Ben Swann is an investigative journalist who was vindicated after years of being blacklisted for reporting on the Epstein-Pizzagate connection. In 2016, while working as a local news anchor in Atlanta, he produced a report linking coded language in John Podesta’s WikiLeaks emails to child exploitation networks. The story went viral, but he was fired and banned from YouTube for a decade. Now, with the release of Epstein files confirming much of his original reporting, he is producing a documentary revisiting the story.
The Pizzagate investigation that cost Ben his career
The story began when a man walked into Comet Ping Pong, a Washington DC pizzeria, with a shotgun, believing an online conspiracy theory that the restaurant was harboring children. The mainstream media explanation was that “Macedonian sheep farmers” created the theory to prevent Hillary Clinton from becoming president.
Ben’s investigation found the real origin was on 4chan and 8chan, where self-professed pedophiles noted that John Podesta’s leaked emails used “pizza-coded language” — terminology they recognized from their own communications.
The code originated from “cheese pizza” (CP), an acronym used as shorthand. From this, a whole family of pizza-related code words grew: pizza slice, hot dog, pizza sauce, pasta, etc.
In 2023, the FBI arrested a prolific child sex offender by tracking his use of pizza language online, confirming the code’s existence.
The restaurant’s logo contained a symbol matching the FBI’s documented “boy lover” symbol — a triangle within triangles. After the story broke, the owner changed the logo, removing the centerpiece of the symbol.
James Alefantis, the owner, had been named by GQ magazine as one of the 50 most powerful people in Washington DC — despite owning a single pizza shop in a strip mall.
Tony Podesta (John’s brother) had artwork in his home depicting disturbing images, including a painting matching the pose in which Jeffrey Epstein left some of his victims, and a painting of a doctor eating a patient.
Ben has since obtained evidence that Comet Ping Pong does have a basement, contradicting the widely repeated claim that it doesn’t.
The Epstein network and its coded language
Epstein’s world operated in concentric rings:
The outermost ring included anyone who corresponded with him — scientists, billionaires, politicians — many of whom had no knowledge of his criminal activities.
The next ring involved people interested in “weird” topics like cloning, gene modification, and human experimentation.
A middle ring involved men brought to the island for sex with young women (17-19 years old), often honey-trapped.
The darkest inner circle involved ritualistic abuse of very young children, including infants, tied to satanic beliefs.
Participants in the inner circle are not ashamed — they brag to each other, competing over the age of children and the details of abuse.
The coded “pizza” language appears throughout the Epstein emails. One email between girls reads: “Jeffrey wants to have pizza with you… I know you know what this means” — with a winky face. None of the pizza references in the emails correspond to actual pizza orders or restaurants.
Epstein had cameras wired into every room of every home he owned, recording onto VHS and beta tapes. These tapes are believed to be hidden in storage units across the country.
Epstein left $10 million in his will to the two children of Norwegian diplomats connected to him. One of those children, age 25, recently killed himself just days after an investigation into his parents was launched.
The satanic belief system behind the abuse
The inner circle believes in heaven and hell but views hell as a place with hierarchy — they believe they will rule in hell rather than be punished.
This belief system is connected to ancient traditions like Baal worship from Canaanite and Hebrew theology.
Marina Abramović, a performance artist known for “spirit cooking” (using blood and semen in her art), is deeply connected to this world. She appears throughout the Pizzagate emails and was later appointed by Zelenskyy as an ambassador for Ukraine — specifically for children orphaned by the war — despite not being Ukrainian.
Abramović’s art frequently depicts themes of sexual abuse and cannibalism. One piece shows her and Lady Gaga eating off a human body.
The Epstein case was never actually investigated
Alexander Acosta, who was in the Trump administration as Labor Secretary, stated that when he tried to prosecute Epstein, he was told “it belongs to intelligence” and to stand down.
Ben believes Epstein was not formally CIA or Mossad but worked as an “equal opportunity” intelligence asset for hire, funded off the books by multiple agencies.
FBI Director Kash Patel testified under oath that Epstein did not traffic anyone. If this is true, the question becomes: why is Ghislaine Maxwell still in prison?
Half of the Epstein files (3 million of 6 million) have been released, but only 2% of the total data. The unreleased half is believed to contain video evidence.
Is Epstein still alive?
Ben was 99% sure Epstein was killed until someone connected to the Pizzagate investigation told him, through a very close source, that Epstein is alive.
Evidence suggesting Epstein’s death was staged:
The FBI released footage of the wrong jail cell.
The autopsy mentioned examining Epstein’s prostate, but Epstein had previously documented that he didn’t have one.
The body was rolled out under a sheet with boxes beneath it to trick the media.
A photographer was ready on a Saturday morning — the slowest news day.
A former CIA agent built a full-scale replica of Epstein’s cell and demonstrated that the described method of hanging would have caused a head contusion, which Epstein did not have.
The real blueprints of the prison show a hidden cutout in Epstein’s cell that doesn’t appear on public blueprints.
The Pizzagate-Epstein-Ukraine connection
Epstein was deeply involved in Ukraine since the 2014 US-led coup. He wrote emails describing the destabilization as “very good for us” and said Zelenskyy was “an idiot” who would be “easy to manipulate.”
Epstein’s emails reveal human cloning and sperm modification experiments being conducted in Ukraine. One email reads: “Proceeding with more mouse testing at my Ukraine lab. Surgeries, micro injections. Amateur in Mississippi has been testing human sperm modification.”
The emails also discuss black market babies and breeding programs.
Ukraine had 30-40 biological labs with American workers who all had diplomatic immunity. Before the 2014 color revolution that overthrew Yanukovych, he had ordered an investigation into these labs after disease outbreaks in surrounding communities.
The Iran war and military-industrial complex
The war with Iran has exposed how far behind the US is in military technology. Iran destroyed $1 billion THAAD radar systems with $20,000 drones. A $600 million radar plane was cut in half by a drone.
Patriot missiles, which were cutting-edge in 1991, are now overwhelmed by drone swarms. Iran sends 30-40 drones at a time, requiring 5-6 Patriot missiles to intercept each one.
China and Russia have hypersonic weapons that can’t even be detected.
The US has spent $12 trillion on Middle East wars over 40 years while other countries quietly surpassed us in military technology.
The “WSO rescue” story from Iran appears to have been a cover for a failed mission to extract enriched uranium. Multiple military sources say the equipment and approach were wrong for a personnel rescue but correct for a uranium extraction operation. The pilot has never been seen or named.
The UFO disclosure strategy
The UFO files released so far contain nothing new — it’s a strategic distraction.
The disclosure is happening in phases, with the eventual goal of acknowledging “non-human entities” (not called extraterrestrials or interdimensional).
Members of Congress like Tim Burchett and Anna Paulina Luna are being allowed to discuss these topics publicly to “prime” the public and reduce shock value.
A group of high-level advisors (not in government) are pushing this disclosure and view these entities as “the old gods.”
There are reports that a plan was scrapped at the last minute to announce “there is no God and we were engineered by aliens.”
Steven Spielberg’s movie “Disclosure” is timed to coincide with the government’s messaging.
Ben believes the technology comes from archaeological finds or recoveries since the 1950s, controlled by private contractors like Battelle Memorial Institute, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman — not fully accessible to the US military.
The Charlie Kirk assassination
Charlie Kirk stopped the first attempt at war with Iran (Operation Midnight Hammer) by going to the White House and convincing Trump it would cost him his base.
After Kirk’s death, the war with Iran began.
The Tyler Robinson story has numerous problems:
The FBI AI-enhanced photo of Robinson doesn’t match the original — his face is different.
Robinson’s family denies turning him in, contradicting the FBI’s claim.
A message supposedly from Robinson confessing to the shooting was sent after he was already in custody.
Robinson’s clothing changes between the building entry and the roof.
The gun was allegedly assembled and disassembled multiple times.
Joe Kent, a counterterrorism expert, offered to investigate whether foreign powers (specifically Israel) were involved, but the FBI waved him off.
Thomas Crooks (the Butler shooter) and the man hiding in bushes at Mar-a-Lago both appeared in Blackrock promotional videos. Another suspect was featured on ABC News as a scientist who invented a wheelchair stopper.
Ukraine’s desperate situation
Ukraine has no soldiers left. For two years, conscription officers have been dragging men off the streets, out of restaurants, and off rooftops.
The average age of Ukrainian soldiers is now 45 because all the young men have been killed.
Zelenskyy is now demanding European countries forcibly return Ukrainian refugees to fight.
He also wants to bring in African migrant workers to replace the dead population.
Body swaps show the disparity: 100 Russian bodies for 6,000-10,000 Ukrainian bodies.
The majority of Ukrainian refugees went to Russia first because eastern Ukraine is ethnically Russian — they speak Russian and fly Russian flags.
How the news system actually works
Local news operates on an “authority-centric” model: police and fire departments issue press releases that are never questioned. Former TV journalists now work as press secretaries for these departments.
National news works the same way: Pentagon and intelligence sources feed stories to reporters, who then feed them to local stations. No one challenges the source because they’d lose access.
Former CIA directors like John Brennan and James Clapper (who lied to Congress about torture and spying) now work as paid analysts at CNN and other networks for millions of dollars.
This is the modern version of Operation Mockingbird — but it works through paid analysts rather than planted journalists.
The “flood the zone” disinformation strategy
Real disinformation isn’t putting out wrong theories — it’s flooding a story with so many conflicting threads that people give up trying to find the truth.
This has been a concerted tactical effort for over 10 years. When people get close to something, the story is flooded with increasingly crazy information until people disengage.
The goal is to make the truth so buried that no one can find the needle in the haystack.
Thomas Massie and the MAGA coalition fracture
Thomas Massie won his primary against Ed Gowan, who was funded by three billionaires connected to Israel. Massie’s campaign was funded by small $50 donations, raising $15 million.
Massie has the highest score ever on Turning Point USA’s conservative voting scorecard, but TPUSA refused to endorse him because Trump doesn’t like him.
Trump’s attacks on Massie have only elevated his profile. A third of the MAGA coalition — young men, independents, libertarians, and MAHA moms — has no place to go and is gravitating toward Massie as their unofficial leader.
Massie pointed out that the election was exactly 6 months to the day of the Epstein Transparency Act, and listed all the people who have been fired or arrested since the Epstein files came out, saying “I still have 7 months to go.”
Ben’s documentary and where to find his work
Ben is producing a full documentary revisiting the Pizzagate story with new evidence, including proof of the basement at Comet Ping Pong. He’s hoping for a theatrical release by fall 2026.
He was banned from YouTube for 10 years (initially for COVID coverage, not Pizzagate) but has returned.
Find him on X and Instagram at BenSwan, and on YouTube at BenSwan.
