JD Vance Embraces Controversial Epstein Conspiracy Theories

US Vice President JD Vance has thrown himself into one of the right’s most radioactive conspiracy theories, openly entertaining claims that Jeffrey Epstein had ties to the “highest levels” of Israeli intelligence.

The remarks came during a sprawling, nearly three-hour appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” where Rogan raised a narrative long popular on the fringes: that Epstein’s money and influence in elite American universities were rooted in a covert relationship with Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence service.

“Most people think he was Mossad,” Rogan said on the episode released Wednesday.

Vance didn’t push back. He leaned in.

“Yeah, Mossad or CIA, or some other deep state, whether in America or Israel or another country,” he replied, before going further. “He clearly had connections to the upper — the highest — levels of American intelligence. He clearly had connections to the highest levels of Israeli intelligence.”

Those lines, reported by The New York Times, marked a sharp escalation from a sitting vice president: not a vague nod to internet chatter, but a direct assertion that Epstein moved in circles at the summit of both American and Israeli spy agencies.

Vance did concede that the evidence is not there in the public record. He said he had asked whether there were documents directly linking Epstein to US or foreign intelligence services.

“The answer is no,” Vance said. “But if that existed, it wouldn’t exist in 2026.”

With that, the vice president managed to acknowledge the absence of proof while simultaneously suggesting that any such proof would be hidden anyway — a classic move in the architecture of conspiracy theories.

US government files on Epstein, released in the millions, have not produced conclusive proof that he worked as an agent or asset for Mossad. Epstein, a convicted sex offender who cultivated relationships with powerful figures around the world, did have a documented, yearslong friendship and business relationship with former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak. But nothing in the public record has established him as an intelligence operative. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously rejected that idea.

The political reaction was swift and furious.

Former Representative Peter T. King, a New York Republican and staunch backer of Israel, accused Vance of playing to the darkest corners of his own party.

He called the vice president’s comments a “dog whistle” to a wing of the GOP that he said “is antisemitic, is anti-Israel, is conspiratorial and is unhinged.”

King did not mince words about the stakes of a vice president indulging such theories.

“It’s not like you’re a junior congressman,” he said in an interview Saturday. “You’re the vice president of the United States. Unless you know what you’re talking about, unless you have absolute facts to back it up, before you undermine an ally — before you undermine your own intelligence agencies — you better know what you’re talking about.”

Inside Vance’s camp, there was no sign of retreat.

Asked for comment, his office sent a statement attributed to an unnamed White House official insisting that everything Vance had said was true, and dismissing criticism as “in bad faith, stupidity, or both.” Aides declined to clarify what, exactly, the vice president was asserting about Epstein and intelligence services.

Jerusalem stayed quiet. The Israeli prime minister’s office, which oversees Mossad, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Vance’s remarks.

But among conservatives who have pushed their party to confront antisemitism more aggressively and stand more firmly with Israel, the episode landed hard.

Some Republicans had already been uneasy with Vance’s posture on Israel and Jewish issues. His latest comments only deepened that concern.

Ben Shapiro, the influential conservative commentator who is Jewish and a strong supporter of Israel, wrote in a newsletter that Vance’s turn on Rogan’s podcast left him “concerned.” On his own show, Shapiro went further, calling the vice president’s commentary “unworthy of the office” and a betrayal of basic conservative principles.

“Conservatives, generally, are not in favor of baseless conspiracy theorizing,” Shapiro said, “because that undermines the idea that you have capacity in the world to act.”

The backlash spread into Jewish media as well. Tablet, an online publication focused on Jewish news and culture, ran a blistering column by journalist Lee Smith under the headline “JD Vance’s Big Crashout.” The piece accused Vance of having “attacked Jews and spread baseless rumors, for which he admits to having zero evidence, about some kind of dark plot involving Jeffrey Epstein.”

At the center of the storm sits Epstein’s long, murky shadow.

Epstein built a network of powerful contacts in finance, politics, academia and beyond. Among them was Ehud Barak, the former center-left Israeli prime minister, who has acknowledged a yearslong personal and business relationship with Epstein.

“Epstein seemed to be connected to the elements of the Israeli deep state that were left of center,” Vance told Rogan. “I’ve always found that fascinating.”

Barak has said that Shimon Peres, another former Israeli prime minister, first introduced him to Epstein in 2002. Barak has acknowledged attending lunches and dinners at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse. He received about $2.3 million in payments from a foundation associated with Epstein, and Epstein reportedly invested $1 million in a limited partnership Barak set up in 2015.

Barak has repeatedly denied witnessing or participating in any sexual abuse and has expressed remorse over the association. “I now deeply regret having any association with him,” he has said.

That mix of documented ties, unanswered questions and the brutal facts of Epstein’s crimes has made him a magnet for speculation. For years, the far right and segments of the populist right have treated the Epstein saga as proof of a hidden ruling class protected by intelligence services and global elites.

What changed this week was not the theory. It was the messenger.

When a podcast host or fringe commentator suggests Epstein worked for Mossad, it can be dismissed as noise. When the sitting vice president of the United States signals that Epstein had “clear” connections to the top of both American and Israeli intelligence — while conceding there is no documentary proof — the noise becomes policy-adjacent.

That is what has alarmed Republicans like King and Shapiro, who see a line being crossed: from skepticism of institutions to a conspiratorial worldview that casts allies and domestic agencies alike as shadowy villains.

Vance, a longtime ally of Tucker Carlson and a figure who has built his brand on attacking the establishment, now finds himself at the heart of a different argument — not about Epstein’s secrets, but about the Republican Party’s.