JD Vance Backs Controversial Epstein Conspiracy Claims

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

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

“Most people think he was Mossad,” Rogan said.

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 one of the most explicit endorsements of the Epstein–intelligence narrative ever made by a sitting US vice president, and they detonated across Washington and within the Republican Party.

Vance did acknowledge that no hard proof has emerged. He said he had asked whether any documents directly linked Epstein to US intelligence agencies or others.

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

That mix — flat admission of no evidence, followed by a suggestion that the evidence would be hidden anyway — is exactly what alarms his critics. To them, it is not just speculation. It is a signal.

Former Representative Peter T. King, a New York Republican and staunch Israel supporter, called Vance’s remarks a “dog whistle” to a faction of the GOP he described as “antisemitic, is anti-Israel, is conspiratorial and is unhinged.”

“It’s not like you’re a junior congressman,” King said in an interview. “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.”

The White House did not dial anything back. Asked for comment, Vance’s office sent out a statement, attributed to an unnamed White House official, insisting that everything the vice president had said was true and suggesting that to challenge it was “in bad faith, stupidity, or both.” Aides declined to clarify or soften his words.

In Israel, there was no immediate official response. The prime minister’s office, which oversees Mossad, did not comment on Vance’s claims. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously rejected the idea that Epstein operated on Israel’s behalf.

The political fallout, however, was swift on the American right.

Some Republicans had already been uneasy with Vance’s tone on Israel and antisemitism, wanting him to be more forceful in denouncing the latter and more clearly supportive of the former. His latest comments deepened that anxiety.

Ben Shapiro, one of the most prominent conservative voices, Jewish and firmly pro-Israel, said Vance’s performance on Rogan’s show left him “concerned.” On his own program, Shapiro didn’t mince words, calling the vice president’s commentary “unworthy of the office” and arguing that it cut against the foundations of conservative thought.

“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 criticism wasn’t limited to broadcast commentary. Tablet, an online publication focused on Jewish news and culture, ran a sharply worded 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.”

Epstein’s real-world ties to Israel are documented, but far more mundane than the sprawling conspiracies suggest. The disgraced financier, who cultivated relationships with powerful figures around the globe, maintained a yearslong friendship and business relationship with Ehud Barak, the former Israeli prime minister from the center-left.

“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 Shimon Peres first introduced him to Epstein in 2002. He attended lunches and dinners at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse. Financially, Barak received roughly $2.3 million in payments from a foundation linked to Epstein, and Epstein reportedly invested about $1 million in a limited partnership Barak set up in 2015.

Barak has consistently denied any involvement in or knowledge of sexual abuse. “I now deeply regret having any association with him,” he has said.

The US government has released millions of files related to Epstein. None, so far, have produced conclusive evidence that he was an agent or asset of Mossad or any other intelligence service. Vance himself acknowledged that gap on air, even as he advanced the idea that Epstein moved in the rarefied space of “the highest levels” of American and Israeli intelligence.

That tension — between the absence of proof and the insistence that the story is true — now sits at the center of a storm around a sitting vice president. For Vance’s allies in the populist right, it may read as a willingness to say the quiet part out loud. For his critics inside the party, it raises a sharper question: how far into the world of conspiracy a man a heartbeat from the presidency is prepared to go.