Newly released documents from the Jeffrey Epstein case include multiple references to Iran, ranging from claims of a meeting with a former Iranian president to allegations of arms trading, financial networks, and property links connected to Tehran. Among the emails released from the Jeffrey Epstein case is a letter written by Robert Trivers, a prominent American evolutionary biologist, referring to a meeting between Epstein and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s former president. This is not the only instance in which Iran appears in the documents made public by the US Department of Justice.
A viral claim of Iran releasing the Epstein files has surfaced online amid the ongoing conflict against US and Israel. This comes after New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slammed President Donald Trump over the joint strikes that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. She accused Trump of ‘risking world war’ to distract from the ongoing Epstein scandal. Trump’s name appears multiple times in the Epstein files, including the batch the Department of Justice recently released to the public. Amid this, the claims have surfaced that Iran is releasing the Epstein files. It’s claimed ”Child trafficker rapist and paedophile files in Iran hands .Nowhere to run”.
Before the United States and Israel launched their war on Iran five days ago, the fallout from files released by the US Department of Justice on the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were reverberating around the world. Israel’s former Prime Minister Ehud Barak and numerous others have also faced intense scrutiny. Epstein’s deep links to Israel have prompted further allegations that he was an active Mossad spy. And several leading figures in the US have resigned posts over connections to the disgraced financier. But all those reverberations and revelations have sharply shifted once the bombs started raining down on Iran. AL Jazeera spoke to Shaiel Ben-Ephraim, an analyst with Atlas Global Strategies and a former Israeli diplomat, about the motives for the attack on Iran. He said the attack and its timing are all about domestic politics in both the US and Israel, with “very little strategic rationale behind it”. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may be hoping the war boosts his own approval ratings before elections, which local media are reporting may be called as soon as June. “The Gaza war of genocide wasn’t particularly successful in terms of getting Netanyahu public approval because the enemy there, Hamas, is kind of weak, and Israel didn’t do particularly well,” Ben Ephraim said, calling Iran “a more impressive enemy”.
The ties between disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein and Israel are becoming clearer after the release of millions of documents related to the convicted sex offender by the United States Department of Justice, following a years-long campaign. The documents have revealed more details of Epstein’s interactions with members of the global elite, including former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. But they also document his funding of Israeli groups, including Friends of the Israeli Defence Forces, and the settler organisation the Jewish National Fund, as well as his ties to members of Israel’s overseas intelligence services. Ten days since the US Department of Justice last released millions of documents related to Epstein – and ten and a half years since his death in US custody – details of his interactions with other members of the global elite continue to dominate the world’s headlines. While the documents provide more evidence for those who believe that Epstein was an Israeli intelligence asset, it is still not something we can say for certain.
An FBI memo produced by the bureau’s Los Angeles field office in October 2020 reported that one of its sources had come to believe Epstein “was a co-opted Mossad agent”. According to the document, the disgraced financier was described as having been “trained as a spy” for Israel’s intelligence service. The source also claimed Epstein maintained links to US and allied intelligence circles through his long time lawyer Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard University law professor whose network, it said, included “many students from wealthy families”. Among those cited were Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and envoy, and his brother, Josh Kushner, both described in the memo as former students.
Epstein’s email correspondence also shows him to have had extensive contact with senior Ehud Barak aide and Israeli military intelligence Yoni Koren, who made regular stays at Epstein’s New York residence and whose cancer treatment in 2012, the emails show, Epstein appears to have paid for. The links to Israel go back much further. Robert Maxwell, a British newspaper tycoon who was the father of Epstein’s former girlfriend and co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, was long rumoured to have been linked to Israeli intelligence. Maxwell poured money into the Israeli economy and died in mysterious circumstances after he was said to have fallen from his yacht in 1991, after embezzling millions from his company’s pension fund. Epstein himself appeared to have suspected that the Israeli Mossad intelligence agency had a role in Maxwell’s death. An email Epstein sent in 2018 had the subject line “he was passed away”, referring to Maxwell. In the message, Epstein claimed that Maxwell had previously threatened Israel’s intelligence service, writing that “unless they [the Mossad] gave him £400 million to save his [Maxwell’s] crumbling empire, he would expose all he had done for them”. Epstein also alleged that Maxwell had acted as informal operative, gathering information on the US, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union.
Dershowitz – himself a controversial figure who is avowedly pro-Israel – has denied the claims, saying of Epstein that “No intelligence agency would really trust him”. Dershowitz added that if Epstein had been intelligence operative, he would have informed his lawyer – referring to himself. Israel’s current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also pushed back on claims Epstein was a Mossad agent, writing on Twitter: “Jeffrey Epstein’s unusually close relationship with Ehud Barak doesn’t suggest Epstein worked for Israel. It proves the opposite. Barak has long been one of Netanyahu’s political opponents. Other sources, including Christopher Steele, who used to head up the British spy agency MI6’s Russia desk, have suggested that it was “quite likely” that Epstein may have been “recruited by Russian organised criminals”. Elsewhere, the Polish government has launched an investigation into the late sex offender’s links to Russia’s state intelligence.
Through Epstein’s COUQ Foundation, he provided Friends of the Israeli Defence Forces (FIDF) and the Jewish National Fund (JNF) with funds on at least one occasion, when he gifted $25,000 to the FIDF and $15,000 to the JNF in 2006.According to the FIDF’s website, the organisation funds programmes for Israeli soldiers. Through its website, the organisation invites donors to adopt a brigade or battalion, such as the 97th Netzah Yehuda Battalion, which has been widely accused of killing unarmed civilians, killing detainees, torture, and mistreatment. The JNF has also been accused of historically privileging Jewish citizens to land inside Israel while restricting Palestinians’ access under the guise of “environmentalism”.
Interest in the Jeffrey Epstein files has plummeted by 95% since the US and Israel launched military strikes against Iran in late February, according to Google Trends data. The sharp Epstein files interest drop coincides with the war’s escalation dominating global headlines, shifting public focus from the scandal’s revelations to geopolitical turmoil. Analysts note that searches for Epstein documents and related subpoenas peaked just before the conflict intensified, only to fall dramatically as missile exchanges and airstrikes captured attention. But bombing a country won’t make Epstein files go away, claimed by Rep. Thomas Massie.
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US- Israel attack on Iran & Epstein File
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