Jeffrey Epstein

Jeffrey Epstein held no government post. He was a financier and convicted sex offender who had pleaded guilty in 2008 and left jail in 2009.

In 2017, during a blockade of Qatar by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt, Epstein wrote to Sheikh Jabor Yousuf Jassim Al Thani, a businessman in Qatar's ruling family. Among his suggestions: recognize Israel, put $1 billion into a "fund to benefit the victims of terrorist acts," pay for electricity in Gaza and come out "against terrorism LOUD," the Miami Herald reported. Reuters, reporting on the same emails, summed up the advice: Epstein "urged Doha to forge links with Israel to stay in the good graces of Donald Trump."

In June 2017, Epstein gave the Indian businessman Anil Ambani his reading of the blockade: "Qatar complicating Israel deal. Gets punished," ThePrint reported.

In an email to "Jabor Y" after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's July 2017 visit to Israel, Epstein held up India's leader as the model. "The Indian Prime minister modi took advice. and danced and sang in israel for the benefit of the US president," he wrote. "IT WORKED," he added, Al Jazeera reported.

In November 2018, Epstein wrote to Ehud Barak, Israel's former prime minister: "just left hbj. He would like to sit with you," Reason reported, referring to Hamad bin Jassim, who had stepped down as Qatar's prime minister in 2013. Barak and Hamad bin Jassim arranged to meet on Dec. 20, 2018, at One Hyde Park in London, without Epstein.

After the London meeting, Sheikh Jabor sent Barak a thank-you note, copied to Epstein, asking for "more specific details about the security company." At the time, Barak and Epstein were working together on Carbyne, an Israeli security start-up, Reason reported. Barak pitched Carbyne to the Qataris for security at the 2022 World Cup, the Miami Herald reported.

Epstein never got Qatar to recognize Israel. Qatar did neither at the time, and the blockading countries restored ties with Qatar in 2021 anyway. Beyond Epstein's own boasts, no document shows that any government acted on his advice. Reuters could not establish "whether his advice was heeded," and Qatar, it noted, "stuck to its independent course."

By August 2016, Epstein was advising Saudi contacts against selling shares in the state oil company, Saudi Aramco, an idea he found "silly," the Miami Herald reported. "Shareholders are the last thing the kingdom needs," he wrote that month. Among his chief concerns about listing the shares in New York, the Herald reported, was a 2016 US law that lets Americans sue foreign countries over terrorist attacks. Aramco listed its shares three years later, in Riyadh.

On election night in 2016, Epstein was in Saudi Arabia. He was meeting King Salman and watched the results come in from there, CBS News reported, citing flight records and a source close to Epstein. The next day, Nov. 9, a senior Saudi official texted Epstein to ask whether the king should call the new president to congratulate him. "TOM barrack is your point person," Epstein replied. Tom Barrack, an investor close to Trump who had founded the firm Colony Capital, was named six days later to run Trump's inauguration.

Also on Nov. 9, 2016, Epstein wrote to an aide of Raafat Al-Sabbagh, a close adviser to Prince Mohammed bin Salman (Saudi Arabia's crown prince as of October 2026): "I am happy to represent KSA interests," meaning the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Miami Herald reported. Around the same time, he asked to be made the prince's "financial confidant." After visiting Riyadh in early November, he asked, in a message to Al-Sabbagh's aide, for a "small palace" to live in while he tutored the prince, the Herald reported. The Justice Department's release includes an undated photograph of Epstein with the prince, Middle East Eye reported.

Epstein appeared to treat Tom Barrack as a possible line into Trump's world, CBS News reported, though nothing in the records shows that anything was passed on to Trump. CBS reviewed more than 100 texts and emails between Epstein and Barrack, beginning in September 2009. CBS found the communication through Barrack running "only in one direction," with no sign that Epstein's messages reached Trump, and no evidence that Barrack took part in or knew of Epstein's crimes. As of October 2026, Barrack was Trump's ambassador to Turkey and his special envoy to Syria and Iraq, Reuters reported.

In January 2012, Barrack and Epstein arranged for Qatar's prime minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim, to view Epstein's Manhattan mansion; the visit was canceled, and the sheikh later bought a house across the street for $47 million, CBS reported.

Epstein's calendar for Aug. 29, 2016, lists "Lunch w/Ehud Barak, Tom Barrack and Vitaly Churkin," then Russia's ambassador to the UN. About a month later, Epstein bought roughly $1 million of stock in Barrack's firm, Colony Capital, CBS News reported.

In January 2017, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, who ran Dubai's port giant DP World, asked Epstein whether he should accept Barrack's invitations to various events, and bin Sulayem attended the Salute to Our Armed Services Ball, one of the inaugural balls, CBS reported, citing the New York Post.

In March 2017, the Indian businessman Anil Ambani purportedly texted Epstein: "Leadership wld like ur help for me to meet jared and bannon asap," ThePrint reported, apparently referring to Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and then a senior White House adviser, and Steve Bannon, then Trump's chief strategist. In February 2026, the Justice Department sent Congress a list of government officials and "politically exposed persons" named in the files, and Kushner is on it; the list warns that names appear "in a wide variety of contexts," some only in press reporting. Kushner is not accused of any crime involving Epstein.

In May 2017, with "legal trouble bearing down on Barrack as a result of the Mueller probe," as CBS put it, Epstein recommended a white-collar lawyer. Barrack replied that the lawyer was "on the bosses list," which CBS read as a reference to Trump. Barrack later faced charges, CBS noted, that he served as a back channel for the UAE; a jury acquitted him in 2022.

Epstein called Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, who ran Dubai's port giant DP World until February 2026, "one of my most trusted friends." In 2009, bin Sulayem told Epstein he wanted the British government to guarantee the debt on DP World's £1.8 billion port on the Thames; Epstein forwarded an investment request to Peter Mandelson, then Britain's business secretary, and edited a message bin Sulayem drafted to Mandelson, The Telegraph reported. No guarantee is documented.

In March 2012, Epstein told bin Sulayem he was in Berlin "with the Israeli defense minister," who was then Barak, and that the minister "would like to meet" him and "sheik Mohamed," CNN reported.

In June 2013, after Barak had left government, Epstein urged him to meet bin Sulayem, "the right hand of maktoum," apparently meaning Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Weeks later, on July 4, 2013, Epstein sent Barak a Fox News story about Israel inviting international bids for its ports and asked whether it was "something for sultan," meaning bin Sulayem. Barak answered: "Probably once (and IF) we'll start getting deeper into a sincere peace process." He added: "we have to think harder on how to leverage this acquaintance." Two summers later, when bin Sulayem asked Epstein to arrange a meeting, Barak replied, "Yes, of course," CNN reported.

Barak put off Epstein's port idea. The sincere peace process Barak named did not come; the Abraham Accords did. Israel, the UAE and Bahrain formalized them on Sept. 15, 2020, and the same day, DP World signed a series of memorandums with DoverTower, co-owner of Israel Shipyards in Haifa, covering Israeli ports and free zones, Maritime Executive reported. DP World pulled out of the bid for the Port of Haifa in December 2021 without saying why, while saying it remained interested in investing in Israel, Al Jazeera reported.

On Feb. 13, 2026, after the files showed years of contact with Epstein, Dubai replaced bin Sulayem as DP World's chairman and chief executive in an announcement that did not name him or give a reason, the AP reported. The AP said the emails do not appear to implicate him in Epstein's crimes.

In 2015, Barak invested about $1 million in the Israeli start-up later called Carbyne, then called Reporty, through a partnership he set up for the purpose; in 2016, Epstein put $1 million into that partnership through a company called Southern Trust, Calcalist reported in 2019, citing Israel's public broadcaster Kan. By 2018, Barak was Carbyne's chairman.

Epstein helped put the Israeli security start-up Barak chaired in front of Dubai's port chief and Qatari royals, when neither the UAE nor Qatar had open ties with Israel. In August 2018, bin Sulayem emailed Epstein and Barak about investing in Carbyne and said he had discussed with its founder using it for "Dubai 911" and personnel security at DP World's ports, Drop Site News reported, drawing partly on emails hacked from Barak's account; it could not confirm that Carbyne was ever used in Dubai.

Barak, Israel's former prime minister and defense minister, made multiple visits to Epstein's Manhattan apartment, flew on his private plane and stayed in touch for years after Epstein's 2008 plea deal, NBC News reported. While Epstein was a trustee of the Wexner Foundation, Barak received some $2 million in grants from it for unspecified "research," NBC reported. Epstein wrote, about a week before his 2019 arrest, that he was "dealing with Ehud in Israel. Making me crazy."

Whether Epstein worked for Israeli intelligence is a separate question, and the files do not settle it. One email in the files, citing an anonymous tipster to the FBI, said the source had been "convinced that Epstein was a co-opted Mossad agent," without further information, the Times of Israel reported. In 2018, Epstein had written to Barak, "You should make clear that I don't work for Mossad," followed by a smiley face. The files "have not turned up any conclusive proof that he was an intelligence agent or asset for Mossad," the New York Times reported. Vice President JD Vance said in July 2026 that Epstein "clearly had connections" to the highest levels of both American and Israeli intelligence, but said he had asked whether any documents connected Epstein directly to "our intelligence agencies or anybody else's," and "the answer is no."

The files indicate that Marc Rowan, chief executive of Apollo Global Management, who sits on both of the Board of Peace's executive boards, the White House said in January 2026, met Epstein multiple times years after the 2008 guilty plea, and in March 2016 shared with Epstein what appears to be internal Apollo email correspondence about the valuation of a tax asset, CNN reported. Leon Black, an Apollo co-founder, paid Epstein $158 million from 2012 to 2017, according to a review commissioned by Apollo that found no evidence he was involved in Epstein's crimes. Rowan is not accused of any crime involving Epstein.

In February 2026, CBS News reported that Howard Lutnick, Trump's commerce secretary, and Epstein had each signed, for separate companies, an agreement dated Dec. 28, 2012, to take stakes in the same firm, Adfin, and that they were in business together as recently as 2014. Days after the CBS report, Lutnick told senators that he had visited Epstein's island during a 2012 family vacation: "We had lunch on the island, that is true, for an hour," ABC News reported. Lutnick is not accused of any crime involving Epstein.

On Jan. 30, 2026, the Justice Department released more than 3 million pages of the Epstein files, and Todd Blanche, then the deputy attorney general, said the department had met its obligations under the law, NPR reported. As of July 2026, the department was still withholding about 2.5 million pages, USA Today reported. The department has not released the rest, so how much more the files hold on Epstein's Gulf dealings is unknown.