JD Vance Backs Controversial Epstein Conspiracy Theory

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

The comments came not in a closed-door briefing or a cautious interview, but during a sprawling, nearly three-hour appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” a podcast that has become a megaphone for fringe ideas as often as for mainstream debate.

Rogan raised the theory bluntly: that Epstein’s money and his efforts to shape thinking on American campuses were tied to Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence service.

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

Vance didn’t push back. He widened the frame.

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

Those are extraordinary words from a sitting vice president. Especially when, by Vance’s own admission, the evidence does not exist in the public record.

He acknowledged that millions of pages of US government files on Epstein have produced no conclusive proof that the financier was an intelligence agent or asset for Mossad or any other service.

“I’ve asked, were there like, were there documents connecting Jeffrey Epstein directly to our intelligence agencies or anybody else’s, and the answer is no,” Vance said. “But if that existed, it wouldn’t exist in 2026.”

The leap from “no documents” to “clearly had connections” landed with a thud across Washington and within his own party.

Critics inside the GOP, especially those who have pressed Vance to be more forceful against antisemitism and more forthright in his support for Israel, saw the appearance as a dangerous flirtation with a narrative long associated with antisemitic tropes.

Former Representative Peter T. King, a New York Republican and staunch Israel supporter, did not bother to soften his assessment. He called Vance’s remarks a “dog whistle” to a faction of the party that he described as “antisemitic, is anti-Israel, is conspiratorial and is unhinged.”

Then he went straight at the office Vance holds.

“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 vice president’s office did not retreat. Asked for comment, it sent out 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, Vance meant when he spoke of “clear” connections at the “highest levels.”

In Israel, the reaction was quieter, at least in public. The prime minister’s office, which oversees Mossad, did not immediately respond to questions about Vance’s comments. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously rejected the idea that Epstein worked for Israel.

Still, the vice president’s foray into this territory touched a raw nerve. Conspiracy theories around Epstein, Israel, and intelligence agencies have long circulated on the far right and in dark corners of the internet. They have also drawn persistent accusations of antisemitism, casting Jews and the Israeli state as shadowy masterminds behind global events.

This time, the promoter was not an anonymous account or a talk-radio host. It was the second-highest elected official in the United States.

Conservative voices who are both pro-Israel and influential within the movement moved quickly to distance themselves. Ben Shapiro, the Jewish conservative commentator and a force on the right, wrote in a newsletter that Vance’s appearance on Rogan’s show left him “concerned.”

On his own program, Shapiro went further, calling the vice president’s commentary “unworthy of the office” and warning that it cut against the core instincts conservatives claim to prize.

“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 the vice president 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 heart of this storm lies a set of facts that are uncomfortable but not mysterious. Epstein did cultivate relationships with powerful figures around the world, including in Israel. He 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 he first met Epstein in 2002, through Shimon Peres, then one of Israel’s most prominent statesmen. Barak attended lunches and dinners at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse. He received about $2.3 million in payments from a foundation linked to Epstein. Epstein, in turn, reportedly invested $1 million in a limited partnership Barak set up in 2015.

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

Those connections are real, documented, and troubling enough on their own. What they are not is proof of an intelligence operation. The US government’s own document dumps on Epstein, massive in scale, have not produced such evidence.

That gap between fact and insinuation is precisely where Vance chose to plant his flag. In doing so, he aligned himself with a strain of conservative commentary that has surged in recent years, powered by figures like Tucker Carlson, a longtime ally who has repeatedly spotlighted Epstein-related theories and the idea of a hidden “deep state.”

The vice president’s comments on Rogan’s show did not come in a vacuum. They fit a broader pattern in which senior elected officials flirt with, validate, or outright adopt narratives once confined to the fringe, calculating that the political energy they unlock outweighs the institutional damage they cause.

For Vance, the calculation now runs both ways. He has energized a conspiratorial wing of the right that sees Epstein as a key to understanding a corrupt global elite. At the same time, he has unnerved Republicans who still see themselves as guardians of a pro-Israel, anti-antisemitic tradition within the party — and who expect a vice president to treat intelligence matters with something more than curiosity and vibes.

The documents on Epstein may be closed, incomplete, or redacted. The political file on JD Vance’s remarks is just getting started.