Disgraced paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, the spy theory and Israel angle

The belief that convicted child sex offender and former American financier Jeffrey Epstein and his girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, were spies continues to gain weight after numerous testimonies from former Israeli intelligence officials and multiple reports.

TRT World can offer no definitive evidence to support such claims, although witness testimony and numerous reports appear to lead to notable circumstantial evidence while publications such as Newsweek, say there is "no on-the-record confirmation from the US or any other intelligence that Jeffrey Epstein was a spy."

However, some credible reports are pointing to Epstein as potentially being a former Israeli agent or intelligence asset.

Notably, The Times of Israel published excerpts from Julie K. Brown's book "Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story," where the author says that "It's not beyond the realm of possibility that Epstein had connections to the [Israeli intelligence community].

Publication Insider said Epstein "had long-standing ties to Israel, including a business partnership with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak."

Israeli former prime minister Ehud Barak was identified in the recent dossiers. Barak was President between 1991 and 2001. He served in the Israeli army for 35 years before ascending to Chief of the General Staff, according to the Daily Mail.

Reportedly, Epstein met with Barak some 36 times. Photos emerged of the former Israeli PM entering Epstein's townhouse while covering his face in 2016. On the same day, images of young females were seen entering and exiting the residence.

Epstein also visited Israel in 2008 to move to the country to allegedly avoid a jail sentence in 2009 for his charges. According to Rolling Stone, after he returned to the US, Esptein had a change of mind.

After serving his prison sentence, Epstein allegedly "bragged" to various people regarding his ties and consultancy to prominent figures from the UK, America, Russia, Africa and the Middle East.

He allegedly even went as far as to suggest that he had made significant wealth from the arms, drugs and diamond industries.

Epstein has even been described as someone known in the intelligence circles as a "hyper-fixer" - a person who can go between different cultures and networks.

Some have suggested that Epstein may have been an "intelligence asset" that ended up becoming a "liability," leading to the loss of his "protection" and arrest.

Arguably, the most prominent allegation appeared in the published book "Epstein: Dead Men Tell No Tales" by Israeli spy Ari Ben-Menashe.

It supports the notion that Epstein and Maxwell were allegedly running a "honey-trap" operation, providing young and underage girls to prominent global political figures for sex and then blackmailing them to suit Israeli intelligence interests.

Allegedly, Ben-Menashe was said to be the 'handler' or person responsible for managing agents carrying out operations of Ghislaine's father, Robert Maxwell.

Maxwell was allegedly an Israeli spy who introduced his daughter and Epstein to the national intelligence agency of the State of Israel or Mossad.

Menashe, an Iran-born Israeli businessman, claims he worked for Mossad for a decade from the late 70s until the late 80s and has been acquitted in the US of arms dealing. He insists he worked for Israel, a charge denied by Israel - despite numerous reports confirming details.

As cited in the Middle East Monitor, "See, f**king around is not a crime. It could be embarrassing, but it's not a crime," Menashe wrote in his book. "But f**king a fourteen-year-old girl is a crime. And he was taking photos of politicians f**king fourteen-year-old girls—if you want to get it straight…They [Epstein and Maxwell] would just blackmail people like that."

The book speculates that Maxwell may have worked for numerous governments - potentially as a double or triple agent.

According to the Wall Street Journal, William Burns, director of the Central Intelligence Agency since 2021, held three meetings with Epstein in 2014 while he was deputy secretary of state.

Steve Bannon, Donald Trump's former chief strategist, sought to befriend Epstein, believing he was a spy. One of the Insider sources described how they were "intrigued by Epstein's reputed role as a middleman for intelligence services in the United States and abroad."

Allegedly, Epstein may have been involved in the arms trade in the 1980s, which could have led him to work for numerous governments, including Israel.

The Rolling Stone alleged Epstein could have played the role for Israel of "an old-fashioned Russian "sleeper," someone who could be useful in an "influence campaign."

The publication spoke to numerous sources including arms dealers to former spies. They supported the idea that agent Epstein may have lacked any "moral compass" while compromising "influential people by recording them doing things they wouldn't want made public."

In 2019, Insider investigated the cross-continental movements of Jeffrey Epstein's private jets. It followed his busy schedule from 2016 onwards, including a trip to the Middle East on the eve of the 2016 election.

According to the November 7, 2016 publication, one of Epstein's jets took a route that never repeated.

Around noon, Epstein's Gulfstream GV-SP took off from Paris, flying southeastward over the Mediterranean Sea until reaching the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. 15 minutes later, at around 4 pm Paris, the jet turned north towards southern Jordan. The last signal said the plane was slightly "north of Jordan's border with Saudi Arabia, flying at an altitude of 41,000 feet."

Around two days later, the plane reappeared over the south of the Sinai, heading in the opposite direction towards Paris, where it landed shortly after 8.30 pm. Two days later, it went to New York.

Insider described the flight route as "slightly unusual for a private jet navigating the region," with one expert floating the idea that "Israel doesn't issue any overflight permits." It concluded, "Most aircraft would more than likely prefer to fly south of Israel, providing they can maintain an altitude over 31,000 feet over the Sinai Peninsula."

In 2008, Epstein was jailed and charged as a sex offender. He served 13 months in prison, returning to grace the so-called high life of celebrity and continuing his business.

Prominent lawyer Alan Dershowitz helped sex offender Jeffrey Epstein get the notable plea deal: Virginia Giuffre, a girl whom Epstein abused. Now a woman in 2022, Giuffre ended a lawsuit against the former Harvard law professor and reportedly said she couldn't be sure if he abused her.

Dershowitz is believed to be wanted now by the Israeli Prime Minister to defend Israel against accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice. Three months after Israel's war on Gaza, Israel has killed more than 23,000 Palestinians in the besieged strip. It follows the Hamas incursion into Israel that killed 1200 Israelis.

In 2019, Epstein was arrested again on federal charges of sex trafficking.

Epstein had been facing charges for sex trafficking children. He was discovered dead in a New York prison cell on August 10, 2019. Authorities say he killed himself while widespread speculation has circulated, with some believing he was killed due to his actions.

At the time of Epstein's death, he reportedly held a fortune - some $636 million, despite difficulties in determining the precise source of his wealth, leading to conjecture about its murky origins.

After his death, the FBI raided his $51 million Manhattan townhouse, discovering diamonds and large amounts of money and US dollars. However, they reportedly did not have a warrant to take the items and later returned to find they were missing.

Journalist Julie K Brown, who managed to break the Epstein case for the Miami Herald, also drew comparisons to what some regard as the murky deaths of Epstein and Maxwell.

While the likes of Ben-Menashe's claims require substantiation, if backed up, they would give strong weight to the notion that Israel may have been involved in blackmail schemes involving prominent figures from around the globe.

It would also point to how much of the West's democracies have been influenced by Israeli interests.