Report: Epstein helped Russia get damaging information on western elites
Jeffrey Epstein may have spent decades helping Russian spies collect damaging ‘kompromat’ on western elites, a former MI6 agent said today.
Christopher Steele said the FBI had evidence yet to be published that links the disgraced billionaire to Russian organised crime – often a front for the then Soviet communist regime – as far back as the 1970s.
As the world continues to reel from the staggering number of famous names found in the Epstein files, the former intelligence operative said it was ‘very likely’ the financier was engaged in creating incriminating material that could be used for blackmail.
He also suggested the Russians could be the source of much of the billionaire’s wealth, through association with Robert Maxwell, the millionaire father of his confidante Ghislaine.
It comes after the Mail on Sunday at the weekend revealed intelligence sources believe Epstein, who killed himself in prison in 2019, ran ‘the world’s largest honeytrap operation’ on behalf of the KGB when he procured women for his network of associates.
Steele Claims Epstein Ties to Russian Crime
Speaking to Times Radio Mr Steele, who gained fame for creating the ‘Trump dossier’ on unverified claims that the US president was ‘compromised’ by the Kremlin, said: ‘My understanding from my American sources is that as early as the 1970s, Epstein was effectively involved with Russian organised crime in Brighton Beach in New York and through them with the Russian mission in New York and was almost certainly recruited by them at that time.
‘Moving on to a later period involving probably Robert Maxwell in the 1980s, it seems to me again that Epstein had significant ties to Maxwell.
‘And when Maxwell was involved in getting Jewish people out of the Soviet Union in return effectively for laundering Soviet Communist Party hard currency and investing it in the West, I suspect that that’s where quite a lot of Epstein’s investment money came from.’
Pictured: Robert Maxwell.
New Files Fuel Claims Epstein Worked for Moscow
The release of more than three million new documents relating to the late sexual offender gives credence to incendiary claims made by senior security officials: that Epstein was working on behalf of Moscow, and possibly Israel, when he facilitated assignations for some of the world’s most powerful men.
The files include 1,056 documents naming Russian President Vladimir Putin and 9,629 referring to Moscow. Epstein even seems to have secured audiences with Putin after his 2008 conviction for procuring a child for prostitution.
Sources told the MoS it could explain why Epstein appeared to enjoy an ultra-wealthy lifestyle out of kilter with his career as a financier, although there is no documentary evidence linking Putin and his spies directly to Epstein’s illicit activities.
It came after former new Labour minister Peter Mandelson last night insisted he has ‘no idea’ why he was photographed in his pants in Jeffrey Epstein’s £8million Paris ‘House of Sin’ apartment as he described the offender as a ‘master manipulator’.
Mandelson Faces Police Probe Over Epstein Emails
Keir Starmer’s ex-ambassador to the US is facing a police probe into whether he leaked ‘market sensitive’ information to the child abusing financier by forwarding him No 10 emails containing advice to then-prime minister Gordon Brown.
One saw Lord Mandelson give Epstein advance notice of a €500billion bailout of the Eurozone.
In his first interview since three million Epstein files were released, he also complained that the American financier, once his friend, is like ‘muck that you can’t get off your shoe… Like dog muck, the smell never goes away.’
On the now-notorious picture of him in his pants was taken inside Epstein’s palatial ‘House of Sin’ in Paris, he said he has ‘no idea what I am doing in this photograph or who the woman was. It looks as though she came in and showed me something on an iPad’.
The architect of New Labour insists the period of his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein after his conviction for soliciting intercourse from girls as young as 14 was a blur.
The disgraced peer also claims he has ‘absolutely no recollection’ or records of Jeffrey Epstein paying $75,000 into accounts linked to him. He said: ‘I think I would remember such a large sum’.
Mandelson Says He Was “Too Trusting” of Epstein
‘[Epstein] told me he had been framed in his indictment in 2008 and I feel really bad about continuing my association with him afterwards’, he said.
‘That’s why I wanted to apologise unequivocally for doing so, to the women and girls who suffered’, he told The Times.
He has blamed being ‘too trusting’ of Jeffrey Epstein, describing the financier as a ‘classic sociopath’ amid newly released files linking the pair.
‘He was a master manipulator. I can see that now. But the point is that his victims certainly did know what he was doing’, Mandelson said.
The walls continued to cave in around the former Labour grandee on Tuesday as a leaked photo showed him getting a foot massage from an unidentified woman.
Mr Steele said the Mandelson revelations should ‘certainly’ have been flagged before now.
‘When Mandelson was being vetted for the ambassador in Washington, this information should have been shared by the American government with our security services. I don’t know whether it was, but it certainly should have been,’ he said.
No10 vows to ‘support’ police probe into Mandelson leaks to Epstein
Keir Starmer is struggling to contain the storm over Lord Mandelson today as he pledged ‘support’ for a police probe into leaks of government secrets.
Scotland Yard has confirmed it is looking into allegations the ex-Cabinet minister committed misconduct in public office by sending ‘market sensitive’ No10 emails to Jeffrey Epstein.
Meanwhile, MPs are ramping up pressure on Sir Keir to find a way of stripping Lord Mandelson of his peerage – as well as removing him from the privy council that advises the King.
However, the New Labour architect – who was appointed as US ambassador by the PM barely a year ago – has sounded defiance in an interview. He insisted he was simply ‘too trusting’ of Epstein and denied that his career in public life was over.
The extraordinarily close ties between Lord Mandelson – which continued long after he was jailed for [sexual intercourse] offences – have been further exposed after the US released another massive tranche of Epstein evidence.
Journalists have been sifting through more than three million new documents, with Lord Mandelson mentioned nearly 6,000 times.
They appear to show that the peer passed on highly sensitive advice given to then-PM Gordon Brown at the height of the Credit Crunch.
It included emails with key Downing Street aides and ministers discussing a proposed £20billion of asset sales to shore up the country, as well as Labour’s tax policy plans.
The information would have been valuable to any bank or financial institution. The document was forwarded by Lord Mandelson to Epstein with the comment: ‘Interesting note that’s gone to the PM.’
Another email, part of three million documents released on Friday by the US Department of Justice, saw Lord Mandelson give Epstein advance notice of a €500billion ($590bn) bailout of the Eurozone, potentially allowing the [disgraced] financier to cash in ahead of the deal being formally announced the following day.
