JD Vance says Epstein linked to US and Israeli intelligence; accuses Israeli influence on Iran talks

Vance Slams Israeli PR Campaign To Keep War Going 'Indefinitely', & Undermine Him

Vance Slams Israeli PR Campaign To Keep War Going 'Indefinitely', & Undermine Him In a new interview on the world's largest podcast, Vice President JD Vance warned that "elements" of the Israeli government want to keep the Iran war going "indefinitely," and were pursuing an aggressive campaign to manipulate US public opinion -- going so far as to vilify Vance for his role in pursuing a diplomatic solution. In his nearly three-hour interview on the Joe Rogan Experience, Vance also tried to gently distance himself from Trump's decision to join Israel in launching a war on Iran and said the White House had botched its communications regarding the Epstein files.  "There are some people within [Israel's] system, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt, who are manipulating and trying to change American public opinion to keep the war going on indefinitely. Again, not towards any objective, but just indefinitely," Vance said, noting that the attacks have not only been directed against US policy, but against him personally. He directed Rogan and his audience to read a recent Time article describing the big-budget mechanism Israel has sponsored to try to shore up Republican support for the war and for Israel.  "It’s like worth reading because it lists a bunch of people who have quite literally been paid by a former Trump campaign person who was himself paid by certain elements within the Israeli government. And those people are attacking me viciously for quite literally trying to accomplish the negotiation objective that the president set for the country." Vance was referring to former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale, who now runs a communications firm called Clock Tower X. He is also Chief Strategy Officer of Salem Media Group, a conservative multimedia conglomerate. Last summer, Israel started paying Parscale's firm $1.5 million a month to create 100 pieces of digital content every month to be shared across multiple social media platforms. Controversially, Parscale also promised the “integration of narrative messaging into Salem Media Network properties and aligned distribution channels.” Quite the listen pic.twitter.com/U9TpsTa1Yt — Curt Mills (@CurtMills) July 15, 2026 As for how to end a war that's even less popular than the Vietnam War at its worst polling, Vance defended diplomacy and ridiculed hawkish critics whose grand plan is to only to "bomb them to oblivion." While Trump has been threatening to go on a rampage against Iran's bridges and energy infrastructure if the country doesn't bend to his wishes, Vance echoed the wisdom of many military and geopolitical observers who lampoon the idea that the US military can conquer any country -- much less one that's as large as Western Europe -- using only air power:  “You can bomb them. You can take away their radar. You can take away some of their drones and some of their missiles, but it’s just too easy to fire at ships in the straits. So, you’ve got to actually be willing to talk and to try to figure out the problem.” With each passing week and month, the unpopularity of the war on Iran looms larger and larger where Vance's 2028 presidential ambitions are concerned. Vance has been using interviews to delicately distance himself from the decision to attack, and he did so again with Rogan. When the podcaster asked Vance about the extent to which he agreed with Trump's decision to launch a war on Iran, Vance deftly used Trump's own characterizations to distance himself from the decision: "Well, the president said publicly that 'JD was less enthusiastic about it.' I think that was the exact phrase that he used. I mean my attitude towards this, man, as you know, is the vice president— I’m not a public commentator. My job is to give the best advice I can to the president of the United States. I think he’s said a little bit about what that advice was.  In April, a lengthy New York Times report on the decision to start the war portrayed Vance as a skeptic who warned that a war could unleash regional chaos and involve a high number of casualties -- including damage to Trump's coalition, a large segment of which was attracted by Trump's repeated promises not to start new wars. Describing the fateful meeting on Feb 26 that preceded the war's launch two days later, the Times paraphrased Vance as saying, "You know I think this is a bad idea, but if you want to do it, I’ll support you." You can see Vance trying the thread the MAGA needle when it comes to Iran in this Rogan interview. He hints heavily that he's against the war, but he supports Trump publicly. pic.twitter.com/usuFwZPTGC — Elijah Cone (@ElijahCone) July 15, 2026 Now, nearly five months later, 14 American service members are dead, more than 400 wounded, more than $100 billion has been squandered, the US arsenal significantly depleted, the Strait of Hormuz is largely closed, fuel prices have soared, a global economic catastrophe lurks, and the Iranian people have rallied around their government. Given the war has turned into such a fiasco, it's not clear how much credit Vance will get for having been anything less than a zealous opponent willing to publicly challenge the war from the start.   Regarding the Epstein files, Vance disputed the notion that the Trump administration sought to hide anything from the American people, instead attributing the controversy to poor public communications about the files. “We absolutely screwed up the comms of the Epstein files,” Vance said. “We just did. But do I think the reason we screwed up the comms is because we were trying to hide something? No.” He faulted then-US Attorney General Pam Bondi for having "overstated what we had and what we didn’t have,” as she was caught up in "the political moment."  JD Vance gets annoyed as Joe Rogan questions why MAGA influencers were given Epstein file binders pic.twitter.com/cbjjMMFlmy — grizzy (@Furbeti) July 15, 2026 Though he stopped short of saying Epstein was working for Israel, Vance emphasized Epstein's links to both US and Israeli intelligence agencies. "He clearly had connections to the upper— the highest levels of American intelligence. He clearly had connections to the highest levels of Israeli intelligence," Vance said, later adding, "I’ve asked whether there were documents connecting Jeffrey Epstein directly to our intelligence agencies or anybody else’s, and the answer is no. But if that stuff existed, it wouldn’t exist in 2026."  Here's the full interview:  Tyler Durden Thu, 07/16/2026 - 09:45

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JD Vance says Epstein had connections to CIA and Mossad

JD Vance says Epstein had connections to CIA and Mossad Submitted by Oscar Rickett on Thu, 07/16/2026 - 11:59 US vice president tells podcaster Joe Rogan there is an 'extremely well-funded' Israel-linked campaign to derail Iran negotiations US Vice President JD Vance speaks at This is the Turning Point Tour at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, US, April 14, 2026 (Reuters) Off The paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein was connected to the “highest levels” of US and Israeli intelligence, JD Vance said on Monday. “He clearly had connections to the upper, the highest levels of American intelligence,” the US Vice President told podcaster Joe Rogan, in relation to Epstein. “He clearly had connections to the highest levels of Israeli intelligence.” Told by Rogan that “most people think he was Mossad”, Israel's external intelligence agency, Vance replied: “Mossad or CIA or some other deep state, whether in America or Israel or some other country… or both.” The vice president, who describes himself as “an OG Epstein conspiracy theorist”, said that Epstein’s connections were to what he described as “elements of the Israeli deep state that were left of centre”, most notably former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak. “It wasn’t like he was super connected to the right of centre of Israeli politics,” Vance said. There has been much speculation about whether Epstein was working for Israeli, US or even Russian intelligence.  The convicted sex offender, who hosted a slew of rich and powerful people on his private island and was connected to former US president Bill Clinton, pro-Israel billionaire Les Wexner, British politician Peter Mandelson and Queen Elizabeth’s son Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, appeared to have accumulated a vast amount of compromising information over many years.  'There are certain influencers in America who are being paid in order to attack the deal [with Iran]' - JD Vance Asked earlier this year whether they considered Epstein to have been a Mossad asset, an advisor to the Indian government told Middle East Eye: “100 percent”.  There is, though, no categorical proof that Epstein worked actively for an intelligence agency. The Epstein files do, however, document the financier’s funding of Israeli groups, including Friends of the Israeli Defence Forces, and the settler organisation the Jewish National Fund, as well as his ties to members of Israel’s overseas intelligence services.  An FBI memo produced by the bureau’s Los Angeles field office in October 2020 reported that one of its sources had come to believe Epstein “was a co-opted Mossad agent”. According to the document, the disgraced paedophile was described as having been “trained as a spy” for Israel’s intelligence service. Israel-backed campaign to derail US-Iran deal In his interview with Rogan, Vance – who appeared to be positioning himself as a successor to Donald Trump and a presidential candidate in 2028 - described a “very discreet extremely well-funded campaign to try to derail the negotiation and try to derail the derail the deal” with Iran. Vance has spearheaded negotiations with Iran, resulting in the memorandum of understanding signed by the two counries last month. The deal has fallen apart and the US and Iran are once more exchanging strikes. “There are certain influencers in America who are being paid in order to attack the deal,” he said, mentioning funding that came from Israel. The vice president referenced a Time magazine article from this week that details an “Israeli influence operation targeting the MAGA base”. Brad Parscale, a digital advisor on Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign, is reportedly being paid $1.5m a month to run this operation. According to Vance, the Time article “lists a bunch of people who have quite literally been paid by a former Trump campaign person, who is himself paid by certain elements within the Israeli government, and those people are attacking me quite viciously.”  “They want to continue the military campaign.”Speaking to Joe Rogan, US Vice President JD Vance said that some officials within the Israeli government are trying to manipulate American public opinion to derail the peace negotiations and prolong the war on Iran “indefinitely” pic.twitter.com/gFxuj8OL08— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) July 16, 2026 “I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there have been people within the Israeli government who are trying to, like, actually shift us away from that policy because they want to continue the military campaign,” Vance said. The vice president said that "that are people... who are super-hawkish in the American sysetem who have attacked the deal and frankly in some ways tried to derail the deal. And what I always say to those people is, what is your proposal?" Vance described himself as “the reasonable moderate” in “this massive pro-Israel, anti-Israel debate in the United States of America. He said he had been widely accused of being an antisemite, “which is insane”. When asked if he thought the US would have engaged in the most recent war with Iran were it not for Israeli influence, Vance said, “yes, yes I do.” “I think the president, separate from any influence from Israel, believes very strongly, and again I agree with this, that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon,” Vance said. “The idea that Donald Trump is being blackmailed is crazy to me,” he said, when asked by Rogan if Israel was using the Epstein files – or some other compromising information – to get Trump to do what they wanted. Epstein Files News Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19 Update Date Override 0

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Late sex offender Epstein clearly had connections to American, Israeli intelligence: Vance

US Vice President JD Vance has said that late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein “seemed to be connected” to elements of the “Israeli deep state” as well as the “highest levels of American intelligence”, while also acknowledging the Trump administration mishandled its response to the case. He made these remarks in a podcast episode with host Joe Rogan that was published on Wednesday. During the episode, Rogan brought up that most people thought Epstein was linked to Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, to which Vance replied, “Yeah, Mossad or CIA or some other deep state, whether in America, Israel, or another country.” “He clearly had connections to the upper, the highest levels of American intelligence. He clearly had connections to the highest levels of Israeli intelligence,” he said. He added that he found the Epstein case “interesting” because, “as much as I know, [Israeli] Prime Minister Netanyahu, not a particularly popular person in the United States of America right now, Epstein seemed to be connected to the elements of the Israeli deep state that were left of centre”. “It wasn’t like he was super connected to the right of centre of Israeli politics. [In] America, he was connected across the board. Like he had Republican friends, he had Democratic friends. He had much deeper connections to the Israeli left of centre than right of centre,” said Vance. About the administration’s handling of the Epstein case, Vance said, “If people want to say we mishandled the Epstein release, guilty. We did mishandle, especially the communications of it. “We absolutely screwed up the comms of the Epstein files.” Asked what should have been done differently, he said, “I think that we should have just dropped everything at the very beginning; and obviously it takes a little time to review the stuff, to find the stuff, to redact things where you have victims and so forth. But we should have just done it as quickly as possible.” The US Justice Department recently released more than three million pages, 2,000 videos and 180,000 images in January under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was signed into law last November. Epstein was found dead in his New York City jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. He pleaded guilty in a court in the state of Florida and was convicted of procuring a minor for prostitution in 2008, but critics call the relatively minor conviction a “sweetheart deal”. His victims have alleged that he operated a sprawling sex trafficking network that was used by members of the wealthy and political elite. ‘Some in Israeli government sought to sway US on Iran deal’ Vance also said during his conversation with Rogan that said some members of the Israeli government had tried to influence US public opinion to oppose a deal by the US to end the war on Iran. The comments echoed earlier criticism of Israeli government policy by Vance, whom many view as a potential future presidential candidate, in a widening public rift between the two countries. Vance defended a deal reached last month to end the war with Iran, which critics in the US and Israel have slammed for failing to curb Iran’s missile programme and providing no clear path to dismantling its nuclear facilities, while constraining Israel in its war with Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. “I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there have been people within the Israeli government who are trying to, like, actually shift us away from that policy because they want to continue the military campaign,” Vance said. The vice president said that, while he has “good relationships” with some members of the Israeli government, “there are some people within their system that we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that are manipulating and trying to change American public opinion to keep the war going on indefinitely”. Vance said that many countries, allies and adversaries try to influence American policy and that “it doesn’t bother me that Israel tries to do this, it frankly doesn’t even bother me that Russia or some of these other countries do it”. He said it was “just the nature of being a political leader in 2026”. “What does bother me is when those operations, those influence campaigns, actually affect American political judgement,” said the US vice president. Vance lashed out at Israeli critics of the Iran deal in June, saying President Donald Trump is Israel’s only ally, in a sharp rebuke that referenced the billions in US defence aid the country receives. When asked if he thought the US would have engaged in the most recent war on Iran were it not for Israeli influence, Vance said, “Yes, yes I do.” “I think the president, separate from any influence from Israel, believes very strongly, and again I agree with this, that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon,” Vance said. The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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