In a wide-ranging interview with prominent podcaster Joe Rogan this week, U.S. Vice President JD Vance made explosive claims linking disgraced convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to the highest echelons of both American and Israeli intelligence circles, while also accusing hardline elements within the Israeli government of funding a covert influence campaign to derail the recent Iran negotiation agreement he spearheaded.
Vance, who identified himself as an “original Epstein conspiracy theorist,” doubled down on long-circulated unconfirmed speculation about the late financier’s intelligence connections. When Rogan noted that a widespread popular narrative frames Epstein as an asset for Israel’s Mossad external intelligence agency, Vance said the connections could extend to either the Central Intelligence Agency, deep state actors in the U.S., Israeli intelligence, or a combination of multiple groups. He specifically pointed to ties between Epstein and left-leaning figures in Israel’s deep political establishment, naming former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak as a key example, noting that Epstein’s connections did not extend to Israel’s center-right political bloc.
For decades, unsubstantiated theories have circulated about whether Epstein operated on behalf of a foreign or domestic intelligence service. The disgraced financier, who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting new sex trafficking charges, built a sprawling network of relationships with rich and powerful global figures, from former U.S. President Bill Clinton to pro-Israel billionaire retail magnate Les Wexner, senior British politician Peter Mandelson, and Prince Andrew, Duke of York, the late Queen Elizabeth II’s second son. Over his decades in elite social circles, Epstein was widely reported to have collected extensive compromising information on his high-profile contacts, a common intelligence tradecraft tactic for leverage.
While no conclusive public evidence has ever emerged to confirm Epstein worked as an active intelligence asset for any nation, multiple official and unofficial records have hinted at potential connections. Earlier this year, a senior adviser to the Indian government publicly stated “100 percent” that Epstein was a Mossad asset when asked directly. The publicly released Epstein court documents confirm that the financier made donations to prominent Israeli causes, including Friends of the Israel Defense Forces and the Jewish National Fund, a group that supports Israeli West Bank settlements, and document his repeated personal connections to current and former members of Mossad. A 2020 FBI memo from the bureau’s Los Angeles field office also noted that an anonymous source had claimed Epstein was a “co-opted Mossad agent” who received formal spy training from the Israeli service.
Beyond his claims about Epstein, Vance used the Rogan interview to level serious accusations about Israeli interference in American domestic and foreign policy, specifically targeting the Iran nuclear negotiation framework he spent months negotiating. The preliminary memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran, signed just last month, has already collapsed, and the two nations have resumed direct cross-border military strikes in recent weeks.
According to Vance, a well-funded, covert campaign is actively working to scuttle the Iran deal to perpetuate ongoing military conflict. He specifically confirmed that some of the funding for this campaign originates from Israeli government-linked actors, referencing a recent Time magazine exposé detailing an organized Israeli influence operation targeting the Make America Great Again (MAGA) conservative base that Vance is courting as he positions himself as a potential 2028 Republican presidential candidate and a political heir to former President Donald Trump. The Time report alleges that Brad Parscale, who served as digital campaign strategist for Trump’s 2020 presidential run, receives $1.5 million per month to run the influence operation. Vance said the operation pays multiple American influencers to attack his Iran negotiation efforts, and that these critics have launched vicious personal attacks against him in an effort to keep the U.S. tied to indefinite military escalation against Iran.
“I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there have been people within the Israeli government who are trying to, like, actually shift us away from that policy [the Iran negotiations] because they want to continue the military campaign,” Vance told Rogan.
The vice president pushed back against hardline hawks in the U.S. political system who have opposed the Iran deal, challenging them to present a viable alternative to negotiations. He framed himself as a “reasonable moderate” in the deeply polarized American debate over Israel policy, noting that he has faced widespread baseless accusations of antisemitism for his push for negotiations with Iran, which he called “insane.”
When asked whether the U.S. would have entered its most recent open war with Iran if not for Israeli influence efforts, Vance replied, “Yes, yes I do.” He clarified that he shares the Biden administration’s core position that Iran must not be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon, a stance he said the president holds independent of external pressure.
Vance also rejected the theory that Israel is able to coerce former President Trump using the Epstein files or other compromising material, calling that claim “crazy.”