Claims amplified by conservative commentator Tucker Carlson have shone a spotlight on Israel and its intelligence agency, Mossad, amid allegations going back years that ex-Israeli officials were close to and worked with Jeffrey Epstein, the wealthy financier and convicted sex offender who died in his jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on further charges of sex trafficking minors.
Why It Matters
Carlson’s remarks come as President Donald Trump and his administration face one of their biggest political battles, as repeated statements made on the 2024 campaign trail about exposing the so-called “Epstein files,” including a client list allegedly in the possession of Attorney General Pam Bondi, have dissipated. The Justice Department recently issued a memo concluding that there was no evidence of a client list or blackmail materials, contradicting these earlier statements.
Epstein’s case, and the Trump administration’s waffling on the purported files related to popular figures who befriended him, has become a major issue in conservative circles, sparking newfound conspiracy theories and continued distrust in federal institutions.
It has led to turmoil, especially between Bondi and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, the latter of whom is reportedly weighing resignation.
Newsweek reached out to the Department of Justice, the FBI and the State Department via email for comment.
What To Know
Carlson publicly inquired about the Mossad-Epstein connection and past allegations of a symbiotic relationship as part of a larger blackmail operation on behalf of Israeli intelligence during a speech Friday to the conservative youth group Turning Point USA, saying “every single person in Washington, D.C., thinks that.”
“How does a guy go from being a math teacher at the Dalton School in the late 70s with no college degree to having multiple airplanes, a private island, and the largest residential house in Manhattan?” Carlson said in his Turning Point speech on July 11.
“Where did all the money come from?”
Carlson’s questioning of the source of Epstein’s wealth—more widely speculated to result from his forays into finance and philanthropy, which made him well-connected—was strongly disputed by former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
“The accusation that Jeffrey Epstein somehow worked for Israel or the Mossad running a blackmail ring is categorically and totally false,” Bennett wrote Monday on X. “Epstein’s conduct, both the criminal and the merely despicable, had nothing whatsoever to do with the Mossad or the State of Israel. Epstein never worked for the Mossad.”
He continued: “This accusation is a lie being peddled by prominent online personalities such as Tucker Carlson pretending they know things they don’t. They just make things up, say it with confidence and these lies stick, because it’s Israel.
“There’s a vicious wave of slander and lies against my country and my people, and we just won’t take it anymore.”
Ehud Barak and Jeffrey Epstein’s Alleged Ties
Some X users responded to Bennett’s post by posting old press clippings of Epstein’s purported relationship with Israeli officials, including a May 2023 story from The Wall Street Journal that was republished by The Times of Israel, which alleges that former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak met with Epstein dozens of times starting in 2013.
Barak also met with Epstein monthly for nearly a year, beginning in December 2015, according to the WSJ.
In July 2019, The New York Times reported that Barak, then 77, received approximately $2.3 million in payments between 2004 and 2006 from a foundation associated with Epstein. Epstein also invested a reported $1 million in a limited partnership established by Barak in 2015.
Barak’s purported ties to Epstein were even admonished by current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who at the time called for an investigation into their relationship.
Shadow Alliance
Former National Security Agency counterspy John Schindler wrote on his Top Secret Umbra blog in January 2024 that Epstein appeared to have been part of a shadowy Israeli influence operation characterized as MEGA.
“There’s a venerable spook joke that you need to move on from counterintelligence work when, at least once a week, you stare at yourself in the mirror while shaving and think: ‘I wonder who he’s really working for?'” Schindler wrote.
He continued: “That’s not a one-pedophile job and, given the industrial scale of Epstein’s abuse over decades, with at least hundreds of victims, it would take a considerable retinue if not a small army to keep that sordid operation going and out of public view for any extended period.”
Financial Relationships
A 2021 Rolling Stone story involving inmate Steven Hoffenberg, imprisoned for 18 years for committing a $450 million Ponzi scheme, detailed how Hoffenberg worked with Epstein in the financial sector.
Hoffenberg claimed at the time that Epstein moved in intelligence circles. When the author of the piece, Vicky Ward, brought up Hoffenberg’s relationship to Epstein himself, the former financier reportedly legally threatened her.
“If there’s any implication of wrongdoing, I will take legal action against you personally. I’m telling you so you understand,” Epstein told Ward in an off-the-record recording made years earlier as part of a Vanity Fair piece and subsequently released in the discovery+ docuseries, Chasing Ghislaine.
“I will be as harsh as I possibly can personally…not for the magazine, but you, because I had this discussion with you. This relationship is with you…You shouldn’t risk your future for a job.”
Alleged Robert Maxwell Ties
A BBC documentary, House of Maxwell, released in 2022, alleged that Robert Maxwell, father of former socialite and convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell, had claimed that Epstein helped Maxwell hide hundreds of millions he had stolen from his company’s pension funds. Robert Maxwell fell off his yacht to his death in 1991.
In 2020, Hoffenberg said on an episode of the Broken: Seeking Justice podcast that Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell met as early as 1988 through Robert Maxwell. It was one of the first instances claiming that Epstein and Robert Maxwell had business dealings together, although the podcast did not independently verify the allegations, according to Forbes.
What People Are Saying
Eric Weinstein, mathematician and a former managing director of Thiel Capital, said during an appearance on the Diary of a CEO podcast, hosted by Steven Bartlett: “I don’t know who Jeffrey Epstein was, but I would certainly bet money that he was a product of at least one or more elements of the intelligence community. I don’t know who he was. I don’t know who ran him. He certainly was not a financier in any standard sense. That was a cover story.”
British entrepreneur Bartlett asks about Weinstein having met Epstein, and Weinstein says, “He wasn’t a financier the day I met him.” Weinstein went on to describe Epstein as a “weird guy” who “didn’t seem to know a lot about currency trading.”
Journalist Glenn Greenwald, on X: “1) One of Epstein’s closest friends was former Israeli PM Ehud Barak; 2) A key source of Epstein’s vast wealth, though mysterious, was from Les Wexner, whose primary life cause is Israel; 3) Ghislaine Maxwell’s father – the billionaire Robert Maxwell — was a Mossad agent who mysteriously died after that was reported.
“Though Maxwell was British, Israel gave him a state funeral when he died; 4) Epstein got the red carpet treatment when visiting Israel; 5) Epstein bankrolled major investments in Israeli tech. … But fine, if Epstein had no ties to Israeli intelligence or any other intel service – which is theoretically possible – why can’t Pam Bondi, CIA and FBI say that?”
What Happens Next
Following Naftali Bennett’s strong rebuke of Carlson’s claims, the ex-Fox News anchor took to social media to invite Bennett to discuss the matter more thoroughly on his podcast.
“Instead of issuing threats on social media, why don’t you sit down for a rational interview on Epstein’s ties to the Israeli government?” Carlson wrote. “We’ll reach out to your office this morning.”
Bennett had not responded to Carlson’s invitation as of Tuesday afternoon.
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