"OUR DEADLINE IS NOON TOMORROW"
NEW EMAILS REVEAL FULL BARAK ALLEGATIONS AND PANIC IN EPSTEIN INNER CIRCLE
By Rob Waldeck
Email messages released last month by the U.S. House Oversight Committee shed new light on the 2011 allegations that Ehud Barak worked to suppress from appearing in the Mail on Sunday’s coverage of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex‑trafficking operation.
As detailed in a previous exclusive from The (b)(7)(D), Barak enlisted the help of Ron Dermer, then chief aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to deflect the claims. Dermer drafted a statement that Barak’s Defense Ministry press aide passed along to the newspaper. The Mail on Sunday quoted the statement and withheld the damaging allegations about Barak.
The accusations surfaced publicly only nine years later, when a court filing revealed that Virginia Giuffre had also accused Epstein of trafficking her to Barak. Barak has consistently denied any wrongdoing in connection with his long association with Epstein.
Giuffre’s posthumous memoir, Nobody’s Girl, released in October, revisited those claims. She wrote that she had “taken pains to describe in legal filings only as a well‑known Prime Minister.”
The newly released emails also show how the Mail on Sunday’s initial requests for comment on Epstein’s alleged trafficking of women to powerful men reverberated through both Epstein’s inner circle and the highest levels of the Israeli government. Their coordinated response proved effective: Epstein would evade justice for another nine years, and Maxwell for thirteen. During that time, Epstein continued banking with JPMorgan Chase, while Barak remained in Netanyahu’s government until his retirement in 2013.
As first reported by The (b)(7)(D), Barak soon turned to Epstein for business connections in Russia and the Middle East after leaving office.
“HI SHARON”
The Mail on Sunday stories were driven largely by the reporting of American journalist Sharon Churcher. Churcher learned Giuffre’s name from Florida attorney Brad Edwards, who represented several of Epstein’s victims. She then contacted Giuffre’s father, who in turn alerted Virginia to the reporter’s interest.
According to Giuffre’s memoir, she emailed Churcher from her home in Australia on February 4, 2011: “Hi Sharon, my father, Sky Roberts, informed me of your call and I thought I’d send you my contact details so we can get in touch.”
Churcher soon flew to Australia to interview Giuffre, where she obtained a copy of the now‑infamous photograph showing then‑Prince Andrew with his arm around Giuffre’s waist as Ghislaine Maxwell looked on.
That meeting produced a series of stories that propelled the Epstein scandal into global headlines. The first, titled “Prince Andrew and the 17‑Year‑Old Girl His Sex Offender Friend Flew to Britain to Meet Him,” appeared in the Mail on Sunday on February 27, 2011.
The Mail on Sunday was preparing another scoop for its March 7, 2011 edition—this time centered on allegations that Epstein had trafficked Giuffre and other young women to powerful men. Among those named was Ehud Barak, then serving as Israel’s Defense Minister in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Barak was a pivotal figure in sustaining Netanyahu’s fragile majority. In mid‑January 2011, after learning that rebels within his own Labor Party were plotting to oust him as leader, the former Prime Minister broke away with several allies. Their defection allowed him to join Netanyahu’s coalition, shoring up a slimmer but more stable governing majority.
Virginia Giuffre’s decision to speak with Churcher in 2011 posed a direct threat to the fragile Barak–Netanyahu alliance. The Mail on Sunday turned to Matthew Kalman, its veteran foreign correspondent in Jerusalem, to seek Barak’s response.
A March 4, 2011 email, published exclusively by The (b)(7)(D), shows that efforts to counter the allegations reached the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office. Ron Dermer, Netanyahu’s top aide, sent the Ministry of Defense spokesperson a response to the Daily Mail’s inquiries.
The email—obtained by the transparency group Distributed Denial of Secrets—was sent from Dermer’s personal account. It included a statement addressed to Kalman, denying the allegations and threatening legal action.
The precise nature of the claims the Mail on Sunday was pursuing remained unclear until the recent release of Epstein estate documents by the House Oversight Committee. According to emails released by the committee, on March 4, shortly after Kalman’s inquiry, Annette Witheridge—a British reporter based in New York and writing for the Mail on Sunday—telephoned Brett Jaffe, one of Ghislaine Maxwell’s attorneys.
Witheridge followed up with an email stating that the paper planned to run a story on Maxwell and her role in the Epstein saga. Her questions drew on the complaint in Jane Doe No. 103 v. Epstein and included allegations that Jane Doe No. 103—Giuffre—had been required by Maxwell and Epstein to have sex with several men, among them Ehud Barak.
Witheridge’s email contained further allegations about the former Israeli Prime Minister: “Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Epstein arranged for Ehud Barak to have sex with several girls, often at Epstein’s Palm Beach house.” She added a blunt reminder of the paper’s urgency: “Our deadline is noon tomorrow.”
”FAMILY”
Witheridge’s email quickly rippled through Epstein’s circle, passing from lawyers to Maxwell, then to Epstein, and finally to then-Prince Andrew. Jaffe first forwarded the message to another Maxwell attorney, Mark S. Cohen, who relayed it to Maxwell. She in turn passed it to Epstein, who shared it with his close friend, Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz.
Maxwell also forwarded the email to Andrew. The royal fired back a panicked reply: “Hey there! What’s all this? I don’t know anything about this! You must SAY so please. This has NOTHING to do with me. I can’t take any more of this.”
After the Mail on Sunday ran its story, Maxwell enlisted two public relations firms to protect her reputation. The first, Acuity Reputation Ltd., was based in London; the second, the Dilenschneider Group, operated out of New York.
On March 9, Acuity’s managing partner Ross Gow emailed Maxwell to report that he had been coordinating with Dilenschneider. He noted that the New York firm had already sent a statement to the New York Post and that both firms were preparing a joint release for the following day.
On March 10, Ross Gow issued a statement on Maxwell’s behalf, denying the “various allegations that have appeared recently in the media” and warning that newspapers faced potential legal action. That same day, the Daily Mail published Epstein’s phone logs. Gow also circulated updates by email to Maxwell’s family members and close associates.
The night the Daily Mail published its Prince Andrew story, Epstein received a message from Jes Staley, his close friend and then‑CEO of JPMorgan Chase’s investment bank. Staley wrote: “You have paid a price for what you have been accused… But we know what u have done for us. And we count you as one of our deepest friends. And one of the most honest of people.”
Epstein replied with a single word: “Family.”
”surpisee surprise”
The following Monday, Vanity Fair published a glowing profile of Epstein and Maxwell by Vicky Ward. Her piece, “Jeffrey and Ghislaine: Notes on New York’s Oddest Alliance,” described Maxwell as “the most interesting, the most vivacious, the most unusual person in any room.” Ward even acknowledged her personal admiration: “Full disclosure: I like her. Most people in New York do. It’s almost impossible not to.”
Ward’s assessment was strikingly optimistic: “I suspect her loyalty to friends like Bill Clinton will keep her in good stead and, in the end, she’ll be out and about as always.”
Maxwell quickly forwarded the article to Epstein, who was delighted. Within hours, he passed it along to Jes Staley. Staley then shared a link to the piece with JPMorgan Chase executive Jonathan Schwartz, deputy to the bank’s general counsel, Stephen Cutler.
Unbeknownst to Epstein, JPMorgan Chase’s anti‑money‑laundering unit had been pressing since January for the bank to cut ties with him. Early that month, senior compliance executives convened a “rapid response” review aimed at urging general counsel Stephen Cutler to reconsider Epstein’s status as a client.
In one January email, a senior JPMorgan AML executive flagged large payments Epstein had made to two 18‑year‑old women and several models, bluntly labeling him “Sugar daddy!”
Bank executives were closely monitoring the Mail on Sunday and Daily Mail coverage. On March 7, Stephen Cutler emailed his deputy, Jonathan Schwartz, asking whether he had spoken with Jes Staley about Epstein. Schwartz replied with an update, pointing to the latest Mail on Sunday stories.
The following day, Epstein forwarded Vicky Ward’s Vanity Fair profile to Staley. Staley passed the link to Schwartz, who in turn sent it on to Cutler.
By mid‑March, Epstein appeared to sense trouble with JPMorgan. On March 11, he emailed Jes Staley to ask whether there was a problem with a letter of credit the bank had issued for his modeling agency, MC2 Model Management, LLC.
A few days later, Epstein wrote again, telling Staley he was “working on getting steve cuttler [sic] the comfort he needs.” Staley replied simply: “Agree.”
”suprisee suprise”
As Cutler weighed Epstein’s future as a client, the financier had one last card to play. JPMorgan executives had been pressing for a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On March 23, Roy Navon, managing director of the bank’s Israeli branch, emailed Jes Staley: “Against all odds, we have been granted a meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu.”
Twenty‑one minutes later, Staley forwarded the news to Epstein in a one‑word message: “Thanks.”
Epstein emailed back “surprisee surprise” [sic]. An Israeli government spokesperson did not respond to an emailed request for comment on why Netanyahu agreed to a meeting apparently brokered by Epstein. Netanyahu’s former top aide, Ron Dermer, likewise did not respond to a request for comment.
After Netanyahu agreed to meet with JPMorgan bankers, Epstein’s relationship with the bank endured for another two years. Following several meetings between Epstein and general counsel Stephen Cutler, JPMorgan chose to retain him as a private‑bank client—only severing ties in 2013.
Barak announced his retirement from politics in late 2012. His last day as Minister of Defense was March 19, 2013.
Emails previously reported by The (b)(7)(D) show that another UK paper sought comment on direct allegations from Virginia Giuffre. In early 2015, Ehud Barak received an email from Nick Sommerlad, investigations editor at the Daily Mirror. Sommerlad wrote: “I have been made aware of allegations made by Virginia Roberts that she was ordered by Jeffrey Epstein to have sex with you when she was 17 years old.”
He added that Roberts alleged she had been paid by Epstein and that the events took place at Epstein’s Little St. James island around 2001.
Barak denied the claims, emailing the paper with a reply and threatening to sue if the allegations were published. The resulting Daily Mirror story referred obliquely to him as “a foreign Prime Minister who we are not naming.”
Even so, the paper ran Barak’s anonymous denial: “The scandalous allegations you cite are entirely groundless. I don’t know Ms. Virginia Roberts and I didn’t have any sexual relations with her.” The Mirror added further lines from his response: “I do know Jeffrey Epstein. I was never aware Mr. Epstein, to quote you, ‘was paying underage girls for sex.’”
The newly released emails reveal the paradox of Epstein and his inner circle in 2011—publicly battered by allegations, yet privately sustained by powerful allies, pliant media, and a bank willing to overlook red flags. Even as compliance officers flagged suspicious payments and journalists pressed for answers, Epstein deployed his network — from Jes Staley at JPMorgan to Ghislaine Maxwell’s PR firms — to insulate himself. That insulation would not last forever, but for years it allowed Epstein to remain embedded in elite circles, shielded by reputation management and institutional complicity.