How Epstein groomed America's corrupt elite
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, venture capitalist Joi Ito, and others dined with Epstein in 2015, as pictured in this photo from the Epstein files. / Department of Justice
I know how Epstein groomed America’s corrupt elite
Story by Erkki Forster
The Daily Beast, March 17, 2026
Excerpt...
“Everyone is talking about what’s in [the Epstein files]. Here’s what’s not in there. We have all these emails. We have all these people emailing about everything. There’s no breakup emails,” Giridharadas, author of Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World, said.
Giridharadas continued, “There’s no one saying, ‘F---, I didn’t know, but I read the story now. You are despicable. Never call me again.’ Not one email that I’ve seen.”
Giridharadas, who has written extensively on the “Epstein class” on his Substack The.Ink, told host Joanna Coles that Epstein’s crimes were “enabled by the silence and complicity and overlooking and looking away of a much larger number of people. And I don’t think you get the former without the latter.”
The best-selling author argued that Epstein exploited a “lack of courage” that he said defines “the age of hyper-connected networks,” where connections in elite circles is the ultimate currency.
“Your wealth is your connections and the density and breadth of your connections to all these other people,” he explained.
Continues...
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/i-know-how-epstein-groomed-america-s-corrupt-elite/ar-AA1YN956
"Connections" -- plus Epstein's "Leverage" to move them into action or non-action.
= new reply since forum marked as read
AMEN!
It's true! Yet the story is missed by what passes for news coverage in the United States.
How Jeffrey Epstein Helped Israel Establish A Police State In This Country The story began in late 2010, when a disputed presidential election in Cote d'Ivoire triggered violence.
Edited by: NDTV News Desk
Nov 16, 2025
Excerpt…
Ouattara's son met Epstein in New York. Three months later, Epstein met Ouattara's niece Nina Keita and then Barak privately at the Regency Hotel. Epstein later flew to Africa, planning stops in Cote d'Ivoire, Angola, and Senegal.
Barak has claimed his dealings with Epstein were private, but documents suggest Epstein acted as a fixer. After leaving office in March 2013, Barak continued negotiating the deal. On March 19, he received an email from his brother-in-law Doron Cohen with materials from MF Group outlining plans for a surveillance and video monitoring centre in Abidjan. Communications were kept secret using cryptic references.
Negotiations were briefly disrupted by a UN report on Israeli-labelled ammunition, and the embargo was extended. Barak then called Israeli security figures including Amos Malka and Michael “Micky” Federmann, and on May 27, Sidi Tiemoko Toure, Chief of Staff to Ouattara.
Using a “non-security” pretext of building hospitals, Barak arrived in Abidjan on August 1, 2013, meeting top officials and President Ouattara.
On September 16, 2013, Barak received a 13-page proposal from Aharon Ze'evi-Farkash detailing a SIGINT (Signals Intelligence) system for Cote d'Ivoire. Farkash wrote, “The document is based on experience that has been accumulated during Amnon's and my service in the unit… I believe this meets the ‘export‑of‑knowledge' test. I thought it appropriate to bring this to your attention.”
Continues…
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/how-jeffrey-epstein-helped-israel-establish-a-police-state-in-this-country-9645587
My heart is broken by the harm these people have caused children -- just from reading the facts tailored for a family publication. May all involved with Jeffrey Epstein and his operations, even if only by association or in "looking the other way," be shamed for the rest of their lives. Thanks to Julie Brown and the real journalists who pursue the truth -- including DU and DUers -- we may still see "The Epstein Class" brought to justice.
Wish more DEMs were interested...
Rep. Nancy Mace Demands CIA Disclosure On Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell Connections
February 17, 2026
Press Release
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Feb. 17, 2026) – Today, Congresswoman Nancy Mace sent a letter to Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Ratcliffe requesting the agency disclose any and all records related to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell after the CIA refused to confirm or deny whether such records even exist, claiming the information itself is classified.
In 2011, lawyers representing Epstein filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request asking the CIA for records which may show his affiliation with the agency. The CIA's response stated "the fact of the existence or nonexistence of requested records is currently and properly classified" and is protected intelligence sources and methods information. The CIA refused to acknowledge whether records linking the agency to Epstein exist, claiming even acknowledging whether they exist or not is "classified."
"Epstein's potential ties to the CIA and its operations raise serious questions which require serious answers," said Congresswoman Mace. "The survivors of Epstein's heinous crimes and the American people deserve complete transparency on whether the CIA had any affiliation with child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein or knew about his nefarious activities."
The letter outlines multiple suspicious connections between Epstein and CIA-linked individuals and operations. Among them, Epstein repeatedly referred to entering a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF), a secure area used for handling classified national security information. In a 2015 email to his attorney Kathryn Ruemmler, Epstein described a project as an "In-Q-Tel-funded" initiative and wrote "it looks like a cia drop."
Additional connections detailed in the letter include:
* One of Epstein's attorneys, Kathryn Ruemmler, who served as White House counsel under President Obama, received the highest honor from the CIA from then-Director John Brennan and told Epstein about it
* Epstein had business ties to individuals involved in the CIA's Iran-Contra scandal. One of Epstein's first clients was Adnan Khashoggi, the Saudi arms dealer who was the central middleman in the CIA's Iran-Contra operation
* Epstein oversaw the repurposing of CIA front/contractor "Southern Air Transport" for Leslie Wexner
* Epstein worked for Douglas Leese, an arms dealer who introduced Epstein to Khashoggi
* Epstein held ties with the cofounder and owner of United States defense contractor DynCorp and appears to have been an intermediary to Norinco, the Chinese state-owned defense company
* Epstein had contact with former CIA Director William Burns and representatives of foreign governments, including a United Kingdom official who was forced to step down after it was revealed he gave Epstein confidential financial information
Rep. Mace is demanding the CIA search all records, classified and unclassified, to identify any records relating to Epstein and Maxwell, make those records available for congressional review, and disclose them to the public to the maximum extent allowable by law.
The letter notes at a minimum, the National Resources Division (NR) of the CIA would likely have had extensive contact with Epstein over the years, given its focus on debriefing high-level business people and investors who travel frequently abroad, do business with foreign officials, and have links to restricted areas.
SEE LETTER BELOW:
Source: https://mace.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-nancy-mace-demands-cia-disclosure-jeffrey-epstein-ghislaine-maxwell#:~:text=One%20of%20Epstein's%20attorneys%2C%20Kathryn,Rep.
Blackmail brings leverage. An important picture that ties things from commie-hunting Joe McCarthy era to Richard Nixon to Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump via Roger Stone and Associates and the late Jeffrey Epstein (the language Cohn used is not accurate: children are victims, not perpetrators):
The Ghost of Roy Cohn
BY TERRY MELANSON · AUGUST 24, 2014
EXCERPT...
In an interview with former NYPD detective James Rothstein, this author discovered that such operations do exist and go far back into America’s secret history. Rothstein is no conspiracy theorist. He is a legend in American law enforcement and speaks from experience. Furthermore, he gave me two notable examples from his time as a detective. Rothstein had an opportunity to have a sit-down with infamous McCarthy committee counsel Roy Cohn. During this sit-down, Cohn admitted to Rothstein that he was part of a rather elaborate sexual blackmail operation that compromised politicians with child prostitutes (Rothstein, no pagination). Cohn told Rothstein that this operation was being carried out as part of the anticommunist crusade of the time (no pagination).
Rothstein also had an opportunity to speak to infamous Watergate burglar Frank Sturgis. During this conversation, Sturgis revealed one of the reasons for breaking into the Watergate. According to Sturgis, there was a “Pedophile Book” hidden away at the Democratic National Committee headquarters (no pagination). The book was supposed to have a list of pedophiles on the American political scene (no pagination). One can only imagine the power G. Gordon Liddy would have held over the government if he had such a book in his possession.
I asked Rothstein if Roy Cohn was a real anticommunist or just using the fear of communism to justify his sex ring. It seemed like a fair question. After all, Cohn had argued against homosexuals being schoolteachers when he himself was a homosexual. Perhaps Cohn’s hypocrisy extended to his anticommunism. Rothstein made it clear that Cohn was a genuine anticommunist (no pagination). Anticommunist sentiments aside, evidence suggests that the sex ring operation started by Cohn was used for more than fighting the threat of domestic communists. Fugitive ex-CIA officer Frank Terpil has claimed that sexual blackmailing operations directed by the CIA were intensive in Washington during the Watergate era (DeCamp 179). Terpil also asserts that his former partner, Ed Wilson, was coordinating one of these sexual blackmail operations (179). In a letter to author Jim Hougan, Terpil revealed Wilson’s modus operandi:
“Historically, one of Wilson’s Agency jobs was to subvert members of both houses [of Congress] by any means necessary…. Certain people could be easily coerced by living out their sexual fantasies in the flesh…. A remembrance of these occasions [was] permanently recorded via selected cameras…. The technicians in charge of filming… were TSD [Technical Services Division of the CIA]. The unwitting porno stars advanced in their political careers, some of [whom] may still be in office.” (Qtd. in DeCamp 179)
According to John DeCamp, a former Nebraska Senator and Vietnam War hero, Wilson’s operation was merely a continuation of the one set up by Cohn (179). When I asked James Rothstein if Palfrey’s outfit was a continuation of the sexual blackmail rings that began with Cohn, he answered in the affirmative (Rothstein, pagination). The NYPD veteran made it clear that Palfrey’s outfit could not exist in Washington unless it was a tool for the power elite and sinister factions of the intelligence community (no pagination). Somewhere in a Queens cemetery, the corpse of a high-powered attorney is smiling in his grave.
SOURCE:
https://www.conspiracyarchive.com/2014/08/24/the-ghost-of-roy-cohn/
International cabal of something to make the rich richer and most all of humanity their property.
Why Epstein’s Links to the CIA Are So Important
We won’t know the full truth about his crimes until the extent of his ties to US intelligence are clear.
by Jeet Heer
The Nation, December 19, 2025
Excerpt...
People have linked Epstein to the spy world for years. In 2019, Vicky Ward, writing in The Daily Beast, reported that Trump’s then–labor secretary, Alex Acosta—who, as a federal prosecutor, had cut a notorious sweetheart plea deal with Epstein before his trial in 2008—had made some startling comments about Epstein when he was being vetted for his role in the first Trump administration. As Ward noted, Acosta claimed that he had “cut the non-prosecution deal with one of Epstein’s attorneys because he had ‘been told’ to back off, that Epstein was above his pay grade. ‘I was told Epstein “belonged to intelligence” and to leave it alone,’ he told his interviewers in the Trump transition [team].”
Snip...
This view rests on the excellent reporting done by Ryan Grim and Murtaza Hussain on Drop Site News concerning Epstein’s extensive work on behalf of Israel—often alongside former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak—as well as earlier work done by Matthew Petti in Reason. As Marcetic notes, this reporting shows Epstein, among other activities, “repeatedly hosting an Israeli military intelligence officer and Barak aide who was in the United States to conduct official business; working with Barak to secure actions against Israeli adversaries, whether a US bombing of Iran or Russian backing for regime change in Syria; [and] brokering security agreements between Israel and Mongolia and Côte d’Ivoire.”
Marcetic is right to emphasize that Epstein was tightly entwined with Israel, a fact that, despite mountains of evidence, the mainstream media has almost entirely ignored. But “asset” doesn’t quite describe how Epstein operated, which was not as an agent carrying out orders but as a shaper of policy.
Epstein was a power player in global politics, a kind of diplomat without portfolio with better access to the wealthy and politically powerful than most real ambassadors. One way to understand him is as a product of a hyper-privatized neoliberal age. Just as much of the policing of the American empire is now done by private military companies (notably Constellis, formerly known as Academi and Blackwater), billionaires like Epstein have their own private foreign policy. Whatever work Epstein did with the CIA or the Mossad would have been as a peer rather than an employee.
In a 2014 e-mail to Barak about their shared journey into the worlds of cybersecurity, cyberwarfare, and surveillance, Epstein expressed excitement at the spread of global chaos, writing: “with civil unrest exploding in ukraine syria, somolia [sic], libya, and the desperation of those in power, isn’t this perfect for you.” Barak responded, “You’re right [in] a way. But not simple to transform it into a cash flow.”
Continues...
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/jeffrey-epstein-cia-ties/#
Public record shows CIA. MI6, MOSSAD and KGB connections to Epstein.
Leaked Emails Reveal Jeffrey Epstein's Connections to the Surveillance Industry
by Matthew Petti
Reason, Wed, August 27, 2025
After his first arrest for sex crimes, Jeffrey Epstein tried to get into a new line of work: surveillance. In 2015, he partnered with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to invest in a security tech startup called Reporty Homeland Security, now known as Carbyne. Leaked emails show that Epstein was using Barak to seek out opportunities in the surveillance industry and build connections with powerful figures around the globe, including American businessman Peter Thiel, the former director of Israeli signals intelligence, and two people in Russian President Vladimir Putin's circle.
After he was first caught sexually exploiting teenage girls, Epstein had pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution in 2008; he served a little over a year in detention. Meanwhile, he invested his wealth in bizarre projects, including a ranch to breed women with his DNA and "efforts to identify a mysterious particle that might trigger the feeling that someone is watching you," according to The New York Times.
The leaked emails show that Epstein was also interested in more mundane means of spying on and manipulating people, which overlapped with the technologies governments often pursue. This interest crossed borders.
Barak's email inbox was quietly posted by Distributed Denial of Secrets, a website widely considered to be a successor to WikiLeaks, on a file-sharing platform for verified journalists and researchers in May 2025. The contents came from Handala, a hacker group named for a Palestinian cartoon character that has been leaking files taken from senior Israeli officials for several months.
Although the emails were posted without technical metadata or cryptographic signatures that would allow their authenticity to be verified, they include dozens of images, videos, voice recordings, and scanned documents from Barak and his friends and family that have never been published elsewhere. And they include information that was not publicly known at the time of the email leaks, including a reference to Epstein's birthday book.
Continues…
https://reason.com/2025/08/27/inside-jeffrey-epsteins-spy-industry-connections/
Whitney Webb does a great job specifying the global nature.
One last reminder about Bill Barr and his spooky father:
Donald Barr, AG William Barr's father, hired the college dropout Epstein to teach at an exclusive Manhattan prep academy, The Dalton School. “Get ‘em while they’re young.”