Alleged connections between Jeffrey Epstein and intelligence agencies
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The financier and child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has been rumored to have connections to the intelligence agencies of Israel (Mossad), Russia (Intelligence agencies of Russia), and the United States (Central Intelligence Agency).
Epstein was rumored in 2021 by Vicky Ward in Rolling Stone to be associated with intelligence agencies, and bragged to a journalist that he knew the owner of the African port of Djibouti so well that he could use it for contraband.[1]
As U.S. attorney in Florida, the later U.S. secretary of labor Alexander Acosta reached a settlement with Epstein's lawyers in 2008, which allowed him to receive a light prison sentence. Acosta later reportedly stated that he was told that Epstein "belonged to intelligence" and that the issue was above his "pay grade". According to Acosta, he was "pushed" to give Epstein a very good deal.[2] Former CIA director and diplomat William J. Burns met with Epstein three times. According to a CIA spokesperson, Burns hoped that Epstein would help him "transition to the private sector".[3][4]
Ghislaine Maxwell claimed in her July 2025 prison interview with Todd Blanche, that tales of Epstein's involvement with intelligence agencies during her relationship with him are "bullshit".[5] Previously Maxwell maintained that Epstein's planes were "wire-tapped" for "leverage" and in conversation with Christina Oxenberg she speculated that audio and video recordings could potentially incriminate co-conspirators and high-profile figures who were associates of Epstein.[6]
Israel
Journalists Dylan Howard, Melissa Cronin and James Robertson linked Epstein to the Israeli Mossad in their book Epstein: Dead Men Tell No Tales. They relied for the most part on the former Israeli intelligence officer Ari Ben-Menashe.[7] Epstein's alleged activities as an Israeli spy served to gather compromising material on powerful people in order to blackmail them.[8] Epstein's victim Virginia Giuffre alleged Epstein to be an intelligence asset, linking on Twitter to a Reddit page, that alleged Epstein was a Mossad/CIA spy running a blackmail and honey pot ring to entrap elite oligarchs.[9] Several people argue that it is unlikely that he worked for Mossad.[10][11]
According to emails that came to light in November 2025, an Israeli intelligence officer stayed at Epstein's apartment in Manhattan several times between 2013 and 2016. In 2016, the Israeli government installed security equipment to a Manhattan building owned by his brother and managed by Epstein, for use by his associates and underage models; former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak frequented the building for extended stays.[12] The emails also showed that Epstein was involved in the negotiation of security agreements between Israel and Mongolia and between Israel and the Ivory Coast. Epstein also attempted to establish a backchannel between the Russian and Israeli governments during the Syrian civil war.[13][14]
Russia
In 2026, Poland's prime minister Donald Tusk announced that he would like to see an investigation into the "likely" links between Epstein and Russian authorities.[15][16] Epstein bragged repeatedly about advising "foreign leaders who included Vladimir Putin, Mohammed bin Zayed, Mohammed Bin Salman, various African dictators, Israel, the British — and, of course, the Americans" in the final decade of his life.[1][failed verification][17]
John Mark Dougan served as a deputy sheriff in Palm Beach County (where Epstein was first arrested) from 2005 until 2009. After fleeing to Moscow in 2016 to avoid felony charges in Florida, he received political asylum and was later identified by U.S. and European officials as a central figure in Russian disinformation operations.[18] According to British media reports and a biography by Andrew Lownie, British intelligence officials expressed concerns that Dougan had obtained files from the Palm Beach County investigation into Epstein. Lownie reported that Dougan allegedly brought copies of these documents and videos to Russia after fleeing the United States in 2016. The reports also suggested that compromising material from the Epstein files may have been obtained by other foreign intelligence services, including those of Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Libya.[19]
United States
According to a 2025 report by Drop Site News, Les Wexner and Epstein were involved in relocating Southern Air Transport (a CIA front organization with ties to the Iran-Contra affair and alleged CIA drug smuggling) from Miami to Columbus in the 1990s. Southern Air transported goods related to Wexner's businesses, but in 1996, Customs agents found a hidden shipment of cocaine on one of the planes. Southern Air was shut down in 1998 after Wexner had received federal aid for the relocation of the airline, just weeks before the CIA Inspector General released its official findings on Contra cocaine trafficking allegations. In the 1980s, Epstein himself had close ties to key figures in the Iran-Contra affair, such as Stanley Pottinger and Adnan Khashoggi.[20]