20committee_ta
I think this is right: >"Best" case Epstein was operating independently for a time, blackmailing private businesspeople. "Worst" case he was operating on behalf of a foreign power (Saudi? Russia?). However, ultimately the US IC had to involve itself (see above) and it could be he was being run by several competing interests at once.
Key question, though, is why US intel and MI6 didn't get Clinton and Prince Andrew right the hell out of there.
I think it's almost certain that Epstein was not connected to US intelligence. Much of what you say above (Clinton/MI6) argues for that.
The U.S. Intelligence Community is lenient about the private habits of high-value agents or informants, but they won’t countenance running sex trafficking rings for minors on American soil, for years. While it’s plausible that Epstein was sharing some information with the FBI—many criminals do so to buy themselves some insurance—it’s implausible that he was mainly working for the Americans.
This is true.
Also, this is a good sum-up
Who are the suspects then? It seems awfully coincidental that Epstein’s best pal and business partner for decades has been Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite and daughter of the late Robert Maxwell, the media mogul who died under mysterious circumstances in 1991. Something of a Bond villain turned real life, Maxwell loved the limelight, despite being a swindler and a spy. British counterintelligence assessed that Maxwell was working for the KGB, while pervasive allegations that he was working for Mossad too are equally plausible.
Since the _lines between Russian intelligence, Israeli intelligence and organized crime can get remarkably blurry in practice_, as I’ve explained previously, assessing whom Epstein’s been working for may prove difficult to answer with any precision. But we have a suspect list to start asking questions.
What’s not in doubt is that a sex trafficking ring centered on minors, which involved numerous global VIPs in compromising situations, would be of high interest to quite a few intelligence services. The Epstein saga seems certain to get even more unpleasant and interesting.
> Is there any doubt at this point? It was Mossad.
- "The sordid Epstein saga is a sex scandal, a human trafficking scandal, a financial scandal -- and now an espionage scandal too. But whose?" John Schindler https://twitter.com/20committee/status/1149069968237039617 Schindler draws oblique links to Mossad.
- Alex Acosta, quoted as, "I was told Epstein ‘belonged to intelligence’ and to leave it alone,” he told his interviewers" - Vicky Ward, reporter whose profile of Epstein in 2002 in Vanity Fair had its editors kill mention of sexual accusations.
- Epstein had a fake foreign passport with his face but not his name. https://www.businessinsider.com/jeffrey-epstein-saudi-austri...
John Schindler is a good source for intelligence-related matters. He formerly worked for the Navy and the NSA but he has been unafraid to comment on or criticize the US government. He's actually a hard-core conservative, though he criticizes both parties; still he's worth reading for his insight. He often writes for the NY Observer but has been editorially independent from its ownership. And Vicky Ward has been following Epstein for years.
At this point, it is certain that Epstein is not related to the US intelligence agencies. It seems highly likely that he was doing intelligence work linked to Mossad in some way. We may find out, at some point.