Tulsi Gabbard refused to rule out whether late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein served as an “intelligence asset,” during an awkward interview grilling.
The Director of National Intelligence sat down with New York Post columnist Miranda Devine on the “Pod Force One” podcast, which was released on Wednesday. The pair candidly discussed extra-terrestrial life, “Russiagate,” and Hillary Clinton’s so-called “vendetta” against Gabbard.
After speaking confidently about aliens and the mysterious drones that flew over New Jersey last year, the head of the country’s intelligence nerve center suddenly appeared more reticent when Devine sprung a question about Epstein on her.
“Lastly, Epstein. Do you think there is any evidence that he could be, could’ve been, an intelligence asset, either for us or for foreign agencies?” the New York Post columnist asked towards the end of the interview.
“Uh, I can tell you I haven’t seen anything, um, that’s come across my desk that reflects that,“ she responded, less fluently than she had spoken earlier.
The DNI continued: “Um, if that were to change and there was some credible information or intelligence, um, that that did come to light, um, you know, the president has made clear if there’s anything that’s credible out there ‘put it out there for the American people to see,’ and I would do exactly that.”
She then suggested that the “mainstream media” was attempting to distract attention from President Trump’s successes by dredging up the Epstein saga.
It comes after recent reporting suggested that Epstein might have had links to the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad. The story, rejected by the former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett, is propagated by some conservative commentators, including ex-Fox News star Tucker Carlson.
“This accusation [of an Israeli connection] is a lie being peddled by prominent online personalities such as Tucker Carlson pretending they know things they don’t,” Bennett said on July 14.
In June last year, the Daily Beast exclusively reported that a former girlfriend and victim of Epstein claimed that he boasted of being a Mossad agent before raping her at his New York mansion.
The California woman, referred to as Jane Doe 200 in a lawsuit, says she met Epstein through a friend in Los Angeles in 2000. What began as a platonic relationship turned romantic—before Epstein sexually assaulted her a year later.
During their time together, Doe said, Epstein and his now jailed accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell hinted he was an agent for Mossad, just like Maxwell’s father, Robert.
Epstein’s links to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and former CIA Director William Burns have led to wild speculation, creating conspiracy theories that the disgraced financier worked in intelligence.
After a 2019 raid on Epstein’s properties in Manhattan and the Virgin Islands, the FBI found more than 70 computers, iPads, and hard drives, as well as boxes of shredded paper and financial documents.
One of the people with access to the seized records told Business Insider last week that “nothing supports the contention that there was…any association with intelligence.”
However, Adam Hickey, a former top official in the Department of Justice’s national security division, suggested that the bust doesn’t necessarily mean Epstein wasn’t linked to an intel agency.
“If you are working for the government—providing information to the government—that relationship is something that neither party necessarily wants to casually be discovered,” he said.
Epstein’s former lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, has denied the story. “He said ‘absolutely no.’ He said he wished he did, that it would’ve been very helpful,” Dershowitz told Business Insider.
The Office for the Director of National Intelligence has been contacted for comment.
The post Tulsi Gabbard Leaves Door Open for Wild Epstein ‘Intelligence Asset’ Conspiracy Theory appeared first on The Daily Beast.
