MAKE HIM GIVE PROOF

Two posts. Same man. Three days apart.

Sunday, Oct. 11, 1:51 PM ET. Ric Grenell, Trump’s former acting director of national intelligence, his special envoy, and until recently the man running the Kennedy Center, quote-posts a viral claim that an Ohio psychiatric hospital “CONFIRMS” Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico had just been discharged. His verdict: “Shame on the media covering this race. And shame on the Talarico staffers who covered up this lie.”

Wednesday, Oct. 14, 3:13 PM ET. Grenell is now the one accused. His reply to Axios: “It’s an absurd claim. I’ve never asked for one cent to be sent somewhere else pretending it was for the Kennedy Center and I’ve never received any payment from him at all. Make him give proof to what he is saying, not make these absurd allegations.”

MAKE HIM GIVE PROOF. Honestly? I agree with every word. It’s the right rule. It was the right rule on Oct. 11, too, when the man demanding it now was handing out shame over a rumor that fell apart by that evening.

Watch: NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth: Talarico back on the trail, Oct. 11. Asked about a “stress-induced episode,” he said: “That’s not true. I just had the flu and I feel much better.”

Shame first, check later

Talarico was off the campaign trail for nine days and said he had the flu. Grenell wasn’t buying it. That Sunday morning he posted: “Believing he had the flu is laughable.” By early afternoon, influencer Nick Sortor had posted a 47-second audio clip he said proved a Lindner Center of Hope staffer confirmed Talarico’s discharge. Grenell quote-posted it with the “shame” line above.

Here is what the clip actually was, per PolitiFact’s fact check, published by Poynter. The call was placed by Rhein Amacher, a right-wing influencer who, on a second call, said he was Talarico’s cousin and later admitted he “simply made one up” when asked for a patient code. In the full recording, obtained by The Bulwark, the woman on the line repeatedly said she had no one by that name. The timeline was wrong too: Talarico was at Austin City Limits on Oct. 9 and at a Kacey Musgraves concert in Dallas the night of Oct. 10, the night he was supposedly being discharged in Ohio.

That evening the hospital posted: “Representative James Talarico has never received treatment from Lindner Center of Hope.” Talarico added, “I’ve never even been to Ohio.” AP and FactCheck.org called the claim false. The Guardian called it what it was: an anatomy of a lie.

To be fair to Grenell, he reposted the hospital’s denial that night. Minutes later, he was back at it with “Talarico vs Talarico”, a clip about whether Talarico saw an urgent care doctor or his primary doctor. As of Sunday morning, the “shame on the Talarico staffers” post is still up, with more than 550,000 views on X’s counter. No proof. No apology. Just a new angle. We covered the other fake Talarico, the deepfaked one, in SIDE EFFECTS MAY INCLUDE.

Texas state Rep. James Talarico, now the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, at an Open Congress session in Austin in 2023. The Ohio hospital named in the viral rumor says he has never been treated there. Credit: Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Then it was his turn

Three days later, Axios reported that Alina Habba, Trump’s former personal lawyer, told the president in the Oval Office that Grenell had failed to deposit a donation of nearly $6 million that her new husband, Turkish businessman Turhan Mildon, made to the Kennedy Center a year earlier. Trump told White House counsel Will Scharf to look into it. Grenell called it “absurd” and a “lie.”

Now the part Grenell wants you to focus on, and he’s right to. The accuser’s story has wobbled. Habba first put the donation at $17 million, then $5.6 million. “This has been hard to track because numbers have changed,” a White House official told Axios. Lisa Dale, who handled the center’s finances at the time, said the only Mildon record she had was a $270,000 pledge he still owed: “There was nothing about $6 million.” Mildon paid that $270,000 on Tuesday, after The New York Times asked why he never had. A senior administration official cautioned: “these are only allegations. We don’t know if they’re true.” The Times says it has not verified Habba’s account. Nobody has been charged with anything.

So yes. Make him give proof. That’s how it’s supposed to work. It’s also exactly what Grenell didn’t wait for when the target was a Democrat with the flu.

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Follow the wire

Then on Saturday, the New York Times reported where the money came from. The White House learned that the $17.6 million transfer, sent in May 2025, came from a bank account affiliated with the Congolese government, according to people familiar with the matter. The first documents Mildon’s lawyer sent the White House had the sender’s name redacted. The money went to TX-AT, a Texas security and defense firm. Grenell acknowledges consulting for TX-AT in 2024, but says he had no connection to it when the money moved and denies any link to the transfer. TX-AT didn’t answer the Times. The purpose of the underlying deal is unclear.

Mildon has acknowledged, through a spokesman, that he is an adviser to Congo’s president, Félix Tshisekedi, and holds a Congolese diplomatic passport. His company has won major Congolese government construction projects, and he has said he owns mines there. When the wire went out, Grenell was Trump’s special envoy to Venezuela, where Mildon had extensive business interests. Among the texts Mildon’s lawyer sent the White House is one from May 2025 that purportedly shows Grenell saying he wanted to make Mildon the “American face down in V,” meaning Venezuela, per the Times. Grenell says he never sent it.

Earlier in the week, the Times reported that before Maduro’s capture, Trump aides and some U.S. intelligence officials had raised concerns about Mildon’s work with the Maduro government, and that the administration had considered sanctioning him. His spokesman called the sanctions talk “a totally false and malicious rumor.” Mildon’s own business philosophy, as he told Forbes Turkey: “Now, know-who (who you know) is important.”

Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi at the U.S. State Department in Washington. Turhan Mildon says he serves as an adviser to Tshisekedi and holds a Congolese diplomatic passport. Credit: U.S. Department of State (Freddie Everett), public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

The referee was at the wedding

So who is checking the proof? Will Scharf, the White House counsel leading the inquiry, attended the Habba-Mildon wedding last month, the Times reports. So did Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel, the two men at the top of federal law enforcement. Several senior Congolese politicians were on the guest list too.

Going to a wedding isn’t a crime, and I’m not accusing anyone in that ballroom of anything. But “the referee was a guest at one fighter’s wedding” is a sentence none of these people would accept if the fighters were Democrats.

And here’s the part that should bother everybody. While the White House tells reporters its counsel “has asked for documents and proof,” it is fighting to keep Kennedy Center paperwork away from a federal judge. That same Wednesday, Deputy White House Counsel Josh Hoyt told the court Trump is asserting executive privilege over communications among Trump, his advisers and Kennedy Center staff, arguing the president must familiarize himself with the center’s management, operations and fundraising efforts, CBS News reported. The claim even covers advisers who don’t work for the government, per ABC News. The suit, from Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, challenges the plan to close the center for two years; her lawyers call the privilege claim “unprecedented”.

Proof for the accuser. Privilege for the chairman.

A “Restricted Area” sign on a barricade outside the Kennedy Center on Oct. 12, 2026. Trump chairs the center's board and is asserting executive privilege over his communications about its operations and fundraising. Credit: G. Edward Johnson, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Burisma, a few links down

On Friday, the same White House posted State Department emails about Hunter Biden and Burisma to its Election Integrity page, the Washington Post reported. The menu item is literally titled “Burisma Corruption.” We walked through the rest of that page yesterday in THE COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION.

I remember the Republican standard on Burisma. It was never “make him give proof.” It was: foreign money near power is a scandal, and asking the questions is the point. Fine. Here are the questions. A wire from an account tied to a foreign government. A firm a Trump envoy used to consult for on the receiving end. A Trump-chaired institution’s name on the story. A donation nobody can find. And so far, the response is an in-house review run by a wedding guest.

Trump can move fast when he wants to. He dismissed Kimberly Guilfoyle as ambassador to Greece on Tuesday, Axios noted. We wrote about her $100,000 Amex request in Honey please.

Proof, both directions

Democrats, don’t get comfortable. If you’re sharing Habba’s story as settled fact this weekend, you’re doing the Oct. 11 thing in a different jersey. Her numbers moved. The center’s own finance chief at the time says she never saw $6 million. The Times hasn’t verified it. Grenell deserves the presumption he wouldn’t give Talarico’s staff. That’s the whole point of a standard: you don’t get to switch it off when it’s your guy.

Here is the rule to laminate. Proof before shame, for everyone. The referee doesn’t come from the guest list. And when a wire from a foreign government’s account lands anywhere near the Kennedy Center’s name, the receipts go to independent investigators and a judge, not a privilege log.

What I want to see this week: the wire receipt, unredacted. What TX-AT was paid $17.6 million to do. What Congo’s government thought it was buying. And from Grenell, one more post: the Talarico “shame” post, deleted or corrected.

Want to see who funds the Texas Senate race Grenell was weighing in on, and everyone else on the ballot? Start with our Follow the Money state map and the PACTracker.

Next time a “BREAKING EXCLUSIVE” about the other team hits your feed, ask yourself the Grenell question before you share it: did anyone give proof?

Receipts

Ric Grenell on X, Oct. 11, 2026 (”shame on the Talarico staffers”) and Oct. 11 morning post (”Believing he had the flu is laughable”); repost of the hospital’s denial and “Talarico vs Talarico”, Oct. 11 evening; reply to Axios, Oct. 14 (”Make him give proof”).
Nick Sortor on X, Oct. 11, 2026. The 47-second audio clip Grenell quote-posted. Lindner Center of Hope on X, Oct. 11. “Never received treatment.”
PolitiFact fact check via Poynter, Oct. 13, 2026. Amacher calls, made-up code, full Bulwark recording, Oct. 9 and Oct. 10 appearances, Talarico “never even been to Ohio” and KXAS quotes.
AP Fact Focus; FactCheck.org; The Guardian, Oct. 15, 2026. Claim false; timeline.
NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth video, Oct. 11, 2026. Talarico back on the trail. Watch link.
Axios (Marc Caputo), Oct. 14, 2026. Habba’s Oval Office accusation; nearly $6 million; numbers changed from $17 million to $5.6 million; Lisa Dale quote; $270,000 pledge paid Tuesday; “only allegations”; counsel “asked for documents and proof”; Guilfoyle dismissal.
New York Times, Oct. 17, 2026 (syndicated text). Congolese-government-affiliated account; May 2025; TX-AT; redacted sender; Mildon adviser to Tshisekedi with diplomatic passport; Milvest contracts and mines; Scharf at the wedding; Congolese politicians attended.
New York Times, Oct. 16, 2026 (syndicated text). Oval Office meeting; wire receipt and texts sent to Scharf; “American face down in V” text Grenell denies; Times has not verified Habba’s account; $270,000 pledge paid after Times questions. Also The Daily Beast.
New York Times, Oct. 12, 2026 (syndicated via Daily Gazette). Blanche, Patel and Scharf at the wedding; concerns over Mildon’s Maduro-era work; sanctions considered and shelved; spokesman’s denial; “know-who” quote.
CBS News, Oct. 15, 2026 and ABC News, Oct. 15, 2026. Executive privilege over Kennedy Center communications, including fundraising; covers non-government advisers. Beatty motion to compel (PDF). “Unprecedented.”
White House: Election Integrity page and Washington Post, Oct. 17, 2026. “Burisma Corruption” release on Friday.
Earlier Hypocrisy Democracy: THE COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION; SIDE EFFECTS MAY INCLUDE; Honey please. Reader tools: Follow the Money state map; PACTracker.

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Originally published on Substack.