Was Jeffrey Epstein a Mossad agent?

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In news that will not surprise you at all, I've spent the last week digging down into the Jeffrey Epstein rabbit hole.

Jeffrey Epstein had extreme wealth and powerful friends.

And trying to get to the bottom of who this awful man really was.

Donald Trump was quoted as saying, Jeff is a terrific guy.

Down here in the hole, I keep running into quite a surprising allegation.

Jeffrey Epstein was working on behalf of Intel Services, probably not American.

And once you get to the was Epstein a spy thing, it's like a rabbit hole within a rabbit hole, a full-blown mad Hatta Tea party.

He was a intelligence resource for someone else.

He has a verified connection to Mossad.

Someone has created a fake human being called Jeffrey Epstein.

In podcast land, people are demanding to know if Epstein was really a spy.

The intelligence community has had to use the courts to ensure none of Epstein's files get out.

After a week in the hole, I've found some shocking things.

There's a lot of nasty nasty stuff down in the tunnels, but is the evidence that all these guys are relying on conclusive?

Was he working with or for any foreign intelligence agencies?

There is no way they don't already have that answer.

Maybe they do, maybe they don't.

We'll try and find it here, too.

I'm Matt Bevan, and this is If You're Listening.

We're going to start this episode in the middle of last week's episode.

If you haven't heard it, go back and check it out now because it's truly bananas.

It's 1986.

An Israeli named Mordecai Venunu is in London trying to tell the world about Israel's secret nuclear weapons program.

Venunu's photographs give a unique first-hand account of what's been going on inside Israel's nuclear reactor.

He's taken photographs inside the top secret nuclear enrichment facility, and they're set to be published in the Sunday Times.

Unfortunately for him, a con man named Oscar Guerrero also has copies of his photos and is looking for a payday.

Oscar Guerrero had surfaced in London again and was trying to sell copies of Venunu's photographs to the Sunday Mirror.

It was a race to the printer and the Sunday Mirror, a tabloid competitor to the broadsheet Sunday Times, published Venunu's photographs first.

But instead of writing an expose of Israel's secret nukes, they targeted Venunu.

On the strength of Guerrero's evidence, the mirror denounced Venunu as a fake.

To discredit Venunu and his photos, they got experts on record saying that they could just have easily been taken inside an egg factory.

Now, why discredit the story instead of treating it like the once-in-a-decade scoop that it really was?

In fact, why publish the photos at all if you don't think they're legitimate?

Well, that all might have had something to do with the guy who owned the Sunday Mirror.

Robert Maxwell controls a $5 billion media and communications empire based in London but with tentacles around the world.

Robert Maxwell was famous for having significant editorial influence over his papers.

I certainly have a major say in the political line of the paper.

I certainly have a major say on the editorials.

He was a socialist firebrand and the primary rival of Rupert Murdoch, the owner of the Sunday Times.

He's smarter than Murdoch.

First place, he's funny.

He has a sense of humor.

That's veteran New Yorker contributor Philip Hamburger.

He was a big fan of Robert Maxwell.

And it's easy to see why.

The guy was pretty impressive.

He built a massive publishing empire from nothing.

This is obviously a very remarkable fellow.

He's the

child of unemployed Czech farm workers, and he's a legitimate billionaire, and God knows what else.

Well, U.S.

investigative reporter Seymour Hirsch thought he knew what else.

Claims in a book by American author Seymour Hirsch that the publisher had secretly worked for Israeli intelligence.

Hirsch, using an exiled ex-Israeli spy as his source, reported that as soon as Venunu's pictures arrived on his desk, Maxwell reported their existence to the Israeli spy service Mossad.

And then Maxwell used his newspaper to preemptively discredit them.

Hirsch said that Maxwell had knowingly participated in an Israeli disinformation operation, something that Maxwell's critics thought aligned very well with his history.

Nothing would surprise me.

He was certainly a very active Zionist.

He was very, very involved with Israeli politics.

Seymour Hirsch compiled his reporting into a book about Maxwell, which was published in 1991.

Needless to say, Maxwell was unimpressed.

He was very angry, very angry about the allegations that have been made by the book by Seymour Hirsch.

The revelation came at the same time Maxwell was being investigated for a number of serious financial crimes.

Being accused of connections to Mossad was the last thing he needed.

He decided to go and spend some time on his luxury yacht to get away from the swirling allegations.

He spent four days chilling at sea, but then on the fifth day...

Multi-millionaire British publisher Robert Maxwell is dead.

The body of the 68-year-old tycoon was recovered off the Canary Islands near Morocco several hours after he went missing from his yacht.

Now, understandably, there have been rather a lot of conspiracy theories surrounding Robert Maxwell's death.

The most bizarre suggestion that Maxwell was killed by an Arab assassin because of alleged links to Israeli intelligence.

Killed by the Israeli Secret Service or Mossad after he tried to blackmail them into propping up his ailing business.

Despite the rumours, police investigators and most of the Maxwell family agreed that it was unlikely he had been murdered.

Most experts think it was either suicide, a medical episode, or just an accident.

There was a good spot at the back of the boat with no guardrail where Maxwell would routinely pee into the open sea.

So it's quite possible that he just slipped and fell.

Maxwell's wife thought that allegations her husband was a a spy were ridiculous.

I mean, you know, one day they make him a KGB agent, the next day he's a Mossad agent, third day he's a CIA agent.

The poor man, I mean, he would have had a life dedicated to spying.

So was he a spy?

For Mossad or anyone else?

And did he just slip midstream or was he murdered?

After Maxwell's death, these were the questions everyone was asking, including here at the ABC.

A preliminary report on the death of British media tycoon Robert Maxwell says he may have died of a heart attack.

The explanation won't be believed by everyone.

One person with a different view is Ari Ben Monash.

Ari Ben Menash.

Remember that name.

Mr.

Ben Menash, who now lives in Sydney, describes himself as a former Israeli government agent.

Mr.

Ben Monash did a lot of press at the time, claiming that Maxwell was connected to Mossad and potentially murdered by them.

And there are plenty of books that back him up.

There's Seymour Hirsch's book, which said that Maxwell was connected to Massad.

There's another book claiming that Maxwell was murdered.

But the thing is, the actual primary source for the information in all of those books is Ari Ben Menash.

If you look underneath most claims about Maxwell to find out where they originally came from, it's almost certain to be this guy.

Ari Ben Menash, who is still going around doing interviews claiming Maxwell was murdered.

And the Israelis did not want want him to sing.

So I believe

the Israelis took care of him.

And it's not just Robert Maxwell that Ari Ben Minash suspects.

He's also the primary source for claims that Maxwell's daughter and her boyfriend are connected to Mossad as well.

Why is that important?

Well, Maxwell and his daughter were close.

So close, in fact, that he decided to name his luxury yacht after her, the Lady Ghelane.

Robert Maxwell's favourite daughter, Ghelane Maxwell, was, according to Ben Minash, at least, a Mossad agent.

Here she is talking to the press on board her namesake yacht just after her father's death.

I want also to

thank the press

for their

courtesy and consideration

to my mother

and to us

at this this time,

which we appreciate very much.

Ghelaine Maxwell's partner at the time and for the following three decades was Jeffrey Epstein.

But any connection that any of them have with Massad is pretty much just based on the word of one guy, Ari Ben Minash, a single source who has made a lot of wild and unprovable claims.

Can you point to any hard evidence that's in the public domain to back up these claims?

I believe

there is some evidence that

is going to be released.

He said that 34 years ago, and there's still no hard evidence.

As I would have learned in journalism school if I had ever enrolled in journalism school, a single source does not make a fact.

So, let's go searching for a second source.

Would you please state your full name?

Geoffrey Edward Epstein, and my residence address is 16100 Red Hook Boulevard in Virgin Islands.

This is a sworn deposition, by the way.

Have you ever been convicted of a crime?

Yes.

What was the crime of which you were convicted?

Two counts, one soliciting prostitution and procuring a minor for prostitution.

This conviction.

was the result of a deal struck with prosecutors that was presented to Epstein to sign on the 24th of September 2007, following two years of investigation.

It allowed Epstein to plead guilty to those two crimes instead of facing trial for a multitude of accusations.

Epstein would need to register as a sex offender and serve 18 months in county jail.

That being said...

And is it seven days a week that you're out on work release?

No, sir.

How many days a week are you out on work release?

Six.

And of those six days, how many hours per day are you out on work release?

Twelve.

So he was basically only in jail to sleep.

This deal Epstein signed to kind of go to jail for 18 months was later described in a Department of Justice investigation as an example of poor judgment by the prosecutor who organized it, U.S.

Attorney Alex Acosta.

Why?

Well, let's just whip through what Epstein and Ghelane Maxwell had been up to since Robert Maxwell's death.

Epstein made his fortune on Wall Street as a money manager for wealthy clients like Victoria's secret owner, Lex Wexner.

He was very good at networking.

He was very good at getting in front of people in power, of influence, and then finding a way to compromise them so that he potentially had something to hold against them.

Epstein used to record the behaviors that went on on his island, and therefore there probably are tapes around.

As we now know, his contact list was extraordinary.

He had connections in very high places.

It's a who's who of global power and fame, including Prince Andrew, singer Michael Jackson and magician David Copperfield.

Bill Clinton took four trips on Epstein's private jet and Donald Trump called him a terrific guy.

Video shows the pair partying at his Mar-a-Lago resort in 1992.

Epstein's Palm Beach house was five minutes drive from Mar-a-Lago.

He and Trump were close friends for more than a decade.

In 2005, teenage girls in Florida began reporting to police that they were being hired by Ghelane Maxwell under the pretense that they would come to Epstein's Palm Beach house to give him massages.

But then, they were sexually assaulted.

They said they were paid afterwards and told that they could make more money by sending more girls to Epstein.

Then in 2006, Epstein was arrested.

Police allege he paid underage girls for sex and found hidden cameras in his home and photographic evidence of his crimes.

A plea deal allegedly shut down a broader FBI investigation, with Epstein pleading guilty to charges of procuring girls under 18 for prostitution.

The plea deal has been referred to by advocates for the victims and the victims themselves as being a sweetheart deal or the deal of the century.

So how was Epstein able to get a deal so light it was described as poor judgment on the part of the prosecutor?

Well, that prosecutor, Alex Acosta, was nominated by Donald Trump to be the Labour Secretary in 2017.

As part of that process, he was interviewed by Trump officials to find out if there were any skeletons in his closet.

Daily Beast journalist Vicki Ward looked into whether he was asked about Epstein.

Here's what she said about that on Megan Kelly's show in July this year.

I was told directly by someone in the Trump transition

who had met with Alex Acosta in the transition and asked if the issue of Jeffrey Epstein would be a roadblock or a problem for his confirmation.

And the answer came back,

no.

You know, I was told Epstein belonged to intelligence and they moved on.

Alex Acosta said Epstein belonged to intelligence.

For many people, this is the smoking gun.

He said that he was told to back off of Epstein.

He was told that Epstein belonged to intelligence.

Once I came across the Acosta quote, the famous Acosta quote about like, leave him alone, he belongs to intelligence.

Duh.

Don't know how else you interpret that.

That's what Alex Acosta, the prosecutor, says that he was told about what he should do with the Jeffrey.

Like, leave him alone because he's intelligent.

Well, there were, we're just kind of, the conversation just like ended.

Like, we know.

Now, if the prosecutor says, the federal prosecutor in Florida says that, then I think we can assume that that's true.

But can we really assume that that's true?

Mr.

Secretary, were you ever made aware at any point you're handling this case that Mr.

Epstein was an intelligence asset of some sort?

When Acosta was asked about this, he waffled on for a little bit before saying...

You know, I would hesitate to take this reporting as fact.

He was a bit clearer when the Justice Department called him up, denying outright that he had ever been told that Epstein was an intelligence asset.

So where did the story come from?

Did he make that story up in his transition interview?

Or did the person he talked to lie to Vicki Ward about it?

Or did he lie to the Justice Department?

Somebody lied, but we don't really know who.

The Justice Department said that none of the people they spoke to had any evidence that Epstein was an intelligence asset.

When it comes to the crimes of sexual assault that Jeffrey Epstein committed, Alex DaCosta had poor judgment.

And that's the reason he agreed to give Epstein the so-called sweetheart deal.

There are lots of very, very long podcasts you can listen to where people spend two or three hours telling you that Jeffrey Epstein was a spy.

You start to see a pattern that's very much in line with what an intelligence operation looks like.

This missing fortune of Robert Maxwell and this fortune of Jeffrey Epstein that we don't can't explain, are those the same fortune?

So Maxwell's dad was an Israeli spy.

Yes, but his daughter was running logistics for Jeffrey Epstein.

For Jeffrey Epstein, yes.

By the way, every single person in Washington, Washington, D.C.

thinks that.

I've never met anyone who doesn't think that.

And of course, that question has been asked to the government of Israel and their answer is, we're not going to tell you.

And while I'll admit, it's definitely an enticing rabbit hole.

Having dug into it, I can tell you that those stories are built on two quite flimsy foundation stones.

Ari Ben Minash has never presented any hard evidence that Robert Maxwell, Ghelaine Maxwell, or Jeffrey Epstein are spies.

Meanwhile, Alex Acosta steadfastly denies ever being told that Epstein belongs to intelligence.

The rest of the evidence is very circumstantial.

You know, Epstein working with someone's father or an ex-Israeli prime minister flying on Epstein's plane.

Last year we did an episode about why Americans are so quick to reach for conspiracy theories involving spy agencies when something crazy happens like an assassination or in this case, Jeffrey Epstein's death in custody.

Even when there's not really a lot of evidence that the conspiracy theory is true.

And the conclusion we came to is that it's because the government really does do crazy stuff sometimes, and they really do keep secrets about things.

But in this case, I think we can add that a lot of the time these conspiracy theories are left to run wild, even though they could easily be debunked, because the real story is most likely very inconvenient for some people in power.

Since taking office, Donald Trump has gone to great lengths to undermine the importance of these so-called Epstein files and prevent their release.

But I don't understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody.

It's pretty boring stuff.

It's sordid, but it's boring.

And I don't understand why it keeps going.

I think, well, really, only Pretty bad people, including fake news, want to keep something like that going.

So is it more likely that Donald Trump is refusing to release the Epstein files to protect Massad?

Or is he doing it to protect himself?

If you're listening, is written by me, Matt Bevitt.

Supervising producer is Cara Jensen-McKinnon.

Audio production is by Adair Shepard.

There are a few tickets left for our live show in Canberra on the 21st of August.

As I'm recording this, we're about 75% full.

Grab your tickets now if you don't want to miss out.

We'll be back with more on Jeffrey Epstein next week as this scandal continues to plague the Trump administration.

I'll see you next week.