By Rick La Rivière with Michael Volpe and Richard Luthmann
Trump’s Red Carpet Diplomacy Sparks Fireworks
President Donald Trump’s red-carpet meeting with Vladimir Putin set off a fiery debate on The Unknown Podcast. The president literally “rolled out the red carpet” for the Russian leader in Anchorage, Alaska, aiming to broker a Ukraine peace deal. Trump floated a “trilateral meeting” with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky to end the war – even as Putin brazenly demanded 20% of Ukraine as part of any deal.
Co-host Richard Luthmann gushed that Trump “won the day” with a show of strength. When the two leaders stepped onto the red carpet flanked by a B-2 bomber flyover, Luthmann said it “show[ed] the might of the United States on the global stage”, reminding the world that “Russia is not a superpower anymore.”
Luthmann praised the spectacle as savvy optics – “the way you do diplomacy” – quipping that Russia is basically “the gas station for China” in today’s pecking order. He argued a high-profile summit is worth a shot: either it produces peace or Trump can walk away saying he “did everything [he] could.”
Michael Volpe was decidedly unimpressed. He blasted the Anchorage affair as a gullible “red carpet” capitulation that flattered an aggressor for nothing in return.
“Rolling out the red carpet – it’s embarrassing. This guy…invaded another country, and you let him sit there with you,” Volpe fumed.
He warned that Putin is playing Trump for a fool: “He’s being played…Trump is right now an idiot on this…this looks like it’s gonna turn out really badly” if Trump gives Putin the “20% of Ukraine [he] wanted” in exchange for peace. Rewarding Putin with a high-level meeting, Volpe argued, only legitimized “naked aggression” and set a dangerous precedent.
Luthmann rolled his eyes – literally comparing Volpe to a hand-wringing European leader – and shot back that “of course [Trump’s] gonna roll out the red carpet” as a calculated show of “magnanimity” to “stop the killing” in Ukraine.
But Volpe doubled down, accusing Trump of acting out of vanity and declaring the whole thing “a bad idea…Trump is being played” by a wily Putin.
The clash captured the podcast’s chaotic energy – Luthmann cheering on Trump’s peace gambit as bold statesmanship, Volpe slamming it as a naive “embarrassing” blunder.
Unknown Podcast Hosts Clash: Epstein Death Cover-Up Allegations vs. Skepticism
The hosts then waded into the murky waters of Jeffrey Epstein’s death, armed with a new Department of Justice report – and a special guest. Michael Volpe interviewed tech activist Marty Gottesfeld about the official findings on Epstein’s 2019 jailhouse demise. Gottesfeld, who served time in the same Manhattan lockup, flagged glaring irregularities.
Epstein was in “one of the few cells without [its] own camera”, and “most of the cameras were down…at the time that he was killed,” Volpe noted, summarizing Gottesfeld’s observations.
Even more suspicious, guards at the Metropolitan Correctional Center stopped their rounds on Epstein’s tier the night he died, leaving a several-hour gap in supervision. An 11-hour surveillance video (released by Trump ally Pam Bondi) showed no apparent foul play but was practically “useless…misdirection,” Volpe said, as Gottesfeld revealed officials even misrepresented the jail’s floor plan to disguise blind spots “not…in view” of cameras.
All these lapses – no cameras, no cellmate, missing footage, dormant guards – painted a picture of extreme negligence at best. Volpe acknowledged the “inexcusable” security failures and high number of inmate deaths, but on the central question of homicide or suicide, he remained cautious.
“There’s just no evidence anyone came in…no evidence of anything but a suicide,” Volpe maintained, pointing out that even Epstein’s family’s independent autopsy “didn’t find any defensive wounds” or signs of struggle.
In Volpe’s view, Epstein likely took his own life amid a perfect storm of incompetence and indifference – a scandal, certainly, but not the sinister murder plot some suspect.
Luthmann flatly rejected that conclusion, unleashing a full-throated conspiracy broadside. He decried the DOJ’s official account as a “deep state manufactured…Epstein report” meant to paper over an obvious hit-job. Luthmann insisted the financier’s alleged suicide was physically implausible.
Citing the Epstein family’s autopsy, he argued “you would need to be a Cirque du Soleil performer in order to have killed yourself” in the manner federal authorities described. The injuries and hanging scenario, he said, were “humanly impossible” without outside help.
Luthmann’s theory? “They” came in, incapacitated Epstein with an injection, then strung him up to stage a fake suicide.
The reason no inmates reported anything suspicious is simple, Luthmann added: “the worst thing you could ever be in prison is a rat…You don’t tell the police nothin’.” In his telling, fellow prisoners keeping quiet proves nothing – if anything, it’s what one would expect in a cover-up.
As Volpe repeatedly interjected with contrary facts – “no evidence anyone else was in the cell”, “no…defensive wounds” – Luthmann grew more agitated. He claimed “deep staters inside the DOJ” actively prevented him from joining the Gottesfeld interview or sharing his information.
“The deep state doesn’t wanna let people who have all the information get together…They won’t let me and Marty talk,” he railed, accusing unseen forces of suppressing the truth.
For Luthmann, Epstein’s death is an unresolved murder wrapped in a government cover-up – and he’s determined to “get to the bottom of this” come hell or high water. Volpe, ever the skeptic, shook his head at the lack of proof, but the segment crackled with the kind of conspiratorial fervor that has become a hallmark of the show.
Unknown Podcast Hosts Clash: ‘Magic Mortgage’ Money Laundering Scheme
The podcast’s current events blitz continued with allegations of massive campaign corruption. Former Arizona State Rep. Mark Finchem has been sounding the alarm about a purported ActBlue money laundering operation, and Luthmann eagerly amplified his claims.
According to Luthmann (and Finchem), “there was a huge money laundering scheme perpetrated by ActBlue” involving so-called “magic mortgages.”
The scheme allegedly exploits real estate escrow loopholes: enormous, bogus mortgages are briefly placed on homes to funnel illicit cash into ActBlue’s fundraising streams. Finchem described one eye-popping example – a $200,000 house suddenly recorded with a $200 million mortgage wired in with no listed lender – a phantom loan used to inject funds that could then be channeled into Democratic campaigns.
“There’s no notation of who the lender is,” Finchem noted, calling it “nothing but a wire…through the title company.”
Luthmann, a former attorney, was impressed by the detail, calling Finchem “the North Star on this” issue. He explained that ActBlue officers allegedly distributed these giant “loans” across the country, laundering millions that were then spent on Democratic races. The entire architecture, Finchem and Luthmann contended, was set up during the Obama era to inject dark money via small-dollar donation fronts and nonprofit “propaganda machines.”
Finchem has even handed over evidence to the DOJ – a move Luthmann suggested shows there’s “great interest” from prosecutors in pursuing the matter.
Volpe was not buying it. The seasoned investigative reporter immediately poured cold water on Finchem’s tale, bluntly calling it “all garbage.”
“I’m not buying any of this,” he said as Luthmann tried to interject. Volpe methodically poked holes in the theory: for one, “there’s always a mortgagor” in any loan – “you have to have a mortgager…it would be blatantly illegal to not have one” – so the idea of secret $200 million liens floating through title companies “all the time” didn’t pass the smell test.
He also questioned why Finchem would take his findings to a bunch of U.S. Attorneys.
“You wouldn’t take this to the U.S. Attorney’s Office…you would take this to the FBI,” Volpe argued, noting that U.S. Attorneys prosecute cases after the FBI investigates. The whole thing, Volpe concluded, “sounds complicated” but far-fetched – likely “not going to lead anywhere” in terms of real charges.
Luthmann, however, doubled down on the plausibility of the scheme. Drawing on his finance background, he argued that if foreign actors wanted to bankroll U.S. campaigns surreptitiously, “there are…three places that you go” to wash the money: “title companies…because they have omnibus accounts; [lawyers’] trust accounts; and specialty insurance contracts.” In fact, Luthmann suggested, “all three combined” could be in play to “move offshore funds into the United States to manipulate our elections.”
Volpe skeptically chuckled that it was a “nice story,” but he refused to spend more time on what he saw as a fringe theory. The exchange highlighted a familiar dynamic: Luthmann embracing a burgeoning conspiracy with enthusiasm, and Volpe pumping the brakes with hard-nosed skepticism – and a hint of derision.
Unknown Podcast Hosts Clash: Elon Musk’s Custody Drama and Ashley St. Clair
The segment wrapped up with some tabloid-ready tech titan drama. Elon Musk’s latest custody battle – with ex-girlfriend Ashley St. Clair, mother of one of his many children – became fodder for the hosts’ commentary. Michael Volpe approached the topic from a legal angle, noting how tightly under wraps the billionaire’s case has been kept.
Significantly, “little has come out about the custody case,” Volpe observed, pointing out that St. Clair herself has done few interviews despite the media frenzy such a story would normally attract.
This silence, he argued, is “part of a pattern” with ultra-wealthy litigants like Musk. Volpe rattled off examples of powerful men (from Sergey Brin to Brad Pitt) who managed to get their divorce and custody disputes sealed and swept from public view.
“Usually rich people like Musk…are able to hide their divorces, which the general public doesn’t get to do,” he explained – and indeed “that’s basically what’s happened with Elon here.”
In Musk’s case, Volpe noted, a private judge and confidentiality have kept almost every detail of the St. Clair custody fight out of the spotlight. He predicted Musk would “play hardball” in court, even after initially refusing to acknowledge the child.
All told, “his private life is a mess,” Volpe sighed, adding that the secrecy means we “know very little” about how the SpaceX CEO handles fatherhood in these disputes.
Luthmann, by contrast, had zero interest in tiptoeing around Musk’s legal maneuvers – he went straight for St. Clair’s jugular. The 25-year-old influencer recently complained that her entanglement with Musk amounted to “career suicide” and left her financially drained. Luthmann was not exactly sympathetic.
“I don’t buy [that]…she should just go find another billionaire to sleep with,” he scoffed, dismissing St. Clair’s woes in one brusque stroke.
In classic bomb-thrower fashion, Luthmann mocked that she “already perfected the art once” by landing Musk, “I think she can do it again. Lightning can strike twice for this young lady.”
His crude prescription: rather than cry poverty, St. Clair ought to double down and snag a new sugar daddy. Volpe, while more measured, also expressed doubt that Musk’s ex is truly broke.
Musk is “supposedly…paying her – not a lot for him, but a lot for 99.9% of the public,” he noted. “If she’s going broke, maybe the place she’s living in is too expensive for the amount he’s giving her. She has a choice,” Volpe added, rejecting St. Clair’s sob story as overblown.
Still, Volpe’s main concern was how Musk’s money can tip the scales of justice behind closed doors, whereas Luthmann relished skewering the billionaire’s ex for her life choices.
The segment oscillated between salacious and serious – a microcosm of the show’s chaotic, provocative energy. In one breath, Luthmann was cracking wise about “baby mama” shenanigans; in the next, Volpe was soberly critiquing the inequities of secret family courts for the rich.
It was a sensational finale to a “jam-packed” episode, equal parts bombast and analysis – just what The Unknown Podcast delivers every week.
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