Jeffrey Epstein an Israel Spy? Expert Explains How Convicted Sex Offender Became an Intelligence Asset

A former CIA counterterrorism officer has claimed Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019, was an intelligence asset working for Israel. John Kiriakou, a CIA whistleblower, said Epstein operated as what intelligence agencies call an 'access agent', using wealth and influence to get close to powerful figures and gather compromising material.

Kiriakou made the claims during an interview on The Diary of a CEO, where he said Epstein fitted a pattern used in CIA training to illustrate how foreign intelligence services recruit intermediaries rather than targets themselves.

How Epstein Became an Intelligence Asset

Kiriakou said Epstein was a 'stereotypical example' of an access agent, someone who provides intelligence services with proximity to high-value targets who would be too difficult to recruit directly.

'If you're a foreign intelligence service, and you want information, like close information from a former president, from the CEO of the biggest company in the world, from a member from the British royal family. You're not going to recruit these guys, you're not going to recruit Bill Clinton, or Bill Gates, or Prince Andrew so you do the next best thing,' Kiriakou said.

'You recruit somebody who has regular access to them,' he explained. 'And that person that you recruit is gonna need to make these people feel comfortable and appreciated. And so you give them plenty of money, so he has this house on an island – or he has the whole island, and maybe bring in young girls, you get them in compromising positions, just in case you need to use what is called "kompromat", compromising pictures.'

Kiriakou also pointed to surveillance equipment reportedly hidden throughout Epstein's properties, including in bathrooms. 'Why? Why would he care what was going on unless it was to use that information against people?' he said. 'As I said, only the Israelis and the Russians use extortion as a motivator.'

When asked if Israel provided Epstein with the wealth that enabled him to gain access to influential people, Kiriakou agreed. 'Governments are the only ones that can launder money unfettered,' he said. 'And you can also do it through real estate, through fine art, and through horses. Those are the three easiest ways to launder money today.'

Epstein's 'Sweetheart' Deal

Kiriakou said Epstein would not have publicly disclosed his intelligence role, but that such a connection could help explain the lenient sentence he received in 2006. Epstein was sentenced to six months of house arrest with an ankle monitor, despite the usual minimum sentence for a first offence of that kind being five years.

'This is a guy that's been convicted of child sex crimes. And he gets six months of house arrest with an ankle bracelet?' Kiriakou said.

Kiriakou also claimed that Alexander Acosta, the prosecuting attorney at the time, was ordered by the attorney general to offer Epstein the lenient sentence. 'Who's the only person that can order the attorney general to do something? It's the president,' Kiriakou said. 'So was it because Epstein was working on Clinton? Most of the people down there were Democrats. I mean, what was the reason?'

When pressed about the possibility Epstein was a double agent, Kiriakou said he might have been 'doubled against the Israelis or others'.

'It was the Israelis,' Kiriakou said when asked who he believed Epstein was working for. 'I'm confident it was the Israelis.'