US Vice President JD Vance said on Wednesday that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein had “clear connections to the highest levels of Mossad”.
Speaking on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Vance said Epstein had extensive connections “whether it was Mossad, the CIA, or some other deep state, whether in America, Israel, another country, or both”.
Vance rejected suggestions that US President Donald Trump had been blackmailed over the Epstein files.
“The idea that Donald Trump was being blackmailed seems crazy to me,” he said. “The idea that he would pick up the phone and say, ‘I’ll take orders from you’ – no, that’s not how Donald Trump operates.”
Vance added: “If people want to say we mishandled the Epstein release, guilty. We did mishandled it, especially the communications of it.”
He continued: “If there was a broader conspiracy — and you know my view is that there probably was — the evidence that existed in 2007, that was the opportunity to get it out.” I’ll believe there’s a story behind it until the last day of my life, but I can’t prove it.”
Vance also said he had been “the target of an Israeli government-backed campaign” because of his efforts to achieve peace with Iran.
He referred to a Time magazine report which he said showed that American influencers were paid to attack the Iran deal. According to Vance, the report alleged that the money was channelled through a former Trump campaign operative and funded by elements linked to the Israeli government.
