Another Epstein Recruiter Just Turned Up Dead And Nobody Knows Why
PDS Published 07/23/2026
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We're talking about all of that and even more on today's brand new Philip DeFranco Show, your daily dive into the news.
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With that said, there's a lot of news we got to jump into, starting with a man who may have helped Jeffrey Epstein traffic and abuse girls and young women, and therefore may have had knowledge of his crimes, just mysteriously died before investigators had a chance to question him.
And he is now at least the second Epstein associate to die while under investigation or awaiting trial. Or I guess the third if you count Epstein himself.
His death is now just the latest obstacle to getting justice for survivors.
I will say, with all of this, it's happening in France, where at least there is an investigation, unlike the U.S., where the man who withheld information, exposed victims' identities, and ultimately ended the Epstein files review might soon become the next head of the Justice Department. That's, of course, something survivors have been speaking out against.
But as far as this man who died, his body was found on Monday at his home outside of Paris. His name was Daniel Ziad, and he was 69 years old.
His name appeared in more than a thousand Epstein-related filings declassified by the Justice Department earlier this year. What they show is that, for roughly a decade, he traveled around the world looking for young women and teenage girls that Epstein might want to meet, sometimes describing them by their ages and nationalities, then offering to send Epstein photos.
So you had, in one email from 2014, for example, him saying he had found some Swedish and Slovakian girls in their early twenties, several 16- and 17-year-olds that would be, quote, "ready for next year," and a 15-year-old from France whose parents were, quote, "very happy for her to start modeling."
He even compared his work to fishing, writing:
"In this business, I feel like a fisherman. Sometimes I catch quick, sometimes no fish."
But either way, he got paid. Based on the files, he received payments from Epstein amounting to tens of thousands of dollars for expenses incurred during travel to find these young women and girls.
And he did all of this while he was aware of Epstein's 2008 conviction as a child sex offender.
You had him telling CNN in a recent interview that Epstein had assured him he had paid for his crimes and that this would never happen with anybody else.
"I don't know his private life."
Well, you did, because he was a convicted child sex offender.
Again, he said:
"He paid for it. He said, 'I paid for it.' He paid his dues to the government. So for me, he is a free man. He's clean. How can the government of the United States let this person out from jail? How?"
You also had him saying there was no reason to believe that two women he had recommended to Epstein—who later told CNN that Epstein had abused them—had been harmed.
Saying:
"My work with him has been strictly professional. I never doubted that because I never heard anything from anyone I introduced to him who came back to me saying they had a bad situation with him."
And as far as how he explained why he would even be bringing models to a guy who worked in finance and not fashion, you had him saying that he believed Epstein had actually been a casting director for Victoria's Secret and the modeling agency MC2.
There's actually no known evidence to support those claims.
Though, very notably, I will say MC2 was founded with the help of $1 million from Epstein by a guy by the name of Jean-Luc Brunel, and Ziad reportedly recruited models for Brunel as well as Epstein.
Which is relevant because, a little over a year after Epstein died in a cell, apparently by suicide, French police arrested Brunel on suspicion of, quote:
"Having committed acts of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment against underage girls and young women, and having organized the transport and accommodation of young girls or young women on behalf of Epstein."
And while he denied any wrongdoing, he spent 14 months awaiting trial and then suddenly showed up dead in his prison cell in February of 2022.
Just like Epstein, he also appeared to have taken his own life, though of course many people doubt the official narrative.
Now you have Ziad's death, which is notably coming just a few months into new allegations and investigations that would have likely had him being questioned by police in the near future.
See, back in February, Ebba Karlsson, a former model in Sweden, accused him of rape.
She claimed that he had scouted her in her hometown when she was 20 years old and later raped her in France.
She said she didn't report him at the time because she didn't know his name.
But she said she recognized him 36 years later when a journalist showed her a photo of him from the newly released Epstein files.
Plus, she also claimed that he had introduced her to the former European head of another major modeling agency, whom she has also accused of rape, as have several other women who have accused him of human trafficking.
And Karlsson isn't alone in her allegations against Ziad.
Back in February, after the final dump of the Epstein files, the chief prosecutor in Paris announced that he was one of several people who could be questioned as part of a pair of broader inquiries into people connected to Epstein.
And in a statement this week after his death, the prosecutor said that investigators had identified or been contacted by 24 women who were victims or witnesses of incidents likely committed by Daniel Ziad or others implicated.
But she also added that the investigation had not yet yielded any evidence justifying his immediate arrest.
And she also said that now, with Ziad's death, the investigation into him is over.
The broader investigation into the Epstein network, however, will continue.
There is also going to be an autopsy and investigation to determine how Ziad died.
And however he died—whether this is part of a cover-up or just happenstance—the actual impact might be exactly the same.
With one former model who spoke to police in June saying:
"An important link in the chain has just vanished into thin air without there even having been a chance to recover the information Daniel Ziad might have possessed, given that he was never questioned."
You also had Karlsson calling Ziad's death "very frustrating" because he was very close to being arrested, adding:
"We've worked so hard for this, trying to have justice."
On that note, you had Lisa Brinkworth, the former journalist who co-founded a collective with Karlsson to support victims of modeling industry abuse, adding:
"It feels like victims are being denied justice."
She also said:
"The failure of the Paris Public Prosecutor's Office to act in the knowledge that Ziad was a close associate of Epstein and facing multiple rape and trafficking allegations is beyond comprehension."
Now, that may be true.
But in the U.S., there's no sweeping law enforcement investigation into Epstein associates that we know of.
You do have this ongoing House investigation, which today had a closed-door interview with a former head of Barclays Bank over his ties to Epstein.
But really, so far, nothing has yielded much.
And then you have the Senate considering Todd Blanche to be the Attorney General despite Epstein survivors voicing their opposition.
He only agreed to meet with them last week after Republican Senator Tom Tillis demanded it as a condition for his confirmation.
In fact, this week, survivors wrote a letter to Tillis and Senator John Cornyn urging them to still vote against Blanche's confirmation, claiming that the meeting had been "an hour of deflection, interruption, and gaslighting."
They added that Todd Blanche showed no remorse for the horrific release of materials that exposed survivors' identities and images.
He also gave no indication that he believed there were investigative leads worth pursuing or that he intended to seek accountability beyond Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
So now, with all this pushback and yet another Epstein associate's death, we're going to have to wait and see what happens.
And so, in the meantime, I've just got to ask:
What are your thoughts and reactions to everything that we're seeing?
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It brings us to the next thing we have to talk about, which is another horrific case where you have allegations of abuse.
Because we need to talk about the new details and updates around the singer D4vd.
You have prosecutors saying that he allegedly killed a teenager to protect his career and record deal, and bought almost a dozen air fresheners to cover up the crime and mask the smell of a dead body in his car.
That's just some of what officials claimed in preliminary hearings in Los Angeles this week as they tried to prove their case should go to trial.
I will warn you, though, the details are disturbing.
You had Celeste Rivas Hernandez's family sitting in the front row of the courtroom hearing all of this.
Just as a quick refresher, he's a singer whose music was really starting to rise at the time all of this happened. His song "Here With Me" went viral on TikTok. He did the anthem for Fortnite, and he's also known for a song called "Romantic Homicide."
But now, most importantly, in September of 2025, you had the decomposed and dismembered body of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez being found in his Tesla, which was at a tow yard after being abandoned in Los Angeles.
Celeste had actually been reported missing multiple times prior to her body being found.
At the time, you had tons of online theories that D4vd was responsible, as reports alleged that he had a relationship with her and that they had matching tattoos.
But it wasn't until April of this year that he was arrested and charged.
Again, one of the biggest takeaways from the hearings this week is why prosecutors say D4vd allegedly did this.
They allege he killed Celeste to try to save his career.
He had apparently made around $10 million between 2023 and 2025 from his music.
But then you had Celeste allegedly threatening to expose the relationship, which would have tanked his career because she was 14 years old when she died, and prosecutors allege the relationship began when she was 13.
You also had their text messages referencing not just sex, but pregnancy, abortion, the emergency contraceptive Plan B, and even including sexually explicit images of Celeste.
And while D4vd had previously told authorities investigating Celeste's disappearance that he believed she was 18, a lead detective claimed that D4vd had purchased airline tickets to travel with her, and to do that, he would typically need someone's identification.
As the prosecutor explained, the two allegedly got into an argument when Celeste said she would reveal that they were together.
And then D4vd allegedly stabbed her.
You also had a NewsNation reporter who was in the courtroom adding:
"It seems the prosecution is trying to make the point that he had a lot to lose and that he killed Celeste Rivas Hernandez out of fear that if it came out that he was with this underage girl, and she came forward and he got in trouble, his career would be over."
There was also a lot of focus on potential blood evidence found in D4vd's car.
Chemical tests reportedly revealed possible blood in the back, trunk, and third-row seats of the vehicle, with one criminalist saying that two DNA tests from the car came back as matches for Celeste.
Then you had another criminalist who visited D4vd's home saying she saw red stains and conducted tests revealing possible blood on several items in his garage, including mats, garbage bags, tarps, and a blue inflatable pool.
That pool is actually very important because prosecutors say that after D4vd allegedly stabbed Celeste, he ordered an inflatable pool and chainsaws to dismember her body.
From there, he's accused of stuffing her body parts into bags and putting them into his Tesla, which he eventually parked on a street in the Hollywood Hills, where it was later towed and discovered.
Also, the criminalist who examined the car testified that there was insect activity inside the Tesla, including a pile of maggots, even though there were at least 11 air fresheners inside.
She said:
"The odor resembled a decomposing body based on my professional experience."
While all of that probably paints a horrific image in your mind, it very likely doesn't compare to what was actually shown in the courtroom.
You've had so many headlines about these hearings focusing on just how gruesome and graphic the images were.
Other reporters said that Celeste's family members were actually told to look away at some of the photographs.
You even had a lawyer for the family saying:
"They're horrified. There was an image of Celeste's torso and her head in the trunk of the car, and the prosecutor had to ask what it was because you could not tell it was a head. It was absolutely deplorable."
A Vanity Fair reporter who was inside the courtroom also described the photos as "stomach-turning."
It's hard to imagine how any parent could be anywhere close to okay after hearing and seeing that evidence.
I mean, just every single detail sends a chill down your spine.
Now today, you have the hearing entering its third day, and we're going to have to wait to see what comes out from it.
But another huge thing I'll say is that prosecutors say they are not actually presenting all of the evidence they have.
They're apparently saving some of it for the probable cause hearing.
And while right now D4vd has pleaded not guilty, he faces either life in prison or the death penalty.
The District Attorney has not yet decided which sentence they will pursue.
So while we wait to see what else comes out of this case, I would especially love to hear your thoughts and reactions if you've been following this story for a while.
Because this was one of those stories where it felt like a lot of the internet was ahead of everyone else.
Obviously, now more details are continuing to come out.
And then there's so much more we have to dive into in just a minute.
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But then, diving right back into the news, did these cops just execute a man at point-blank range in broad daylight, right in the middle of an intersection?
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Because, at least for the hundreds of people marching through the streets of Madison, Wisconsin, that answer is yes.
And they are furious.
So here's what we know.
Early yesterday afternoon, the Madison Police Department got a call about a man allegedly checking the doors of parked cars.
Activists have since identified him as Corey Ruiz, a Black man in his thirties, though police have yet to officially confirm his identity.
According to officers, they tried to approach him, but he fled on a bicycle, riding through backyards.
Then, about 35 minutes later, they found him at a busy intersection.
After he either fell off or was taken off the bike by officers, a struggle ensued.
You have three officers seen trying to wrestle him to the ground.
He's pushing himself back up, and then a fourth officer runs over yelling:
"Taser! Taser! Taser!"
You then hear the Taser discharge.
At that point, he falls completely to the ground, lying on his side, with one officer appearing to stomp on him.
That's actually all I can show you because barely a second later, three shots are fired.
The man was then rushed to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, but he was later pronounced dead.
If you just see that footage, it looks open and shut.
It appears the police executed this man.
Then later, the police chief added another detail to the story.
During the struggle, the man, we're told, pulled out a fixed-blade knife.
And an officer was injured by that knife while attempting to arrest him.
The chief also said the Taser wasn't effective.
Though it's unclear from his account whether the man pulled the knife after he was tased, or if he pulled it before, they tased him, the Taser didn't work, and then they shot him.
The chief mentions the Taser after talking about the knife, which would suggest the latter, but it's unclear whether he's laying out a timeline of events or simply stating facts.
Also worth noting, in the video it appears you can hear one officer yell:
"Oh, he's got a knife!"
before another officer deploys the Taser.
The chief also said that the officer who was injured by the knife is the same officer who shot the man.
A huge part of this story is that the police's account was immediately met with skepticism.
Some people doubted the claim that he had a knife because the video captured an officer throwing a knife onto the ground after the shooting.
Police later released a photo of what appears to be a large kitchen knife lying in the street.
Others questioned the claim that the Taser didn't work, pointing out that the man clearly collapsed to the ground immediately after being tased.
Then you have even more people saying that, regardless, officers should have been able to control and de-escalate the situation without resorting to deadly force.
Now, as many have pointed out, one thing that would very likely clarify these disputes would be body camera footage.
But for whatever reason, Madison police do not have body cameras.
In fact, it's been a major issue that residents have debated for years.
You even had the police chief pushing for body cameras to be included in the city's budget next year.
While we don't have body camera footage, the chief did say there is other undisclosed video.
He said:
"I ask that the community recognize that there is other video that they have not seen that's not circulating online that will be reviewed as a part of this investigation. So to the extent that they can, as we all navigate this trauma together, we try to remain calm and remember that not all perspectives are online right now."
But almost immediately after the shooting, you had hundreds of outraged residents gathering at the scene, chanting and protesting.
They then marched downtown, interrupting a summer concert taking place on the square.
One protester addressed the crowd, saying:
"A young Black man has been murdered at 2:00 p.m. by the Madison Police Department, and you guys are all here having a state fair like nothing happened."
The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra ultimately canceled its performance, saying it stood in solidarity with Madison's Black community.
As all of this unfolded, politicians also responded.
Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said the tragedy saddened and angered her, while Governor Tony Evers called for transparency and accountability.
But I don't think anyone went as far as Francesca Hong, a Democrat running to replace Evers in November.
She called the shooting an execution.
Saying:
"He was murdered. This was state-sanctioned violence. It was an execution."
The other Democrats running against her in the primary, including David Crowley and Joel Brennan, said they were waiting for a full accounting of what happened before making that kind of judgment.
They expressed shock but stopped short of calling it an execution.
As for what comes next, a full investigation is reportedly being conducted by the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation, which is required by law to operate independently from the local police department.
After investigators finish their work—which honestly could take weeks or even months—a local district attorney will review the findings and determine whether criminal charges against the officers are appropriate.
I will say, though, it is very rare for that to happen.
In fact, the last time Madison experienced a comparable public outcry over a police shooting—Tony Robinson in 2015—no charges were filed.
In the meantime, the four officers involved have been placed on administrative leave.
Generally, it just seems like people are asking:
What do we do now?
You're seeing a real divide.
Some people are saying we should grieve and wait for all the facts to come out.
Others are saying we should demand justice right now.
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But then, from that, we have your final block today, which is, of course, more news you need to know than I can try to cram in.
Secret Service Agent Investigated Over Alleged Leak
Starting with a Secret Service agent who allegedly leaked information about Vice President JD Vance.
This comes as reports claim that Vance's team has become frustrated with his travel habits.
You had a Politico article that came out last week saying he frequently makes last-minute travel requests, with critics claiming his use of government resources is inappropriate and unprecedented.
One example reportedly involved him wanting to fly to his son's golf lessons aboard a Marine helicopter.
According to the report, he ultimately decided not to go through with those specific plans.
Still, the article framed his travel habits as creating an unnecessary burden on his security detail.
Of course, all of this reportedly angered the White House, the Secret Service, and the FBI.
The administration has been aggressively pursuing what it considers unauthorized disclosures to the press.
And so, for now, the Secret Service agent suspected of leaking the information has reportedly been placed on administrative leave while officials conduct an internal investigation.
If the allegations are true, it wouldn't be the first time a Secret Service agent has found themselves caught up in a controversy like this.
Even over the last few years, the agency has faced multiple scandals involving misconduct and unauthorized disclosures.
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Also in the news, unfortunately, we're looking at a second round of the parasite outbreak that gives people explosive diarrhea.
You've got at least 72 new Cyclospora cases as of this recording.
The FDA says it's already begun the traceback process to figure out where this latest outbreak is coming from.
Of course, that's happening while we're still in the middle of what many have jokingly called "Lettuce Gate" from the first outbreak.
There, you've got Chopt, Chipotle, Panera, and other lettuce-heavy restaurant chains taking a major hit.
In fact, it's gotten so bad that Taco Bell has launched a new $1 lettuce-free deal in an effort to help win back customers.
And, funny enough, the Taco Bell part of this story has actually brought people on both the left and the right together.
Many have argued that Taco Bell has been unfairly blamed.
Among those people, you even have Ben Shapiro, saying:
"To be fair to Taco Bell, it's not Taco Bell's fault that one of their providers had apparently poop-ridden lettuce. There's a full team there without the lettuce that can go win a championship. Taco Bell can succeed without the lettuce."
And one of the major concerns with this new outbreak is that, because officials don't yet know where it started, they also don't know which foods people should avoid.
So, in the meantime, I just want to wish you and your bowels the very best of luck.
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Somehow, for your final bit of news today, we need to talk about Trump and his war on DEI... bike lanes.
If you didn't see, two weeks ago, you had Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy tweeting:
"Remember when Biden and Buttigieg used your money for DEI bike lanes?"
He then said that the money had been redirected to fix roads, bridges, and shipping infrastructure.
Since then, you've also had the Federal Highway Administration remove bike lanes from its list of proven safety countermeasures.
Bike-related safety materials were also removed from the agency's website.
Apparently, even staff members have been left wondering what the point of all this is.
According to a Department of Transportation spokesperson, the agency has been taking a closer look at federal guidance:
"To ensure American families have the infrastructure they deserve."
They added that this is a common-sense approach, despite what they described as:
"The left's belief that everyone should ride a bike to their shoebox-sized apartment to eat crickets to achieve a phony climate agenda."
Sorry, I just have to laugh.
It's such a random talking point.
Instead of wanting to spend a bajillion of your tax dollars so we can, I guess, continue to bomb Iran and raise gas taxes, now part of the administration's messaging is that bikes are the real problem.
Also, it's not as if previous administrations haven't constantly emphasized the importance of infrastructure.
But anyway, one of the things that has transportation experts concerned is that, even before these changes, more than 1,000 bicyclists were killed in 2024.
So with this move, you've got some saying that the Trump administration is undermining proven measures for reducing roadway crashes and fatalities.
Adding:
"If they really want to make safety a priority, then they can't get rid of the tools and resources that help them do that."
My friend, you beautiful bastard, that is the end of your Thursday show.
But there's actually more to watch because I also released another video for you today diving into this crazy eminent domain story.
You've got everyday people begging for help because their homes are getting taken away to feed the AI data center gods.
And it's actually even sketchier than you might think.
Whether you click over to that or not, let me just say:
My name has been Philip DeFranco.
You've just been filled in.
I love your faces.
And I'll see you right back here next time.
