In an interview with The Daily Beast, former Prime Minister Ehud Barak admitted he travelled to Jeffrey Epstein’s infamous island “once, for several hours—and years after the publications about sex parties or orgies there.”
Barak, currently running for Knesset in Israel, could not give an exact accounting of the number of times he met Epstein, putting the number between 10 and “much less than” 100.
The Daily Beast reports:
“The man who introduced me to Epstein about 17 years ago was Shimon Peres,” Barak said, uncertain if the event took place in New York or Washington, but recalling it was at an event where “there were many famous and important people, including, if I recall, both Clintons and hundreds of others.” Since then, Barak says, he has met Epstein “more than 10 times and much less than a hundred times, but I can’t tell you exactly how many. I don’t keep count. Over the years, I’ve seen him on occasion.”
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Barak recalls having visited Epstein at two of his Manhattan residences and said he did visit Epstein’s private Caribbean island “once, for several hours—and years after the publications about sex parties or orgies there.” But, Barak says, “I’ve never been there at a party.”
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Last year, an Israeli investigative journalist revealed that in 2004 Barak received about $2.4 million earmarked “research” from the Wexner Foundation, an American philanthropy with which Epstein was long associated, that focuses on developing leadership skills among young Israeli and American Jewish citizens deemed to have potential. (Billionaire Les Wexner is Epstein’s only known client.)
Read the full Daily Beast interview with Barak here.