GIRALDI: What’s going on in the 'honeypot?'

One of the great mysteries of Epstein is how he made his vast fortune

BY PHILIP GIRALDI

What goes on in Washington is underappreciated for those of us who like a bit of humor mixed in with our politics.

This past week we have been treated to a whole series of malapropisms coming out of the mouth of President Donald Trump, including the questioning of the president of Liberia Joseph Boakai by Trump over how he speaks such excellent English.

“Such good English,” Trump said. “Where did you learn to speak so beautifully? In Liberia? That’s very interesting. Where were you educated? Where? In Liberia? Well, that’s very interesting. It’s beautiful English. I have people at this table who can’t speak nearly as well.”

PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS: THE EPSTEIN SAGA

Trump presumably was not briefed on the fact that Liberia was founded by the United States to give a home to freed African-American slaves in the early 1800s and became a nation in 1847.

English is its official language.

But far better than that brief interlude has been the week-long battle over releasing the “client lists” and other documents and material ostensibly relating to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

Epstein became an extremely wealthy man with luxury homes in New York City and Palm Beach as well as a ranch in New Mexico and the private Epstein Island in the US Virgin Islands, which can reached only by boat.

All his other properties were connected by virtue of his private jetliner the “Lolita Express.”

Insofar as can be determined, though not actually demonstrated given the lack of documentation, Epstein may have made his millions through exploitation of pedophilia, recruiting underage girls to submit to rape to sexually service his wealthy male clients, who might then have been blackmailed.

Compilations of some publicly available court records reveal that Epstein entertained at least twenty-one billionaires, as well as leading political figures like Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, and also four former Israeli prime ministers. Clinton allegedly flew on the “Lolita Express” twenty-six times.

And there were many celebrities like Prince Andrew and Robert Kraft. There is also a surprising number of Silicon Valley personalities including Bill Gates and Sergey Brin.

Epstein also was a great pal of Donald Trump during their younger days when Trump was at Mar a Lago and Epstein had a waterfront mansion in Palm Beach, with Trump describing Epstein as his “best friend.”

Epstein was eventually arrested on sex trafficking of minors charges and died in a New York City jail in August 2019 in what has been described by police and the White House as a suicide but which many believe to have been murder by the government to silence him.

One of the great mysteries of Epstein is how he made his vast fortune. Was he blackmailing his “clients” while having sex with the underaged women using films made from concealed video cameras in his various residences?

Or was there something more sinister, like an intelligence connection with the Israeli Mossad or the CIA?

There were some clear connections with Israel with the four former Israeli prime ministers having visited him at his mansion in New York City.

A number of his billionaire friends were Jews with close connections to the Israeli government and Epstein’s girlfriend (and procurer) was Ghislaine Maxwell, the daughter of a prominent Israeli spy, Robert Maxwell. But the suggestion of an intelligence connection would require answers to two questions: first, what kind of information could he have hoped to obtain from his clients? And two, who would be willing to pay large sums of money for whatever information he would acquire from old men sleeping with 13 year old girls?

Drawing of my own experiences as a CIA officer in Europe during seventies and eighties, operations using women to entice prominent men were called “honeypots” or “honeytraps.”

They were only used in certain geographic areas where there were foreign diplomats from countries that were considered not friendly and therefore targets for recruitment.

As a recall Vienna was particularly favored as it had numerous Russians and Eastern Europeans resident in the city during the Cold War doing jobs that linked them to their respective governments. The objective was to draw them into an illicit relationship and eventually convince them, usually by offering them money, to share the information they had about the intentions of their governments lest they be exposed for their private behavior

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As it seems unlikely that Epstein was engaged in out-and-out blackmail, perhaps the answers to those questions about what he was up to are among the many records detailing Epstein’s associates and his contacts.

Trump the presidential candidate promised to make public the thousands of documents, videos and photos that were found in a safe in his New York City.

If the records are ever made public, they might confirm that Epstein was indeed working for Israel, which I believe to be the case, and that would have provided motive to silence him.

Imagine, for example, if it were to be confirmed that Epstein and his contacts were part of some massive spying/influencing operation directed against the U.S. government and the American people?

That would not go down well, particularly as it is well known inside counterintelligence circles in Washington that Israel is undoubtedly the most active foreign government in spying on the U.S. and interfering in American government policies, witness only for example what it taking place in the Middle East currently with Donald Trump dancing to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s tune.

And there is a precedent in large-scale spying by the Jewish state in the so-called “art students” selling cosmetics at American malls before 9/11.

In any event, Donald Trump became president based on his promises to end wars and challenge the deep state by exposing the documents and stories behind Epstein, JFK, RFK and 9/11. He has, unfortunately, reneged on those promises though he has now kicked the ball down the court by ordering his Attorney General Pam Bondi to go through the Epstein material and release whatever is “credible.” If, as I suspect, Trump is trying the suppress the material revealing his closeness to Epstein, she will loyally to her boss find little of interest and, in particular, nothing that is incriminating in terms of the president.

Nor is Pam Bondi likely to confirm evidence of Israel’s possible spying through creation of some kind of cooperative arrangement with a large group of elite Americans who have been blackmailed.

One should take note that Trump indicated initially that he would not pursue the Epstein issue just after Benjamin Netanyahu had three meetings with him during a visit that was sought by the Israeli prime minister and there was uncharacteristically no press conference afterwards to describe what was discussed.

Netanyahu is known to be in political trouble in Israel due to his corruption trial and a rift with the United States at this time would be far from welcome for his supporters back at home.

By that thinking, Netanyahu may have appeared in Washington to add Israel’s voice to that of the ruling deep state that release of Epstein information is a no-no. If the Epstein files were to be released, then all the effort put into collecting blackmail capability over what might be regarded as the American ruling class would be wasted. If the files are released and the information is public, the possible blackmail information, if it exists, would be mostly useless. And, more importantly, the American public would learn that Israel is seeking to blackmail the American elite to serve Israel’s, not America’s, interest.

To conclude where this article began with the impulsive belligerency and tone deafness of the current administration, President Donald Trump doesn’t want the support of any MAGA members who demand the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files and he is prepared to tell them so to their faces.

That is the message he sent out in a Wednesday morning social-media diatribe followed by comments made later at the White House.

Trump condemned his “PAST” supporters of buying into “bullshit.”

Then he broke with them completely, saying: “Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore!” He doubled down later in the day, again referring to those demanding more information as “stupid people” doing the Democrats’ work, words that he might very well live to regret!

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Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is councilforthenationalinterest.org, address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is inform@cnionline.org.