WhatsappThe bizarre case and suicide of a sex trafficker seemed designed to foment over-the-top speculation. And that has inevitably led to it becoming a focus of Jew-hatred.
(July 14, 2025 / JNS)
Conspiracy theories aren’t generally concocted out of whole cloth. They are almost always rooted in quite real and terrible events for which there are no conclusive and satisfactory answers.
That is why last week’s announcement that the U.S. Department of Justice’s attempt to take a deep dive into the records of the case of disgraced financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein produced no great revelations. Neither did it reveal a much-sought-after list of celebrity “clients” for whom he procured underage victims. The lack of any definitive results was bound to be met with anger from an Internet audience already prone to disbelieve any official response. Predictably, it strengthened the conviction among those who had immersed themselves in this sordid story that this, too, was just more evidence of a grand plot to fool the public and cover up unspeakable crimes.
But just as predictable was the next step down the rabbit hole of Epstein conspiracy theories. Within days of Attorney General Pam Bondi admitting that no evidence in the FBI’s files would allow the Justice Department to continue the investigation, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson doubled down on the idea of a government cover-up while speaking at the Turning Point USA conference in Tampa, Fla.
Not only was he willing to hurl such an accusation at an administration made up of his presumable political allies. He went further by claiming to an audience cheering his supposed courage in making such charges that Epstein was an agent of the government of Israel, whose vile actions were somehow part of an effort to blackmail politicians and celebrities. Unsatisfied with such slander, he also invoked the notion that the entire financial industry is some sort of scam—and attacked pro-Israel billionaire Bill Ackman for good measure.
Nor was Carlson alone in trying to make this about Israel and the Jews. Podcaster and former Fox News and NBC journalist Megyn Kelly, who is generally far more responsible than Carlson when it comes to flinging around conspiracy theories, echoed the allegation, also voicing the belief that Epstein was probably a Mossad agent.
A classic antisemitic trope
Why are they—and their legions of imitators and followers—latching onto the idea that the Israeli government is at the heart of one of the most notorious sex crimes in recent history? The answer is obvious. For podcasters and social-media “influencers” who thrive only to the extent that they can feed their audiences’ hunger not just for simple answers to complex problems but the kind of conspiratorial thinking that confirms their desire to view every bad thing as a diabolical plot, the Epstein case is a gift that never stops giving. To attach Israel to this sort of topic is a guarantee not only of millions of clicks on videos and podcasts, but also gives those saying such things an instant mass audience that is always willing to believe anything awful that can be said about the Jewish state or the Jews.
Two main points need to be acknowledged in discussing this topic.
One is that neither Carlson nor Kelly—nor anyone else talking about this publicly—has any tangible, concrete evidence of Israeli government involvement in Epstein’s sex crimes. And they freely admit as much.
All they have got are circumstantial allegations that they claim that “everyone” believes. That consists of the fact that the criminal was Jewish, involved in Jewish philanthropy and knew prominent Israelis. Add to that the fact that Robert Maxwell, the father of Epstein’s one-time girlfriend/accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison term for conspiring to abuse minors, is alleged to have had ties with the Mossad some 40 years ago.
That’s a lot of smoke. Yet after more than a decade of obsessive global interest in the case, no fire has been discovered.
And no denial from Israelis like former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, no matter how persuasive or authoritative, will ever silence the conspiracy-mongering. It’s probably a mistake to even try.
The other is that attaching Israel, the Mossad or the Jews to this sort of a case is a classic trope of antisemitism, straight out of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, in which Jewish plots to suborn society via sexual subversion and shadowy manipulation of world leaders and governments play a prominent role.
That’s why throwing out these sorts of charges is not merely run-of-the-mill clickbait; it would be defamatory and irresponsible at any time. But in doing so now, they are self-consciously throwing fuel on the fire of a global surge in antisemitism that has been taking place since the Hamas-led Palestinian assault on southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023.
Carlson has been doing his best to stoke the global information war against Israel since then, using his podcast viewed by millions to platform smears of the Jewish state and more traditional antisemitic themes like Holocaust denial. A deep dive into the funding for his online network, where he has peddled pro-Iranian and pro-Qatar propaganda, as well as Russian disinformation, might (as some of his critics allege) reveal funding from nefarious sources like Qatar.
Having conspicuously failed to persuade President Donald Trump not to act to end the Iranian nuclear threat and work with Israel to destroy Tehran’s program, as well as all of his predictions of disaster if he did having been proven to be laughably false, has not deterred Carlson from jumping right back onto the Jew-hatred horse after he fell. That’s typical of antisemitic conspiracy theorists. The fact that he continues to claim that he is neither antisemitic nor anti-Israel is evidence not only of his shamelessness. It shows the way he is uniting with left-wing Jew-haters to try to move the Overton Window of acceptable discourse about Israel to make it safe to engage in antisemitism.
A true crime scandal
To note the way that the Epstein case is being used to legitimize Jew-hatred is not to deny the crimes that the perpetrator and his associates engaged in, or that there is a lot about the case that remains inexplicable and troubling.
That Epstein got off with a slap on the wrist when he was first charged with sex crimes has always had the odor of corruption, or at least misconduct on the part of the Florida prosecutors involved. The fact that he engaged in such conduct while hobnobbing with some of the most famous and powerful people in the world is also as outrageous and puzzling as how he got away with it for so long.
Then there is the question of Epstein’s suicide in a New York City jail, which occurred under suspicious circumstances, with some calling it murder by those who wished to silence him.
It’s also true that Epstein’s fortune made on Wall Street gave him access to some of the most influential and famous people in the world, including former President Bill Clinton, Britain’s Prince Andrew, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and a host of others. Some of them might have flown on his private planes on trips to his Caribbean island estate and/or participated in his crimes against underage girls.
Has evidence that would connect others to this scandal been destroyed? Maybe. It’s also possible that Epstein was smart enough not to have a document with a “client’s list” lying around to incriminate him and his pals. Scholar and Harvard Law school professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz, who was on Epstein’s legal team when he was first charged with crimes but later left it—and was himself the target of some libelous accusations of participating in his client’s wrongdoing that were ultimately walked back—has said that he knows the names of some of the guilty parties but can’t speak because of confidentiality pledges imposed by the court.
It’s likely that even revealing those names won’t stop the conspiracy from continuing to metastasize. What we do know about the Epstein case is enough to fill a library of “true crime” books and documentaries. What we don’t know about it—and at this point, likely never will—is equally vast.
Why do so many people care about the man and this case?
As with all true crime tales, it plays into the public’s hunger for prurient stories of sexual misconduct. Like reality shows that portray dysfunctional or depraved conduct, the focus on these investigations allows audiences to be both titillated and to feel morally superior to those depicted.
More than that, it also taps into most people’s understanding that even the best of political and legal systems are susceptible to corruption or injustice—particularly when, as was likely applicable to Epstein, a two-tier system in which the wealthy and well-connected are treated better than ordinary people. Throw in the belief by some that global elites are not merely wrong-headed and corrupt but devoted to the abuse of children, and you have a formula for an obsession.
That’s why it would have been nice if the government files on the case could have ended some of the wild speculation.
Egg on their faces
A big part of the problem now is the fact that three of the figures who hold positions of authority in the Department of Justice were, seemingly only yesterday, the ones who were engaged in spreading conspiracy theories about Epstein. That was true of Dan Bongino, a podcaster and media personality before his current appointment as deputy director of the FBI. The same could be said of the statements of Bondi and FBI director Kash Patel.
In February, Bondi told Fox News that an Epstein client list was on her desk to be reviewed. She also said that her department had obtained hours of video related to the case. In March, the White House invited 15 far-right influencers to an event where they received white binders labeled “The Epstein Files: Phase 1”; however, the documents provided were already publicly available.
But having encouraged conspiracy theorists when it was the Biden administration that was supposedly covering up evidence, they were left with egg on their faces when it turned out they had nothing to back up their charges.
That’s deeply embarrassing for Bondi, Patel and Bongino, who were forced to eat crow. It’s also provoked a round of recriminations within the Trump administration and among conservatives on the Internet.
As a result, people like Carlson are now not only hyping long-running assertions that Epstein’s crimes were just the tip of an enormous iceberg of egregious conspiratorial wrongdoing but are now aiming their fire at Trump. The president urged his supporters to move on from the story, leading some on the right to lament that he, too, has been co-opted by the global conspiracy. Some on the left are now alleging that he is being protected by the cover-up with the same irresponsible lack of proof that those on the right have used when speaking of the case.
Carlson has no influence
There are two conclusions to be drawn from all this.
One is that, as appalling as the discourse about the Epstein case has been, it is, like the debate about Israel and Iran, further distancing the Trump administration from “woke right” antisemites like Carlson.
Perhaps Bondi will ultimately be dropped by Trump. But like the fact that he is disappointing those on the far right who imagined that “America First” meant an anti-Israel foreign policy, the White House’s determination to move on from the obsessions of Carlson and his ilk continues to demonstrate that they have very little influence on the policies and actions of Trump 2.0.
There are strong arguments to be made that, as bad as Epstein’s crimes were and as Trump himself has now said, other important threats to America and the West are higher priorities. We might like to know for sure who did what and with whom on Epstein’s plane and island. But for the government and the media to be chasing their tails seeking answers to questions that might have no conclusive answers on an old scandal is not a good use of anyone’s time.
It’s also true that it won’t stop the conspiracy theorists or the antisemites from continuing to promote the idea that the Epstein case demonstrates that Israel or the Jews were promoting sexual crimes and then hiding them. Like the assassination of John F. Kennedy and other such fodder for those who dwell in the fever swamps, the Epstein case will live on and continue to feed on itself for the foreseeable future.
There was never a chance that even the Trump administration’s admission that the case is closed was going to satisfy those who are up to their necks in wild theories. Telling them that there is no “there” there was, no matter the truth of the matter, never going to silence the doubters or stop scoundrels from seeking to link it to hatred for Israel.
As with his promotion of Holocaust denial, Carlson’s stance that he is “just asking questions” about Epstein is disingenuous. While he will claim that he is being silenced even after he shouts his unsubstantiated charges to huge audiences, the time is long past to stop speaking of him and his “woke right” associates as if they aim to seek the truth about Epstein, Israel, Iran or anything else. Like the virus of antisemitism itself, unscrupulous hatemongers may always be with us. While it will never be possible to conclusively discredit those who spread conspiracy theories aimed at harming Israel and the Jews to those willing to swallow their smears, it’s incumbent on decent people to stop treating Carlson as a credible source of information or a representative of anything but the most irresponsible elements of society.
