Notices by Dave Troy :toad: (davetroy@toad.social)

📄 NEW: “Diary of a CEO” is now the #2 podcast on Spotify, but our investigation reveals a web of undisclosed conflicts of interest, questionable health claims, conspiracy content, and interlocking investments backed by Peter Thiel and his allies.
https://america2.news/the-anatomy-of-an-influence-operation/

Are we witnessing the final unraveling of Donald Trump and the fragile coalition that brought him to power? His choice to pursue war in Iran has all but sealed his fate. My latest.
https://america2.news/the-unraveling-of-donald-trump/

2/Mandelker, who also oversaw major sanctions actions against Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba, resigned in 2019 to pursue a role at a private sector investment firm in the crypto industry.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-treasury-official-who-oversaw-iran-sanctions-steps-down-for-private-sector/

3/Mandelker left to work for Ribbit Capital, an investor in cryptocurrency brokerage firm Coinbase, lobbying in Washington on its behalf against proposed regulations on the crypto space.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/09/us/politics/cryptocurrency-regulation-sec-ripple-labs.html

5/Mandelker was running FinCEN when Michael Cohen’s Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) got disappeared. No explanation for this has been offered to this day, as far as I am aware.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/missing-files-motivated-the-leak-of-michael-cohens-financial-records

4/Interestingly, no replacement was appointed for Mandelker’s position for over two years (Oct 2019 to Dec 2021), which meant we had no one overseeing sanctions or FinCEN functions. The position was eventually filled by Brian E. Nelson.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_E._Nelson

6/Mandelker also oversaw FinCEN when suspicious transfers were made to Michael T. Flynn from foreign governments, but no inquiry was made. William Barr subsequently worked to exonerate Flynn after he pled guilty to lying to the FBI.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/fincen-files-michael-flynn-bank-of-america

1/One overlooked Epstein figure is Sigal Mandelker, who negotiated his 2008 deal with Acosta and Barr. In 2017, she was named Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intel, but faced scrutiny for missing FinCEN reports in Mueller’s Trump-Russia probe.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/democrats-protest-treasury-division-nominee-over-missing-trump-financial-documents/2017/05/23/3f7c3854-3fc1-11e7-adba-394ee67a7582_story.html

We have a real problem brewing with the "Board of Peace" and it needs much more attention.

1) There is no legal entity for "Board of Peace" organized under the laws of any country, meaning it is subject to NO country's laws.

2) Trump is acting like the US is party to it as a treaty organization, but only Congress has the power to approve that.

🚨 EXCLUSIVE: Our investigation finds that Trump's actions in Venezuela and Greenland are the product of a long-running Russian influence campaign that began during his first term. Read + share the complete report.
https://america2.news/the-russian-roots-of-trumps-venezuela-and-greenland-operations/

📄 EXCLUSIVE: Epstein was close with Vitaly Churkin, a Russian Ambassador with close ties to KGB head Vladimir Kryuchkov. Kryuchkov and Churkin brought Trump to Moscow in 1987, and may be the link to Robert Maxwell. New, original reporting.
https://america2.news/part-four-making-sense-of-epsteins-russia-ties/

1/EXCLUSIVE: Was Jeffrey Epstein part of Russia's broader war on the West? In our new multi-part investigation into Epstein's influence activities, we examine new evidence that suggests his work in Santa Fe was likely more strategic than previously known.
https://america2.news/part-one-just-what-was-jeffrey-epstein-doing-in-santa-fe/

2/Epstein was introduced to Murray Gell-Mann by Ghislaine Maxwell; he had been close to Robert Maxwell, who supported Gell-Mann's Santa Fe Institute. In 1990, Maxwell donated $100,000 to SFI to catalyze its shift into economics and 'complexity', away from hard sciences.

4/This is the first part of a multi-part deep dive into the network around Epstein and SFI. And while SFI has produced otherwise interesting work, there are also aspects that have led to unexpected outcomes. In short, it's 'complex,' and we've been blinded by prurient, monotonous coverage that primarily benefits Russia.

3/And we exclusively report that SFI was cited in Project Russia, the Kremlin's plan for undermining the West which had not been previously translated into English. Whatever Epstein and the Maxwells (Robert, Ghislaine, and Christine) believed they were doing with SFI, the Kremlin believed that SFI was waging societal warfare.

Quick sketch of Ghislaine Maxwell testimony relationships, July 24-25, 2025. Generated from DOJ transcripts, August 22, 2025. (Click to zoom)

ICYMI... My new talk from TEDxBerlin asks the question few are willing to face: why is democracy in retreat globally, and what can we do about it? Here's one possible way forward, and we should consider it — before it's too late.
https://america2.news/is-democracy-dying-heres-why-and-what-to-do-about-it/

📻 NEW EPISODE: What do you really know about Taiwan? A new book, “Ghost Nation: The Story of Taiwan and its Struggle for Survival” aims to fill the knowledge gap for Western audiences. Dave sits down with the author, Chris Horton.
https://america2.news/podcast-ghost-nation-tells-the-story-of-taiwan-and-why-it-matters/

📄 EXCLUSIVE: We mapped the entire Epstein-Musk-Trump social network. What we found may surprise you — and one person is threatened most: Donald Trump.
https://america2.news/we-mapped-jeffrey-epsteins-social-network-heres-what-we-found/

Preliminary network study I'm working on. The notion that Musk is the pure one and only Trump is dirty is highly questionable. Question Musk's claims.