezilla hired a team to go through the photos and the videos that Crystal and Brandon Bast took when they stocked the store on November 14th, and he found a lot more than $5,000.

  "In the end, I ended up with about $21,000 of Legos matching Brian's collection that can be proven to be in the store on the night of November 14th. Now, to state the obvious, that's about 3 to 5 times what corporate estimated, at least on their press release. Now, yes, there are inherent errors in these estimates. Maybe we picked up some Lego that matched Brian's collection but wasn't Brian's. But even though this is a bigger number than corporate said, I have to admit — even with pretty generous assumptions being made, there's still a huge gap of about $61,000 here that I just couldn't find."

  That brings us to the next point.

  Coffeezilla revealed that Brian had a signed deal with a company called M&R Productions, with shared photos of the Legos that Brian had sold them. Coffeezilla found that some of the Legos in those pictures appeared to match the sets Crystal listed as being in storage on her spreadsheet, and he says this is kind of a missing puzzle piece.

  "Now, previously I was told that all of the stuff in storage was put back in the store, but there's a bunch that's on this list that I can't find in the store that seemed to appear in these pictures. Now I've been assured, by the way, that most of these Legos were not part of the inventory spreadsheet. They were never given to Bricks and Minifigs. This is a separate part of the collection. But I did a check, and 100% of the items that match the Brian collection inventory just so happened to be listed with a location of storage."

  Coffeezilla finding that when you consider the side deal, that's about 10 to $20,000 that's not actually missing.

  And so at this point, it appears that Coffeezilla accounted for about $60,000 of the $107,000 value estimate on Brian's collection. And so he starts to look at the internal sales records from the Salem store. But those records show that about $51,000 in sales went through that matched Brian's collection — nearly double the $24,000 that Crystal cited in her records.

  And those discrepancies were largely chalked up to layaway deals, which — if you're not familiar — is when a customer makes a down payment on a product and later pays it off to avoid someone else buying it out from under them. But Crystal categorized layaway as having been sold already. And Coffeezilla found that there were 98 of those deals, a total between 15 and $25,000.

  But then also Josh Johnson, one of the new owners, told Coffeezilla that there were only 2 to 3 items on layaway when they took over the store. And also other people at Bricks and Minifigs told him that layaways are pretty rare, which is something that even Crystal admitted. But she also said that this collection, it was a different story.

  "Outside of Bryan's collection, I think at the time, we maybe had two used sets on layaway outside of his collection. It was not a common thing. Traditionally."

  With Crystal going on to estimate that about half the layaways weren't actually sold because people would put bulk items on layaway but then not buy all of them, and actually certain items would get put on layaway multiple times before they were actually sold.

  And with Coffeezilla pressing Crystal on her bookkeeping, he still never really got clarity on why items marked as layaway were also listed alongside final sale prices. But even with the layaways, Coffeezilla found that there's still $10,000 worth of Brian's collection that were marked as sold on the store's internal records that weren't on Crystal's spreadsheet. She said that it was possible that things sold and just weren't updated on her inventory. But if that's the case, it seems like Brian wasn't paid for those items, at least based on Crystal's accounting.

  So if you add all that up, Coffeezilla says that there's only really 10 to $20,000 worth of Brian's Star Wars Legos that are still unaccounted for. But Brian himself is still short somewhere between 50 to $83,000, at least by Coffeezilla's math. The value range that he and Crystal established earlier was 85 to $120,000, with $107,000 being the average.

  And Coffeezilla says that Brian is owed 65 to 70% of the total value from the Legos, though it's unclear where he's getting that 70% figure from. Because a copy of the consignment deal reviewed by a local paper said that the deal was for him to get 65%.

  Regardless, you had Coffeezilla arguing that Bricks and Minifigs should just make things right rather than drawing this whole thing out into the monster that it's become.

  "Regardless of what a franchisee does — the new one, the old one — the company behind it must stand behind their product, their service. And I can't imagine a better example of a company doing the opposite. Unfortunately, Bricks and Minifigs has chosen to deflect and dodge responsibility at most opportunities and created a really awful customer experience that has snowballed into this crazy series of events. But instead of taking accountability for that, they've taken an aggressive legal strategy, which I told them personally was a horrible idea."

  But also as Coffeezilla made his way through this insane deep dive, it looked to many online like he managed to catch the brothers in what people say could be several different lies.

  The first being Crystal's history and their knowledge of it. Matt McNabb supported his accusation that Crystal had stolen Brian's Legos by saying that she had a history of retail theft on a record that she hadn't disclosed to them. But when Coffeezilla asked Crystal about it, she said that that incident they're referring to happened when she was 19 years old. She's in her 40s now. And she said she absolutely told them about it before she was even hired. She had some colorful things to say about the McNabbs choosing to bring that up.

  "This something that happened 25 years ago has no reflection and no bearing on what happened in the last two years. My management of the store, what happened the night corporate seized the store — it is another deflection and it infuriates me. You're going to try to publicly embarrass and shame me for something that was done to a person who was manipulated by local police departments when she was pregnant and 19 years old. Yeah, that's my response to that."

  Then there were the photos of the inventory from the day that the Salem store was seized. Matt McNabb said the photos that Brandon had taken included every single Star Wars Lego item in the store that day, and they even made an inventory of it, coming to between $5,000 and $10,000 in value. Then Coffeezilla pulled up Crystal's photos from that same day to see if they lined up.

  "I think the important thing is making sure that all of these are in the inventory for Matt. Oh, sure, sure. That's 75041. Yep, the Vulture Droid. 75169. 169 — I'm not seeing. So there may be… okay, so there's one that is not on our list. Let's try this — 10140. Nope, not seeing that one either. What about 94933? I don't see that one either. So maybe those were locked at the time and Brandon did not get those pictures."

  And so you have people saying clearly Brandon didn't capture all the boxes in the store, which also calls into question their claim that there were only 5 to $10,000 worth of Star Wars Legos in the store when it was seized.

  Then finally there's the real big one that we get at the end of Coffeezilla's video. You would have Matt McNabb claiming that corporate was never sent Crystal's spreadsheets where she was documenting the sale of Brian's Star Wars Lego collection.

  "We never got that. That was never sent to us at corporate, by the way."

  "Y'all don't have the… y'all do have the spreadsheet though?"

  "Yeah, that was shared online. But like… but months after we asked for it."

  "It says… I'm on the… I'm on the far right now. It says storage — used — owned by B&M Franchising Inc. Owner Salem — for bricks and minifigs.com. What are you looking at?"

  "Says owner Salem dot… or at bricksandminifigs.com. That's you guys. So it's owned by B&M Franchising Inc. Says created September 6th, 2024. When I look at it, this is the… the buy and sell list, I believe. So this would have been created under… so… so we have the… we — oh, y'all definitely have this. Y'all have access to this?"

  "Well, I thought I had no idea. And I'm going to let you take from that whatever you will."

  At least Coffeezilla's conclusion in all this is that — well, no one seems to be 100% in the right. There is definitely something weird going on between what really appears to be like a mix of bad bookkeeping and the blame game and just an entire mess. We may never really actually get to the bottom of this.

  As for now, we're just gonna have to wait to see how things continue to unfold, what updates we get. And in the meantime, of course, I would absolutely love to know your thoughts, opinions, and reactions on the situation we've been trying to keep up with. Never really thought there'd be a Lego scandal, let alone it be something that has taken over the internet for more than a week.

• Sponsored by Sundays for Dogs

  But first, let me thank a sponsor, pay some bills, and say — you know, I will admit at one point I caught myself scanning the ingredients of my own dog food right before dumping mystery gravel into my dog's bowl. It got me thinking, we can all do better by our pets. That's why I truly love today's sponsor, Sundays for Dogs.

  This is real dog food made with human grade ingredients — real meat, organs, and superfoods. My dogs love this. And it's not savory protein nuggets or some brown pebbles pretending to be food. Sundays was created by a veterinarian who wanted dog food that was actually healthy, easy to serve, and not wildly expensive. It's air dried and jerky style, so it keeps the nutrients and flavor while ditching the freezer, fridge, thawing, and all the other stuff that makes feeding your dog feel weirdly high maintenance. You literally just scoop it and serve. And my favorite part is that your dog immediately acts like you suddenly learned how to cook. And it can support digestion, healthier coats, fresh breath, and that kind of energy burst that you love to see in your dog. Plus there are no synthetic preservatives or sketchy byproducts hiding in the ingredients — just like a little nutritional jump start.

  Hey, just scan the QR code or click the link or go to Sundays for Dogs for 50% off your first order. That's half off to upgrade your dog from surviving to thriving. And then right back into the news.

SUNDAY FOR DOGS

Go to https://sundaysfordogs.com/phil to get 50% off your first order of Sundays for Dogs!

• Ms. Rachel Called a "Demon" for Singing With Children Whose Parents Are Detained

  We should talk about someone who has been described as a demon, a crazy woman, a complete propagandist — and that person is children's YouTuber Miss Rachel. Because you had a ton of people just absolutely furious that she sang songs with children whose families have been separated by ICE detention.

  "I know this monster. Somebody must stop her — won't someone think of the children? Oh, she is."

  That's… and the specific context here is Miss Rachel went to Delaney Hall in New Jersey, where detainees said that they have been subject to neglect and poor living conditions — claiming they've been given expired and inedible food, sometimes with maggots in it. Others say they haven't been able to access necessary medical care for cancer, diabetes, and other serious conditions.

  So some detainees, they started a hunger strike, and there have been major protests from citizens outside, resulting in some demonstrators getting arrested. And so this week you had Miss Rachel teaming up with the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice to call for the center's closing and speak to children whose parents or other relatives are detained.

  So you had her sharing a photo of her hugging a child and writing: "Met the sweetest children whose hearts are broken. Just want their parents home. I spoke with a 13 year old whose dad is an amazing, wonderful father, she said, tearing up. He's been in the US for 20 years. He worked driving a truck. Her dad has to miss her graduation, their birthdays. Makes no sense that their family has been ripped apart. Why are we traumatizing kids?"

  Rachel also met with other families to hear and tell their stories, posting a video singing with kids and their families.

  "I sing from here and you sing from there. Together we'll sing down the walls everywhere. With love in our hearts. Rising up like the sea. Together we'll sing until everyone's free."

  But her compassion for these families and the choice to sing with these kids — it has pissed off the anti-Miss Rachel crowd. You got accounts like Libs of TikTok sharing that video and saying, "Parents, keep your kids away." Others writing things like "Evil at it again" and "This is so sick. Why do they always have to go after the kids and drag them into their insanity? Do not let your children watch this commie propaganda."

  And again, this is their response to a video of a woman who makes educational content for toddlers singing songs with families whose relatives are in detention — the apparent act of sheer evil that they're up in arms about.

  But of course, also Miss Rachel has no shortage of her own supporters. If you go to her comments, she's being praised as a hero and a role model for her compassion — and notably, her effort to help kids that are impacted by the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

  It doesn't really even stop at Delaney Hall — and I mean that both generally, and also because she went to D.C. yesterday to deliver letters written by kids who were detained at the Dilley Family Detention Center in Texas, which is another facility that's faced a ton of criticism and calls for it to be shut down. According to Amnesty International, families there dealt with prolonged incarceration without due process, denial of medical care, and inadequate access to clean drinking water. Families are separated while detained. Children and babies experience weight loss.

  And so you had Miss Rachel directing a social media video at those kids.

  "I'm at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., and I have your words right here and your letters, and I'm delivering them to members of Congress because they need to hear your voices. Your voices are so valuable. You have human rights, and your rights should never be violated. And no child should ever be in detention."

  The letters, if you take the time to look through them, they're heartbreaking — saying things like: "We are not criminals." "I want to go home." "I want to get out of here and go back to my school." "They don't treat us well here. There are many children." "We are kidnapped." Kids saying, "I miss my friends, my teacher, my house, my bed." Others saying, "I've been 113 days in here." "ICE used me to catch my mom and now I'm in jail."

  Miss Rachel also wrote a letter of her own, telling Congress: "One day each of us will have to answer for what we did when we learned what was happening to these children."

  And all of this is coming as there's a ton of outrage around how ICE has been treating young kids. You especially got a report from the Marshall Project now claiming that ICE has detained over 500 babies and toddlers age three or younger since Trump took office. According to their data, on average there are 25 kids in custody on any given day, but some days it's even higher than that. And you've got child development experts saying that this is probably the most harmful time of their lives to have them in detention.

  And so, yes, you've had a ton of lawmakers condemning these child detentions, calling for the Dilley Center in Texas to be shut down. But also, this is going to be an uphill battle — because despite all the concern and the outrage, yesterday Trump signed a $70 billion bill to fund ICE and Border Patrol through the end of his term. But Democrats slammed the bill as a blank check for Trump and ICE without any guardrails or oversight.

• Bill Gates Testifies in House's Epstein Probe

  But also — well, you've got Trump looking to the future when signing this bill, and I want to talk about his efforts to outrun his past. And with that, I mean his association with Jeffrey Epstein.

  And to be clear, Trump has not been formally accused of any wrongdoing in connection to Epstein. Though also a reminder — he has been found civilly liable for sexual abuse, which a judge clarified as rape. Regarding Epstein, one thing that's been very clear is just how much Trump wishes that people would shut up about it.

  And many had been thinking that was actually a big part of the reason why he started this war with Iran — so that everyone would have to focus on all of that. But now one of the things we're seeing is that The New York Times seems to be making it even more clear that his administration's focus really hasn't been about getting justice for the survivors. It's been about protecting his reputation.

  Well, Trump avoided talking much about it himself. The Epstein issue became a key focus of his election campaign. And then a month into his term, he would have then Attorney General Pam Bondi saying that they'd soon be making good on the promise to release Epstein's alleged client list.

  "It's sitting on my desk right now to review."

  Then famously, a few days later, blindsiding the rest of the Trump administration by inviting right wing influencers to the White House and then handing them binders that he claimed contained the Epstein files. But as you probably remember, nearly all the material inside was previously released.

  And then a few months later, the Justice Department and the FBI jointly releasing a memo saying that their review had found no client list and that no more information was forthcoming. That reportedly despite opposition from Deputy FBI Director at the time, Dan Bongino — who, along with FBI Director Kash Patel, had been key figures in popularizing conspiracy theories related to Epstein's death.

  And on the day that the memo was released, Bongino reportedly lost it, with Bondi yelling:

  "You f**ed this thing up from the start."*

  But some senior officials in the White House, including White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair, reportedly believed that the Epstein issue really only mattered to a small corner of the internet, and that the whole controversy was just eventually going to blow over. Bongino reportedly warned them that they were making a mistake, saying: "It's not an online story. You don't understand."

  And it turned out the unlikely happened — Dan Bongino was right. Hey, you know, even a broken clock is right twice a day.

  And it wasn't long until he was sitting down in a conference room and reportedly responding: "I warned you guys about this the whole time and you ignored me. And exactly what I said was going to happen, happened. And now you're pretending I was in on this. I was never in on this." Him then reportedly storming off, but not quitting right away to avoid hurting Trump.

  And according to The Times, he privately complained that this whole mess had cost him millions of dollars in podcast revenue, time with his family, and some of his audience.

  And Trump, he was reportedly also fuming that this mess had been created and had even caused some of his formerly diehard supporters to question him. He went to social media and called the Epstein issue a Democratic hoax. Him then famously slamming members of his own party, who he described as past supporters and weaklings who had bought into this bullshit hook, line, and sinker.

  And then a day later — and this is where it gets really interesting — top members of his administration finally gathered in the Situation Room. Which, if you do not know, is the secure bunker where top officials meet to discuss and make decisions on unclassified high stakes national security issues. It is the actual room where Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, along with other senior national security officials watched the SEAL Team Six raid that ended with the death of Osama bin Laden in 2011.

  But now, with this administration, it became the place to figure out the Trump Epstein problem. With reportedly Wiles and Blair there, along with press secretary Caroline Leavitt, communications director Steven Cheung, and then Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche — and Bondi and Patel joined on speakerphone.

  And JD Vance actually took a seat at the head of the table, telling the group: "This is a huge problem." And that's as it was said he'd already been privately pushing for the administration to release the Epstein files, even urging a congressional investigation. He had some senior officials reportedly under the impression that he had come to believe that other elites had taken part in Epstein's crimes.

  Also, according to The Times, his apparent panic stemmed from worries about how the Epstein issue had begun dividing the MAGA movement. And allegedly, one of his bright ideas for managing all this fallout was to have Tucker Carlson interview Ghislaine Maxwell in prison and hope that she'd say clearly that Trump had not been involved in any of Epstein's crimes. That as he also continued pushing for the files to be released in their entirety, predicting that Congress would force the matter eventually and arguing that it would look best in the long run.

  Then you had Blanche — who, remember, is also Trump's former personal defense lawyer — instead suggesting pushing the court system to unseal the grand jury testimonies from past Epstein related cases. The idea there was — hey, any of the information that's going to come out, it's not going to be too damaging. Or maybe even more likely, the situation is going to be that the request would just get refused. And then Team Trump could shift the blame away from the administration and onto whichever judges made that decision — ones appointed by Democratic presidents.

  And then Blanche also floated the idea of interviewing Maxwell again, but he volunteered to do it himself, though he noted that she'd likely ask for something in return. White House Counsel James Warrington, who was also in the room, noting two options — a pardon or a reduced sentence, which several people quickly shot down. At least according to The Times, not for the reasons you would hope — with Cheung reportedly saying: "Pardoning Maxwell, a trafficker of young girls, would create a huge PR problem." And then Blair added:

  "We can't offer Ghislaine Maxwell anything. A — I don't know why we would. And B — if we give Ghislaine Maxwell any sort of break whatsoever, and then she turns around and says nice things about us, or says nice things about us, and we give her a break — it will undermine the entire point of her saying good things. That will feed the conspiracy theory. Period. If there's nothing for her to say that hurts us, we shouldn't have to offer her anything."

  And of course, as we covered it in the end, you had Blanche ending up interviewing Maxwell. She told him that she hadn't seen Trump do anything wrong. And she was then soon transferred to a minimum security prison camp with little explanation, until almost five months later when Blanche suddenly claimed that Maxwell had faced, quote, numerous threats against her life in her previous lockup.

  But in any case, at the time of this meeting, the plan Team Trump reportedly landed on was calling for the release of the grand jury material.

  And then at that exact moment, you hit the Wall Street Journal — which, of course, is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp — publishing their report showing that Trump had been among the friends of Epstein to contribute to the special birthday book put together for Epstein in 2003. With Trump's hand-drawn offering depicting a nude woman and several lines of text ending with the words: "May every day be another wonderful secret."

  And apparently cell phones aren't allowed in the Situation Room. A staff member brought in printed copies of the whole article for everyone to see. With this, I'll say they did have some idea that this was coming — Trump had already called Murdoch and the editor in chief of the Wall Street Journal to try and stop the story, accusing the journal's editor in chief, who's British, of hating America. And with that, he also threatened to sue — which he then did. But that case was also dismissed by a judge, though there's something you should know — it was actually just a couple of weeks ago that he tried again with an amended complaint. So we're going to see what happens with that.

  But I mean, going back to the White House and officials — they reportedly spent even more time in the Situation Room in the weeks and months after that meeting to discuss the Epstein issue, with The Times writing that the Situation Room itself had become inseparable from the crisis.

  After a subpoena from the House Oversight Committee, they discussed plans to just release all the files and then have someone appear on Joe Rogan's podcast to promote transparency from the White House. Then also talked about the unsubstantiated allegations in the files that might do the most damage to Trump, and they discussed whether they should hold those damaging files back, and if so, how they could do so while technically complying with the law.

  When in the end, of course, the Epstein Files Transparency Act got passed, and the Justice Department ultimately released what at least they say were all the files after the deadline — while also egregiously violating the privacy of victims.

  And we have the Trump DOJ saying the case is closed. The House committee, they're still investigating and have interviewed several people, including former president Bill Clinton, billionaire Leslie Wexner, and most recently billionaire Bill Gates, who sat down with the committee yesterday.

  And Gates, he hasn't been accused of any crimes. He shows up several times in the files that were released by the Justice Department. So in one email, for example, Epstein appears to allegedly help get Gates medicine to treat a sexually transmitted infection contracted while he was cheating on his wife. Then there are also photos showing Gates next to women whose identities are unknown, with Gates claiming yesterday that he posed with them because Epstein had asked him to.

  You also had Gates emphasizing that he came to the oversight committee voluntarily. He also said that he supported the release of all the files, and that he hoped that his testimony would help lawmakers find justice for the victims. With Gates also describing his decision to associate with Epstein as a grave error in judgment, while continuing to claim that he never witnessed and had no knowledge of Epstein's ongoing criminal conduct.

  The with it — I will say, notably, he also acknowledged having at least some idea of Epstein's past behavior, with Democratic Representative Melanie Stansbury saying: "He admitted that he knew of Mr. Epstein's reputation. Admitted that he knew that he had been convicted of sex crimes. But ultimately, in his words, he viewed this narrow relationship as being an acceptable means to access wealthy donors."

  And with that, you would have Gates claiming that he cut ties with Epstein only after it became clear that any donors that he could meet through this man, they weren't interested in supporting Gates's charitable causes. Then Gates claimed that Epstein tried to weaponize his knowledge of Gates's extramarital affair, in addition to many lies that he layered on top, to pressure him into reengaging.

  So if nothing else, for a number of people, this may offer some insight into the way that Epstein operated. But still, there are so many questions that remain unanswered. And actually, with this news, I would be very interested — what are your thoughts around everything Epstein? Like with where things are right now, how do you feel?

  And also, do you feel like Trump has killed the attention on this, whether it be by diverting it to Iran or any of the other general chaos? I ask because most people I talk to — whether it be kind of normies or even people that are at least somewhat in the news space — they get to a place where it seems like they're just so exhausted that it feels like it's impossible to keep up with anything.

• Trump Threatens to Hit Iran "VERY HARD TONIGHT"

  But then for our last block today, I've got more news you need to know that I'm going to cram in.

  First up — this morning you had Trump saying that he would be hitting Iran very hard tonight and then taking Kharg Island at some point in the not too distant future. And all of that to take control of their oil and gas markets.

  And if that happened, it would have been the third night in a row that we'd exchanged fire. Central Command just announcing last night that they attacked Iranian military surveillance capabilities, communication systems, and air defense systems. And from there, Iran fired back, with Jordan reporting and intercepting 20 missiles launched from Kuwait. They temporarily closed their airspace and said that they were also intercepting hostile aerial objects. And Bahrain said the same thing, urging citizens to take shelter after an 11 year old girl was injured by falling debris from a drone.

  With that, you had officials continuing to call for an end to all this, with a UN Secretary General saying: "No more attacks, no more excuses." Qatar's Foreign Ministry condemning the resurgence of Iranian strikes on Jordan, Bahrain, and Kuwait, saying that Iran should spare the region the consequences of these unjustified attacks.

  But also, honestly, you've got a lot of people scared that things are going to get much worse, even if it's before they then get better — judging, at least, by what we've heard from officials. "If we need to negotiate with bombs, we'll negotiate with bombs."

  You also had Trump making claims that he's been sneaking around the Iranian blockade, rubbing it in their face. "You know, we've been taking out millions of barrels of oil. Nobody knows it. You know who doesn't know about it? Iran. Until right now."

  With that, I do want to stress that none of that's actually been confirmed, and you've got people right now saying that he's just desperate to make it look like he is in control of the Strait of Hormuz and the war in general.

  But also as that was happening, it didn't look like Iran was backing down either, with their foreign ministry calling the ceasefire meaningless, saying they would remain determined to target the source of U.S. attacks. And with this morning's threats, you had Iranian officials saying: "The unhinged US president imagines that bombs can get him out of the quagmire he himself created. But Iranian missiles will sink him even deeper into it."

  But Trump now says that he's called off the strikes that he had planned for the night, saying he's canceled them based on the fact that discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership.

  And there we don't have the specifics of apparently what those talks have been. But also you've been remembering Trump's kind of given us whiplash with all these negotiations for months, saying different things. And so really, who knows what's happened. And at least for now, it looks like we're going to be waking up to just one of several possible updates tomorrow.

• New Rules for Sports Betting on Prediction Markets

  Which, on the note of updates, we have some around prediction markets. Because the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, they just put out a 267 page notice of the proposed rules for sports betting on sites like Kalshi and Polymarket.

  So while users they're free to bet on final scores, tournaments, or the like — the new rules banned bets on things like fistfights during a game, injuries, or pre-college sports like high school. And when it comes to casino style games, they also propose banning bets on games entirely based on luck like roulette. But it also seems like poker and other games of chance that quote can also be significantly affected by skill would be fair game.

  And then also one of the big hot button issues is that they will not allow any bets involving terrorism, assassination, or wars, since they can present, quote, significant national security risks and therefore raise public interest concerns.

  And you have many going — hey, these rules, they're a step in the right direction. Some critics say, you know, these prediction markets are nothing more than illegal gambling. It's still not great — saying that without the same level of regulations that you see for the more traditional gambling industry, prediction markets have run into case after case of people cheating the system. And while they've at least at the surface level appeared to be trying to fight things like insider trading, without that high level regulation, it really hasn't been all that effective.

  And so the American Gaming Association, which represents the casino industry, they say the prediction markets let users gamble outside the state and tribal regulatory frameworks that protect consumers, claiming that they override voter decisions, bypass key consumer protections, ignore state and tribal laws, and avoid licensing and oversight.

  But a huge key thing is that CFTC Chair Michael Siegel — who's a Trump appointee — said that the CFTC will continue to be an aggressive policeman when it comes to insider trading on their markets. Adding that he views what's going on with sports betting and prediction markets as a different model than traditional sports gambling altogether, saying the conventional sports books and casinos are entertainment and they have a lot of authority to be able to kick people out when they keep winning. But saying when you go to the derivatives markets, that's not allowed — you keep winning, great, you take your earnings.

  But for many, that really hasn't eased any concerns. That's just one aspect of what people don't like about traditional gambling too, which is why you've got folks like Mick Mulvaney — executive director of Gambling Is Not Investing, a group against sports event contracts — saying that CFTC shouldn't even be a national gaming regulator. And he's definitely not alone in this fight. You have states like Arizona, Minnesota, and New York in legal fights with the CFTC over prediction market regulation.

  But then also, as far as the prediction markets themselves, you have Polymarket responding to this proposal: "We are fully supportive of the CFTC's initiative to provide clarity for prediction markets and remain committed to working toward a federal framework that protects the public and supports innovation. We look forward to commenting on the Commission's proposed rules." That's a spokesperson for Kalshi said that they're still reviewing the proposal.

• A Woman Used Social Media to Track Down Her Mom's Killer in Mexico

  And then for your last story today, a woman just put her mom's killer behind bars by tracking him down through social media, after he spent the last 12 years hiding in Mexico with a new identity.

  So back in 2014, one Miguel Roman Balderas took Amelia Ignacio to a Red Roof Inn, where he then stabbed her 27 times and then fled to Mexico with a one way ticket that he bought immediately. Ignacio's daughter, Keoni DeJesus, she was only 11 years old when that happened. She said that her mom had been suffering from severe abuse from this guy, saying he even burned her hand on the stove once for stealing a few quarters as a child.

  And so with all of this, when she got older, she started trying to get the word out about her mom's murder through social media.

  "I was posting pictures of him — old pictures of, you know, my family. I was posting pictures of my mom every day. I was contacting people on social media like Instagram, Facebook, and eventually the Instagram account Crime Time finally picked up our mom's story. Without her, we wouldn't have been able to get the ball rolling at all. We tried. We pushed a lot. And she was the only person to respond to us. And as soon as we started connecting with her, everything just one by one by one just started falling in order."

  With the help of social media, she tracked her mom's killer down in Mexico, where he had started a whole new life under a new name and even had a new family. But eventually got arrested back in 2023. And in February of this year, he pleaded guilty to first degree murder.

  The reason we're talking about this now is that he has finally been sentenced. Though ahead of that, his attorney tried to argue that he was a changed man with no criminal record and had taken responsibility for his crime, asking the court for only 20 years. But the judge instead sentenced him to the maximum time that his plea deal allowed.

  "With that, I can finally start closing this chapter. I'm glad that I did it, and I'm glad he got to hear it from my words too. So it makes me really happy to finally get to close all of this. The judge herself told me that she was really proud of me, and that made me really happy. Made me feel like all of the work that I did was, you know, for something good to finally come out of it."

  And that is the end of your Thursday Philip DeFranco show. Your daily dive into the news. And since this is likely my last video until Sunday — a special upload that you're not gonna have any idea what it's going to be. But you're gonna want it. Let me just say thank you so much, not only for watching today's show. Thank you for everything. You've just been filled in. I love your faces. And I'll see you right back here Sunday.