The Rest Is Classified
117. Epstein Files Declassified: Mossad, Israel and Ghislaine Maxwell (Ep 2)
14 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main question about Jeffrey Epstein's connections to intelligence services?
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Chapter 2: How did Robert Maxwell's background influence his ties to Mossad?
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Chapter 3: What theories exist about Epstein working for Mossad?
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Chapter 4: What evidence suggests Robert Maxwell had connections to Israeli intelligence?
And I'm Bevan McCluskey. And welcome to the second episode in our two-part series, which is really examining one question, I guess, David, which is, was the financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein working for or with an intelligence service? A simple question, but a really interesting and complicated one as well, isn't it?
Well, last time we left off with a discussion I mean, really, who Epstein was, this theory, which has different flavors to it, of how he may have been connected to or working for an intelligence service.
Chapter 5: How did Ghislaine Maxwell's relationship with Epstein factor into the theories?
And we, in particular, went deep on what I think is the most, maybe most common, but certainly the most salacious version of that theory. which is that he was working probably for the Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence service, to run essentially a blackmail ring out of some of his properties, gathering compromise on influential politicians and business leaders.
And so we went into that theory. I think we both offered our view that that theory doesn't hold a lot of water and there's a lot of reasons to look at the risk reward calculation that a foreign intelligence service would have to do when evaluating him and kind of saying, this doesn't make a lot of sense, put aside also the fact that there aren't any facts to back it up.
But we left, Gordon, with me reading some messages from former CIA officers who were asked this question of, if you put the criminality aside,
Which is a big thing to do.
Which is. Which is. If you put the criminality aside, is he an interesting target for an intelligence agency?
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Chapter 6: What conspiracy theories surround Robert Maxwell's death?
And I think this time we're going to go deeper to evaluate, you know, how he could have been valuable to an intelligence service. And more importantly, whether there's any evidence that he actually did work with or for an intelligence service.
Yeah, because we should be clear, it's a theory. The absence of facts is one of the issues with this, that nothing has really been proven. So we are really just kind of exploring some of the theories which are out there, and they're certainly out there, and they're kind of arguably gaining more currency.
And you're right, I think we looked at that theory about running a blackmail ring, but there is a kind of wider question, which I think the comments you collected from...
from from other people in the intelligence world you know are interesting which is might there be some kind of other relationship or he'd have with the intelligence world and what could that have been and as i said we're going to kind of look at it as a theory and it's interesting because you know a lot of the theories relate not so much to him
as to Ghislaine Maxwell, who we talked about last time, his sometime partner, associate, someone who was also deeply involved in his activities, as we know.
Accomplice. I mean, criminal accomplice.
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Chapter 7: How does Epstein's network connect to Israeli officials?
Yeah, exactly. And she becomes a very interesting figure in this because in that theory, as I said, let's just remind people it's a theory, The idea that he might be linked particularly to Mossad, the Israeli intelligence services, often goes through her. And the reason is her father.
It's worth looking at, I think, in a bit of detail who he was because he did have ties to the intelligence services. And then it's sometimes that connection which leads people back to Jeffrey Epstein. So let's spend a few minutes, I think, on this remarkable figure who was Robert Maxwell. He probably isn't that well known in the US. And I think in my day, he was very well known in the UK.
I mean, he was on a par with Rupert Murdoch as one of the great press barons, but a much more kind of colourful and dangerous character, I think, than Rupert Murdoch, as we'll see.
Chapter 8: What conclusions can we draw about Epstein's role in intelligence circles?
And the really good book to read on this is called Fall, and the title will become clear later, The Mysterious Life and Death of Robert Maxwell by John Preston. It's an excellent biography, which came out a few years ago.
So I think just to set him up, extraordinary character, larger than life, born into a different name, Jan, in a poor Yiddish-speaking Orthodox Jewish family in Czechoslovakia in 1923. He's big, he's tough, he's smart. During the Second World War, he's still young though. It's occupied by the Nazis. He joins the underground to help people flee to the West. Still a teenager.
Claims he kind of escapes after being captured. There's a lot of myth-making around his early life, it's fair to say. He arrives in Britain and reinvents himself, gets married, changes his religion, changes his age, as John Preston says, changes religion, age, nationality and name in a very short period of time, which, you know, it's quite a lot to do.
Joins the British army during the war, sees action in Normandy. He dies. He turns up at one village in Normandy dressed up as a German major because he's going to kind of try and do reconnaissance work behind enemy lines or close to enemy lines. You know, he often wore disguises, changed names, spoke many languages. He ends up getting presented with the military cross by Field Marshal Montgomery.
So he is a kind of something of a war hero. But then at the end of the war, he learns his mother, his grandfather, three of his siblings, his father all died in Auschwitz. Wow. And this will be a part of his story. He's then in the intelligence corps for the British military, serves in Germany, uses a pseudonym to protect his identity.
So you can already see he's in that kind of spy world to some extent, although officially. And for six months, he's Captain Stone, who is part of a team interrogating German prisoners of war and others who'd worked for the Nazi regime. Now, there's going to be rumors that he's a spy for the Russians, for the Israelis.
But at this point, he is kind of an intelligence officer for the Brits, military intelligence. And he's doing missions, it appears, back into Czechoslovakia. You know, his former homeland, which is now under communist control. John Preston makes this point. You know, everyone knows that film, The Third Man by Graham Greene. One of the classics. Evocative of Harry Lyme, isn't he? Exactly. Yeah.
That's the kind of character he is. That kind of slightly slippery character. And also... perhaps moving on the edges of the kind of black market in that world, wants to make his fortune. So after he's left the military, he gets into scientific publishing. Now there are claims from one former MI6 officer, never confirmed in his memoir, that MI6 might have even played a role, a helping hand.
With his early business life, because through this scientific publishing, which is kind of across Europe, he's able to travel around Europe. He's able to travel to Moscow and meet interesting people. And he's going to become incredibly rich as well, thanks to this publishing empire.
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