Barak, Epstein: regret, distance, weight of files

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak says he regrets maintaining ties with Jeffrey Epstein after the financier’s 2008 conviction, offering his first detailed public response as newly released US justice documents continue to map the reach of Epstein’s global network.

Speaking to Israel’s Channel 12, Barak framed the relationship as a failure of judgment rather than awareness.

“I am responsible for all my actions and decisions. There is room to question whether I should have investigated more thoroughly. I regret not doing so,” he said, acknowledging that the connection, which began when Shimon Peres introduced Epstein as a “good Jew” at a 2003 event in Washington, now looks very different in retrospect.

Barak insisted that he did not understand the scale of Epstein’s crimes until the federal investigation was reopened in 2019. “I did not know the manner of his crimes until 2019, and you probably didn’t know it either,” he said, adding that in the 15 years he knew Epstein he “never saw any unreasonable occurrence, or any unreasonable behaviour”.

What complicates that defence is not the existence of contact but its duration. Barak did not dispute that he continued to meet Epstein after the 2008 conviction, staying with his wife at Epstein’s Manhattan residence several times between 2015 and 2019, exchanging emails and visiting Little Saint James. He described the island visit as a single, three-hour daytime stop, accompanied by his wife and security, where he saw only Epstein and staff.

His explanation reflects a broader pattern now visible across the files: that Epstein, after serving his sentence, was treated in many elite circles as someone who had effectively returned to public life. Barak argued that this perception only collapsed once the 2019 investigation exposed the scale of the abuse allegations and prompted a rapid severing of ties by former associates.

The political sensitivity of the interview lies not only in Barak’s personal account but in the renewed attention to Epstein’s links to Israeli institutions and individuals. The documents detail his donations to organisations such as Friends of the IDF and the Jewish National Fund, as well as his contacts with figures connected to Israel’s overseas intelligence community.