THE EPSTEIN BACK CHANNEL
FORMER ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER EHUD BARAK MAINTAINED HIS LONG-TERM TIES TO JEFFREY EPSTEIN WHILE DEFENSE MINISTER AND LEAKED TOP SECRET ISRAELI ATTACK PLANS
By Rob Waldeck
While serving as Israel’s Defense Minister under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak maintained a years-long relationship with Jeffrey Epstein that extended into financial dealings, according to emails obtained by The (b)(7)(D). Barak continued to meet with the convicted sex offender during his ministerial tenure, often arranging encounters with Epstein while on official travel.
At one such meeting in early 2013 at Epstein’s New York mansion, Barak disclosed Israeli military attack plans to the disgraced financier. Days later, Epstein displayed a whiteboard sketch of the plans and described them to celebrity guests on two separate occasions, according to eyewitness interviews, corroborating statements, and previously unreported documents and emails.
The meeting coincided with Netanyahu’s growing concern that Syria might lose control of its chemical weapons stockpile. Emails obtained by The (b)(7)(D) confirm that Barak was traveling in his official capacity at the time.
It remains unclear whether the Netanyahu government was aware of or authorized Barak’s disclosures to Epstein. However, earlier exclusive reporting by The (b)(7)(D) revealed that Netanyahu’s office was fully aware of sexual misconduct allegations against Barak. Top aide Ron Dermer became involved in efforts to shield Barak from press scrutiny after Virginia Giuffre alleged to the Daily Mail that Epstein had required her to have sex with Barak twice and had provided other girls to the former prime minister. Barak has consistently denied all claims of sexual impropriety connected to his friendship with Epstein.
The emails, documents, and interviews represent the first evidence that Epstein not only cultivated relationships with sitting government officials but also obtained classified information from them. Together, they underscore Epstein’s extraordinary ability to forge and sustain ties with global power brokers.
Newly released emails provided to The (b)(7)(D) by transparency organization Distributed Denial of Secrets reveal that Jeffrey Epstein and Ehud Barak maintained regular contact from at least 2005 through 2016. The correspondence documents a sustained pattern of engagement that persisted throughout Barak’s tenure as Israel’s Defense Minister, underscoring the continuity of their relationship during a period of official government service.
TAURUS ISRAEL FINANCIAL VENTURES, LTD.
Barak told The Daily Beast that he was first introduced to Jeffrey Epstein by former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres in 2002. Their contacts continued after Barak returned to the Israeli cabinet as Defense Minister in 2007.
An email obtained by The (b)(7)(D) shows that Epstein met with Barak’s wife, Nilli Priell on February 7, 2008 to discuss a potential contract for her firm, Taurus Israel Financial Ventures, Ltd. The draft agreement proposed that Priell identify business opportunities for Epstein in Israel, with Epstein paying her company a $30,000 annual fee plus an unspecified percentage of any successful deals.
Epstein’s longtime attorney Darren Indyke prepared a memorandum with comments on Priell’s proposal, which Groff then forwarded to Priell, emails show. It remains unclear whether a deal was finalized or payments made to Taurus Israel Financial Ventures, Ltd. Facing political pressure, Priell shut down the company later in 2008.
Newly discovered emails, recently reported on by Drop Site News, show that before Barak returned to government, Epstein was deeply involved in a contract between the Wexner Foundation and the former prime minister. Under the agreement, Barak was commissioned to produce two manuscripts and several lectures. The foundation ultimately paid him $2.3 million for two reports.
Priell also arranged calls and visits between Epstein and her husband. In a 2008 exchange between Priell and Epstein’s assistant Lesley Groff, records show that Barak shifted the venue for a planned meeting from Epstein’s Paris apartment to Barak’s hotel, citing security concerns. The (b)(7)(D) could not confirm whether the Paris meeting ultimately took place.
Barak sought meetings with Epstein multiple times during during official travel. In the summer of 2012, Israel’s relationship with the United States deteriorated over what to do about Iran’s nuclear program. The tensions reached a peak in mid‑September 2012, when Netanyahu publicly demanded that Washington establish a “red line” for military action if Iran refused to curb uranium enrichment. The ultimatum alarmed both Obama and UK Prime Minister David Cameron.
After President Obama declined Netanyahu’s offer to meet during the Israeli prime minister’s visit to the opening of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Barak flew to the United States to deliver a critical back‑channel message. He chose to meet Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s former chief of staff who had recently been elected mayor of Chicago.
Press reports at the time said Barak was carrying a message directly from Netanyahu—that the prime minister was “not attempting to interfere in the U.S. elections on behalf of Mitt Romney.” Barak met Emanuel one‑on‑one at City Hall, according to an internal scheduling document obtained by The (b)(7)(D).
Despite the critical nature of the meeting, Barak sought to use his official travel to arrange a meeting with Epstein. Emails obtained by The (b)(7)(D) show Priell emailing Epstein’s trusted executive assistant Lesley Groff on September 18, two days before Barak’s Chicago meeting with Emanuel, seeking a “solo meeting with Jeffrey before Monday.”
Groff emailed back the same day, saying that “Jeffrey says he is free to meet with Ehud anytime from Friday September 21st onwards . . . so whatever is most convenient for Ehud!” Epstein’s executive assistant added “please do let me know what suits his schedule best and we will do it.”
Previously unreported official scheduling documents obtained by The (b)(7)(D) show that Barak left the entirety of Saturday, September 22 open. Whether a meeting with Epstein actually took place remains unclear.
THE JAMAYA PLAN
In January 2013, Barak traveled to Washington for consultations with U.S. officials. He also planned to go to New York according to an email obtained by The (b)(7)(D).
Days later, Epstein invited comedian Bobby Slayton to dinner. Previously unreported emails obtained by The (b)(7)(D) indicate that Slayton had been working since late 2012 to arrange a gathering for Epstein that would include comedy luminaries Woody Allen, Lewis Black, and David Brenner.
In an exclusive interview with The (b)(7)(D), Slayton told The (b)(7)D) that he recalls the September 10 email to Groff but no longer has a copy. He added that at the time, “no one knew about Epstein as they know now.”
Slayton told The (b)(7)(D) that he was in New York a few days before the dinner, which ultimately took place on January 23, 2013, according to tweets from his account.
Two days before the dinner, Slayton told The (b)(7)(D) he went to Epstein’s Upper West Side mansion for breakfast to “pay his respects,” likening the visit to the way Frank Sinatra once paid respect to Chicago mobster Sam Giancana. At the breakfast, Slayton recalled Epstein saying he had recently met with the former prime minister of Israel, who had shown him potential plans for an upcoming attack. Epstein told Slayton, “this is what Israel is thinking about doing next week.” According to Slayton, Epstein displayed a whiteboard with a drawing of the plans and said the material seemed important, so he did not erase it.
Comedian Lewis Black later recounted the dinner on the They Might Be Drunk podcast, describing how Epstein had a whiteboard covered with diagrams. Black said Epstein told him that Israel’s defense minister had been at his home for dinner and had shown him military plans and defenses. Black concluded, “something is wrong in this house,” and declined subsequent invitations. Slayton confirmed Black’s account to The (b)(7)(D). A representative for Black did not respond to requests for comment.
This was not the first time Epstein leveraged his proximity to Barak for social ends. In 2006, Epstein emailed a Golden Globe–nominated actress with multiple stage, screen, and television credits, telling her that “Ehud Barak, the former Prime Minister of Israel, … has asked to meet me at my house in NY.” A later email shows the actress declined to attend. The (b)(7)(D) does not name potential victims. A press agent for the actress did not return a request for comment.
Epstein also emailed another female acquaintance, urging her to come by after she finished at a studio because he had “interesting people” visiting on April 4, 2013—including Ehud Barak, Lord Mandelson, and Mort Zuckerman. It remains unclear whether the woman, who The (b)(7)(D) is not naming, attended the dinner.
On January 30, seven days after the Slayton dinner, Syria announced that Israeli jets had struck a chemical weapons facility near the village of Jamaya. Western officials claimed the target was anti‑aircraft missiles being transferred to Hezbollah proxies in Lebanon.
Days later, Barak obliquely confirmed that Israel was behind the strikes. Asked if there was any reason Barak would reveal such plans, a senior Western non‑proliferation official—speaking anonymously to discuss sensitive but non‑classified information—told The (b)(7)(D): “Apart from personal reasons, no I can’t.