Jeffrey Epstein - Modus Operandi
Trump's policy toward Ukraine and Russia may be influenced by Putin possessing compromising information about Trump obtained through Jeffrey Epstein. Thom Hartmann cited recently released Epstein emails in which Epstein wrote that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov could "get insight" on Trump by talking to him. Hartmann pointed to Trump's secretive private meetings with Putin, particularly in Helsinki in 2018 and more recently in Alaska, where he excluded witnesses and destroyed interpreter notes. Trump also placed repeated private phone calls to Putin since returning to office, and has consistently exhibited deferential behavior toward Putin despite Russian aggression.
Hartmann described Russia's intensified attacks on Ukraine since Trump's return to office, including strikes killing civilians and children, the targeting of civilian infrastructure, hospitals, schools, and energy grids, and Trump's refusal to provide meaningful support to Ukraine. The author argues that the scale of civilian suffering and deaths could be connected to Trump's apparent inability or unwillingness to confront Putin.
Hartmann explicitly acknowledged this is speculation rather than proven fact, but argues Trump's unprecedented secrecy with Putin — behavior no previous American president exhibited with a hostile foreign leader — demands serious investigation. The piece suggested that if blackmail did occur, it would explain Trump's policies that appear to benefit Putin at the expense of American and allied interests. Hartmann characterizes this potential scenario as a form of treason that would warrant at minimum impeachment proceedings, representing a betrayal of historic proportions that places worldwide democracy at risk.
If Epstein was indeed operating a blackmail and intelligence-selling operation, and if he possessed compromising material on Trump, it would lend more weight to the speculation that Putin might have obtained such material either directly from Epstein or through Russian intelligence channels. If Epstein collected compromising material on powerful individuals as part of an intelligence operation, and if Trump was among those compromised, and if that material reached Putin through Epstein's contacts with Russian officials like Lavrov, it would provide a potential explanation for Trump's otherwise inexplicable deference to Putin and his policies that consistently benefit Russian interests at the expense of American allies, particularly Ukraine. The pattern of behavior described in the document—the secretive meetings, the destruction of records, the consistent accommodation of Putin's interests—would be consistent with someone operating under the influence of blackmail or the threat of damaging exposure.
His fortune is strange. Epstein had: No clear business; no transparent investment track record; and large unexplained financial flows. Over the past decade, various journalists and independent investigators have suggested that: Epstein kept lots of recording equipment; He appeared to cultivate relationships with powerful men; He had young girls available during social visits—a scenario consistent with “honey-trap” operations; His unusually lenient 2008 plea deal (widely criticized) might indicate he had leverage over influential people. However, these arguments rely on patterns and circumstantial evidence, not verified documents.
Howard Lutnick, the U.S. Commerce Secretary, called Epstein “the greatest blackmailer ever” and claimed that Epstein may have traded incriminating videos of powerful associates for a lenient plea deal. He stated that during a visit to Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse, he saw a “massage room” and heard remarks from Epstein that implied gathering compromising material. He acknowledged that this is his belief rather than documented proof.
The primary figure claiming Epstein got rich via blackmail is Ari Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli military intelligence officer. In multiple interviews throughout 2025, Ben-Menashe has stated that Epstein ran a Mossad blackmail operation targeting American politicians and powerful figures. Ben-Menashe claims he met Epstein in the 1980s through Robert Maxwell (Ghislaine's father, also alleged to be a Mossad asset), and that Epstein was recruited by Israeli intelligence to run a "honeytrap" operation. Ben-Menashe told journalists that Epstein would photograph politicians with underage girls and use this material for blackmail, stating: "They would just blackmail people like that."
Other voices supporting the blackmail theory include Steven Hoffenberg, Epstein's former business partner in the Towers Financial Ponzi scheme, who before his 2022 death reportedly told journalists that Epstein admitted to Mossad ties and credited them for his wealth. Maria Farmer, an Epstein victim, testified the network was a blackmail ring linked to the Mega Group of pro-Israel billionaires. U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta later admitted he was told Epstein "belonged to intelligence" and to leave the case alone.
However, the DOJ and FBI released a memo in July 2025 stating they found "no credible evidence" Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals or kept a verified client list. This official denial was met with widespread skepticism from commentators across the political spectrum, rangeing from Alex Jones to John Oliver.
Over the course of many years, Jeffrey Epstein sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes in Manhattan, New York, and Palm Beach, Florida, among other locations. In particular, from at least in or about 2002, up to and including at least in or about 2005, Jeffrey Epstein, enticed and recruited, and caused to be enticed and recruited, minor girls to visit his mansion in Manhattan, New York and his estate in Palm Beach, Florida to engage in sex acts with him, after which he would give the victims hundreds of dollars in cash.
Moreover, and in order to maintain and increase his supply of victims, Epstein also paid certain of his victims to recruit additional girls to be similarly abused by Epstein. In this way, Epstein created a vast network of underage victims for him to sexually exploit in locations including New York and Palm Beach.
Jeffrey Epstein perpetuated the abuse in similar ways. Victims were initially recruited to provide "massages" to Epstein, which would be performed nude or partially nude, would become increasingly sexual in nature, and would typically include one or more sex acts. The victims, who were as young as 14 years of age, were told by Epstein or other individuals to partially or fully undress before beginning the "massage." During the encounter, Epstein would escalate the nature and scope of physical contact with his victim to include, among other things, sex acts such as groping and direct and indirect contact with the victim's genitals. Epstein typically would also masturbate during the sesexualized encounters, ask victims to touch him while he masturbated, and touch victims' genitals with his hands or with sex toys.
In connection with each sexual encounter, Jeffrey Epstein or one of his employees or associates, paid the victim in cash. Victims typically were paid hundreds of dollars in cash for each encounter.
Ghislaine Maxwell cams from a family dominated by her father. Robert Maxwell strove to build a publishing empire. But, throughout his career, Robert Maxwell also nurtured another, more driving, and hidden ambition, to spy for Israel's Mossad. In the end,the conflict between the tycoon's public interests and spy's secret pursuits led to his mystifying death, officially by drowning, in November 1991, offshore of the Canary Islands. Maxwell first came into Mossad's orbit in the 1970s, when the crack Israeli spy organization stole from the United States its most sophisticated piece of intelligence-gathering software, Enhanced Promis. Of it Mossad made an electronic Trojan horse, secretly amassing strictly classified information from inside the very organizations worldwide to which they were selling it. Mossad's representative for these extremely sensitive transactions costing tens of millions of dollars in China, Russia, India, and twenty other countries was Robert Maxwell. Only Maxwell was also helping himself to some of Mossad's profits -- as well as 750 million from his employees' pension fund -- in desperate attempts to maintain his empire and to meet the demands of increasingly intolerant creditors. Epstein became romantically involved with Robert Maxwell’s ninth child, Ghislaine. an outspoken British socialite . She connected him to powerful figures who were then beyond his reach such as the Clintons, Donald Trump and Prince Andrew. In return, Epstein bankrolled her.
Epstein relied on Maxwell and others to identify and target vulnerable young girls in numerous settings, including schools, spas, trailer parks, and the street. Epstein's "recruiters" lured these girls into his orbit with the promise of what appeared to be legitimate masseuse positions. Once manipulated into returning to one of Epstein's residences, however, the girls were groomed for abuse by Epstein and others through displays of wealth, power, and sexual imagery. At its height, Epstein's sexual abuse scheme, managed principally by Maxwell, was trans-continental. Using his private jet, Epstein trafficked dozens of minors for sexual abuse at his New York City mansion, his New Mexico ranch, his private island, Little St. James, in the US Virgin Islands, his Palm Beach, Florida, estate, and elsewhere.
The victims were as young as 14 years old at the time they were abused by Jeffrey Epstein, and were, for various reasons, often particularly vulnerable to exploitation. Epstein intentionally sought out minors and knew that many of his victims were in fact under the age of 18, including because, in some instances, minor victims expressly told him their age.
In creating and maintaining this network of minor victims in multiple states to sexually abuse and exploit, Jeffrey Epstein worked and conspired with others, including employees and associates who facilitated his conduct by, among other things, contacting victims and scheduling their sexual encounters with Epstein at the New York Residence and at the Palm Beach Residence.
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