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Welp, turns out more Epstein files are finally getting released!
Apparently there will be a vote coming out to release even more, but the docs released so far have been negative for Trump's claims to be innocent of the whole matter.
This, combined with the ruckus over Trump arguing we need foreign talent, has caused a massive cratering amongst online confidence in MAGA. From my perspective, confidence in MAGA at least online is the lowest it has ever been. Many feel betrayed by Trump when it comes to his America First promises.
Add in the storm over Fuentes and Israel, and I feel I'm seeing the conservative coalition fall apart in real time, extremely quickly.
Is this inevitable, the narcissism of small differences? Or is it just Trump not being a very principled man?
There are also interesting leaks from DropSiteNews who obtained Ehud Barak’s hacked emails. Epstein helped write Barak’s op-eds for war in the Middle East, aided Israel’s security deals in Mongolia / Russia / Africa, hosted an Israeli intelligence officer at his apartment for weeks… the notion that Epstein was an independent agent or a CIA affiliate is no longer tenable.
Nothing in this evidence contradicts my theory. Certainly nothing suggests that Epstein was plucked out of his high school teacher job (or perhaps placed in it, as the Barr theories suggest - even though they don’t even understand the forward passage of time) by Israeli intelligence in the mid-1970s and given a world-historical mission by the Mossad, which is what is widely alleged.
That Epstein befriended Barak in the 1990s and that his personal assistant (the “Israeli intelligence officer” in question, since most senior personal staff to Israeli leaders come through intelligence) enjoyed Epstein’s hospitality as his boss did were both widely known. I explicitly stated that Epstein had worked his way into powerful circles by the late 90s (his friendship with Prince Andrew only the most famous). He “brought some leaders together” (as I have said, much of this was braggadocio), opined on American and global politics and wrote articles for said powerful foreign friends (or had associates do so).
What would convince you that Epstein was Israeli intelligence? The emails show Epstein advising the former PM of Israel (& head of military intelligence) Barak on sensitive Israeli security matters and spy tech transfers. He ghostwrote Barak’s pro-Israel editorials. Barak’s intelligence officer assistant stayed with Epstein unaccompanied by Barak on multiple occasions. We have two confessions (Jane Doe #200, Hoffenberger) and one confirmation (Ben-Menashe told by Robert Maxwell). Two American former senior intelligence analysts believe Epstein was Mossad (John Schindler / John Kiriakou). He was funded and gifted by Wexner, receiving literally nothing for his funding, and Wexner ran a secret group of Jewish billionaires who funded Israeli and Jewish causes in America. His accomplice Ghislaine was the daughter of an Israeli “super spy”. The extent of surveillance in his residences makes no sense except for kompromat purposes. Israel has a history of rigging apartments for blackmail.
Surely the chance of Epstein having all these close relationships is statistically improbable. He just happened to be funded by Israel’s top billionaire, happened to be working with the daughter of a super spy, happened to be best friends with former intelligence leader of Israel, happened to also help him with sensitive security issues…
She was the daughter of a man who facilitated arms deals from the Eastern Bloc to Israel early in its history and so was held in very high regard by the old cadres of the Mossad several decades later, sure.
The Israel connections came through Wexner, whom he met in the late 1980s in Palm Beach. Israel didn’t need Epstein to build relationships with wealthy Zionist billionaires. He used Wexner’s network to meet other billionaires and because Wexner was/is a passionate zionist, others like the Mega group / Ron Lauder.
What would convince me? Very simple. A single shred of evidence that Epstein had even the faintest connection to Israel or Israeli intelligence before he became a close associate of Les Wexner. Given that, as I have documented extensively, Epstein’s self-professed connections to the world of Annan Khashoggi in the arms market in the early 1980s were largely or entirely fabricated (by himself), I think none exists.
What's the actual point of this argument? "Oh Epstein isn't Israeli Intelligence because he only became Israeli Intelligence later in life"?
It’s a widely made argument that Epstein was an intelligence agent from the start. If he was merely a rich guy with influential friends who occasionally brokered largely made-up intelligence for fun or minor favors as a side hobby in late middle age, then a substantial part of that argument collapses, he’s just another informant, not an agent. It also challenges another argument of the agent thesis, namely the mysterious source of his wealth (which, again, has been shown relatively conclusively was Wexner). This in turn ties into things like an alleged blackmail operation (targeting…already zionist billionaires) being largely about his personal fetishes, which he occasionally invited friends to participate in, rather than an intelligence-led scheme. So yeah I’d say it’s relevant.
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