JD Vance Backs Conspiracy Theories on Epstein and Israeli Intelligence

US Vice President JD Vance has thrown his weight behind 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 in a sprawling, nearly three-hour appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” where Rogan raised a notion that has long circulated on the fringes of conservative media and darker corners of the internet: that Epstein’s money and influence campaigns in elite American institutions were backed by Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence service.

“Most people think he was Mossad,” Rogan said of Epstein 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,” the vice president replied, before going further.

“He clearly had connections to the upper — the highest — levels of American intelligence,” Vance said. “He clearly had connections to the highest levels of Israeli intelligence.”

Those are extraordinary words from a sitting vice president. Not a pundit. Not a backbencher. The second-highest elected official in the United States publicly nodding along with a theory that Israel’s intelligence services and elements of the American “deep state” were intertwined with a convicted sex offender’s operations.

And yet, when pressed, Vance acknowledged that the mountain of official records doesn’t support the leap he was making.

Millions of government files related to Epstein have been released. None has produced conclusive proof that he was an intelligence asset for Mossad or any other agency.

“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 admitted. “But if that existed, it wouldn’t exist in 2026.”

So the vice president concedes there is no evidence — then suggests that, if there were, it would have been erased.

That tension sat at the heart of the backlash that followed.

Within hours, Vance’s comments were ricocheting through political and Jewish media, reigniting long-running debates on the right about antisemitism, Israel, and the party’s growing appetite for conspiracy-laced narratives.

Some of the sharpest criticism came from inside his own party.

Former Representative Peter T. King, a New York Republican and staunch Israel supporter, blasted the remarks as a “dog whistle” to what he described as a faction of the GOP that “is antisemitic, is anti-Israel, is conspiratorial and is unhinged.”

“It’s not like you’re a junior congressman,” King 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 orbit, there was no hint of retreat.

Asked for comment, his office released a statement attributed to an unnamed White House official insisting that everything the vice president said was true and dismissing any suggestion otherwise as “in bad faith, stupidity, or both.” Aides declined to clarify or soften his language.

In Israel, there was silence, at least publicly. The prime minister’s office — which oversees Mossad — did not respond to a request for comment. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously rejected the idea that Epstein worked for Israel.

The uproar landed at a fraught moment for Republicans, some of whom have pressed Vance to speak more forcefully against antisemitism and to show more unambiguous support for Israel. Instead, his latest high-profile appearance appeared to deepen anxiety about where he stands.

Ben Shapiro, a prominent conservative commentator, practicing Jew and ardent backer of Israel, said Vance’s showing on Rogan’s podcast left him “concerned.” On his own program, Shapiro called the vice president’s comments “unworthy of the office” and said they cut against core 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 criticism from the Jewish press was even more blistering.

Tablet, an online publication focused on Jewish news and culture, ran a 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 real, documented ties to Israel — relationships that are messy, politically sensitive, but far from the sweeping intelligence narrative Vance nodded toward.

Epstein cultivated friendships with powerful figures around the world, including in Israel. One of the most notable was his yearslong association 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 that Shimon Peres, another former Israeli leader, first introduced him to Epstein in 2002. Over the years, Barak attended lunches and dinners at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse. He also received about $2.3 million in payments from a foundation linked to Epstein, and Epstein reportedly invested $1 million in a limited partnership Barak set up in 2015.

Those ties have drawn scrutiny and criticism, but Barak has maintained that he neither witnessed nor participated in any sexual abuse.

“I now deeply regret having any association with him,” Barak has said.

That regret is on the record. So is the money. So are the social connections.

What remains unproven — and what Vance chose to amplify from one of the highest platforms in American politics — is the leap from those relationships to a clandestine alliance with Israeli intelligence.

For a vice president who built his brand as a hard-headed realist and scourge of elite fables, the embrace of a theory he concedes has no documentary backing marks a striking turn. It raises a blunt question for his party and his allies abroad: when the second-in-command in Washington flirts with conspiracies about a key ally’s spy service, where does the line get drawn next?