A protester holds a sign related to the release of the Jeffrey Epstein case files outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC. Photo / Saul Loeb, AFP
“Tommy Robinson. !! good work,” Jeffrey Epstein wrote in a congratulatory message to an unnamed figure after the far-right activist was released from jail in 2018.
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, had been jailed on contempt charges for filming a trial despite a court order prohibiting such coverage.
In another message celebrating Robinson’s freedom, Epstein wrote: “Kristallnacht always has the big fire”.
It was one of several jokes the late financier and convicted paedophile, who was Jewish, shared with an associate about the Holocaust.
“Come join us at Auschwitz, opening night, special,” Epstein wrote in another, referring to the impending United States Midterm elections in 2018, in which the Democrats took back control of the House of Representatives.
The messages are contained in some of the more unusual emails in a trove of 23,000 Epstein documents released last week.
They initially triggered headlines about the likes of Donald Trump and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former Duke of York.
But from the documents, a picture has now emerged of a side to Epstein that was previously unknown: his interests in and connection to right-wing political movements around the globe.
The emails reveal how the sex-trafficker maintained an extraordinary network of international associates, including business executives and political players with whom he corresponded about fomenting a populist resurgence in Europe and how to deal with Trump.
His correspondence included figures within the US political establishment as well as European diplomats, academics, and leaders of rival foreign states from Russia to Saudi Arabia.
Among them was Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist and right-wing provocateur, whom he advised on supporting conservative political movements in Europe – and on whom the President should fire.
As Bannon plotted to fuel a right-wing resurgence across the Atlantic, Epstein advised that it was “doable” and offered to put him in touch with European political figures.
At the time, the former Trump adviser was mulling plans to form a “supergroup” to help right-wing populist parties gain a foothold in the 2019 European Parliament elections.
“If you are going to play here, you’ll have to spend time; Europe by remote doesn’t work,” Epstein wrote to him in July 2018. “Lots and lots of face time and hand-holding.”
A right-wing resurgence in Europe is “doable” but “time-consuming”, Epstein told Bannon, adding: “There are many leaders of countries we can organise for you to have one on [one with]. … I think you want to be an insider, not an outsider flying in and out.”
In further messages, Epstein boasted about plotting the downfall of the Slovakian Government and suggested the country’s most senior diplomat, Miroslav Lajcak – then president of the United Nations General Assembly – could “guide” Bannon’s European Union project.
“Miro Lajcak, president of UN, will guide the EU project if you like him. His govt will fall this week – as planned.:),” Epstein wrote, days before Robert Fico, the former Slovakian Prime Minister, resigned.
Epstein frequently referred to Bannon as his friend and even weighed in on Trump’s Cabinet choices.
In response to questions from the former Trump adviser about whether he could “get rid of” Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, or Steven Mnuchin, the former Treasury Secretary, Epstein wrote: “Jared and Ivanka need to go. !!!”
He was referring to Ivanka, Trump’s daughter, and Jared Kushner, her husband, who were both advisers to the President during his first term.
Throughout the emails released by the House of Representatives’ Oversight Committee, Epstein casts himself as the ultimate political fixer, boasting of his friendships with powerful associates around the world.
Those contacts included Jack Lang, the former French politician whose foundation he had funded, and leaders of states in the Arab League, who he claimed were meeting him to give him a “download”.
“Can you believe MBS sent me a TENT carpets and all,” he bragged to Tom Pritzker, a billionaire businessman, in December 2016, referring to Mohammed bin Salman, now the Saudi Crown Prince.
Among Epstein’s cadre of international connections was Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, a United Arab Emirates-based businessman, who asked if he should “accept the invitation” to Trump’s inauguration.
The disgraced financier said it would be “very crowded” but could be worth making connections in New York or Washington around the festivities, to which Sulayem replied: “Do you think it will be possible to shake hands with Trump?”
“Call to discuss,” Epstein wrote back.
Often touting his credentials as a Trump insider, Epstein suggested that Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, meet with him before President Vladimir Putin’s high-stakes 2018 summit with the US President in Helsinki.
“I think you might suggest to Putin that Lavrov can get insight on talking to me,” he wrote to Thorbjorn Jagland, a former Norwegian Prime Minister and then leader of the Council of Europe, in June 2018.
“I’ll meet Lavrov’s assistant on Monday and will suggest,” Jagland replied. It is not clear if a meeting ever took place.
For years, Epstein sought to quash scrutiny of his illicit activities, and he received tip-offs from a New York Times reporter in 2016 who warned about another journalist looking into the financier.
Landon Thomas told Epstein that John Connolly was looking into him for his book, Filthy Rich, which came out later that year.
“Keep getting calls from that guy doing a book on you – John Connolly. He seems very interested in your relationship with the news media. I told him you were a hell of a guy :),” Thomas wrote to Epstein in June 2016.
As law enforcement closed in on Epstein in late 2018, the financier presented himself as a sacrificial lamb who was being targeted over his supposed ties to Trump.
That December, an unnamed associate texted him that “they’re really just trying to take down Trump and doing whatever they can to do that…!”
“It’s wild,” Epstein replied. “Because I am the one able to take him down.”
Epstein died in 2019 while in a Manhattan prison awaiting trial on sex-trafficking changes, in what the US Government ruled was suicide.
His ties to figures within the Trump Administration, including the President himself, have opened up a rift within the Maga movement amid concerns of an establishment cover-up.
Despite concluding there was nothing further to look into, Pam Bondi, the Attorney-General, has agreed to open an investigation into Epstein’s involvement with a string of high-profile Democrats at the behest of Trump.
“This is another Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, with all arrows pointing to the Democrats,” the President posted on social media.
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