The Epstein Accords

Part One: The Road to Riyadh

Americans have been so addled by Trump 2.0’s shit-flooded media zone that we barely noticed when Trump dispatched his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to conduct Middle East “negotiations” while simultaneously soliciting billions from Gulf monarchs for his investment fund. Open air corruption is, of course, on brand. In the first Trump term, this unelected family member – with close personal ties to Israeli leader Bibi Netanyahu – got credit for crafting the so-called Abraham Accords.

That series of agreements, finalized in late 2020, officially normalized relations between Israel and four Arab nations. The optics were such a success that Trump gave Kushner another go at playing diplomat, this time with Iran. As before, Kushner used the time to double-dip as a businessman soliciting investments, but threw in the towel on peace and helped kick off Trump’s first war.

It is all beyond the pale, but a close reading of the DOJ’s Epstein Files suggests that Jeffrey Epstein may actually deserve as much – or even more – credit than nepo-baby Kushner for the Abraham Accords.

The warming of contacts between Sunni monarchs and Israel emerged during the 2010s, a period when Epstein was avidly engaged in an influence game aimed especially at the Gulf royals.

Through a combination of his signature lures – the possibility of vast riches, sex, and powerful connections – the convicted sex criminal worked the Middle East for almost a decade. And hardcore misogynist Wahhabis, whose archaic systems and trillion dollar fossil fuel wealth funds are an anti-democratic cancer on the entire region, were an easy target.

Like meets like.

Today, we arguably have the Epstein Accords to thank for the unholy alliance between the Israeli right and the Arab kings and princes who stood by while the IDF bombed Gaza, leaving vast human devastation in its wake. Now, the Epstein Accords have reached their hideous dénouement: a regional war with America’s military striking Iran in what appears to be a national disaster – for the United States.

Epstein began laying the groundwork while still serving time in Palm Beach. He was months out of house arrest when he personally met with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, and soon he was buddy-buddy with Gulf royals from the UAE to Saudi Arabia.

The road to the Epstein Accords begins on May 4, 2010, when Epstein, at the time still under house arrest, texted a redacted someone (WHY DOJ?): “lets call that guy from the un theja„ ask when we can speak tomorrow and try -- to set up a meeting at 71 st on 13 or 14.. remind him ehud barak meeting”.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak had, at some point, introduced his friend Jeff to a Norwegian politician who would prove pivotal in the process: Terje Rød-Larsen, an eminently corruptible, hard-drinking man who had been lionized for his role in the 1993 Oslo Accords.

Epstein had been communicating with Barak during his time in prison. In an exchange on April 8, 2009, Barak’s wife emailed a redacted someone (WHY DOJ?), asking to be connected to “Geoffrey.” Just over 12 hours later, someone sent an email back saying Epstein wished them a Happy Passover and that “he also wanted me to let you know that Senator Mitchell is one of Jeffrey’s oldest and closest friends...and if you needed Jeffrey’s help, to just let him know!” George J. Mitchell was, at the time, U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Peace.

By October 2010, Rød-Larsen got Epstein invited to the inaugural Sir Bani Yas forum in the UAE, hosted by Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan (known as AbZ). AbZ would eventually become one of the signatories of the Abraham Accords in 2020. After the event Epstein wrote to Rød-Larsen: “Terje that was great fun… you and I are going to have a very good time”.

Epstein soon stepped into the role he would play until his arrest at Teterboro nine years later: a connector between Israeli officials, Arab monarchies, and Western business and political figures who needed access to piles of sovereign oil wealth. With the UAE invitation in hand, Epstein emailed Ehud Barak’s aforementioned wife, Nili Priel: “nilli, if ehud has a chance to speak, lets set up a call.. Im am going to abu dhabi next week. abbas, will be spending time witih me” [sic].

He told an assistant to reach out to George Mitchell to let him know he was meeting with Abbas. He also forwarded information about the event to Jes Staley, Ghislaine Maxwell, Peter Mandelson, Prince Andrew’s right-hand man David Stern, Bill Gates’ aide-de-camp Boris Nikolić, and Tom Pritzker – the usual suspects. By November, Epstein was passing messages to AbZ via Prince Andrew.

For the next eight years, hundreds of texts and emails show Epstein feverishly expanding his network among Gulf elites in the Middle East.

At the same time, he was coddling his Norwegian buddy Rød-Larsen, who, by 2014, was calling Epstein his “best friend.” Epstein was distributing books that glorified the Oslo Accords while Rød-Larsen was in the hospital with a heart problem – the first in a series of medical issues in which Epstein would involve himself. Over time, Epstein provided financial support to Rød-Larsen, including paying for his prostate cancer care, funding a loan for a villa on a Greek island, and leaving $10 million in his will for Rød-Larsen’s two children.

All in exchange, quite clearly, for access to the Norwegian’s rolodex of Arab potentates.

In 2016, as his old running buddy Donald Trump arrived on the scene, Epstein added a new role to his emerging portfolio with the sheiks: Donald whisperer. With that powerful connection and Rød-Larsen’s network, he sought and developed a personal relationship with Saudi heavy hitters, eventually including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud (MBS).

Earlier that year, Rød-Larsen had connected him to MBS advisor Raafat Al-Sabbagh. Within months, Al-Sabbagh was hanging at Jeff’s mansion, dining with figures like Larry Summers and Tom Pritzker, enjoying the mansion’s “GYM” and joking about learning “Russian math.”

Soon, the Saudi was so comfortable with Jeff that he was sending him texts about his favorite subjects: one about a Russian girl who “sold her virginity in Dubai” and another regarding Jeff in Palm Beach, ”I am sure you are opening so many legs there.”

Like Kushner, Epstein combined his Middle East schmoozing with financial opportunism and spent much of 2016 proposing schemes for the Saudi sovereign wealth fund. In May, he emailed Al-Sabbagh, cc’ing Rød-Larsen, “a more radical idea for you boss. would be instead of creating new securities from aramco. form a new currency based on oil, different regulations and more more 21 century”[sic]. A few weeks later, he was blathering in seminar-speak about “knowledge” as the “most valuable asset for the future.”

By the end of hot Trumpy summer 2016, Epstein – who had helped bankroll a Broadway play about the Oslo Accords that made Rød-Larsen and his wife Mona Juul look like heroes – decided to rent out all of Lincoln Center and host 1000 of his friends, including Israeli President Shimon Peres, for a private performance.

That August, Trump’s buddy Tom Barrack texted Epstein: “Met ur Saudi friend! He loves u!!” Jeff replied curtly, telling the businessman to download Signal. Later in August, Epstein arranged a lunch with Barrack, Ehud Barak, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin and unnamed “Saudis.”

After a sustained effort by Rød-Larsen, Epstein finally got himself invited to Riyadh. Raafat’s staff instructed Epstein’s staff that they should inform the consulate his visa was personally authorized by MBS (Epstein’s sex offender status, clearly stated in his passport, never hindered his travel).

On Election Day 2016, he sent Rød-Larsen buddy pictures of himself with MBS. That night, Raafat Al-Sabbagh asked Epstein whether the king should call to congratulate Trump. He said yes and told him to call Tom Barrack.

Epstein wasted no time. The day after the election, he wrote MBS a letter proposing that he be hired as the prince’s “financial confidant” – gratis. “I am happy and privleged to act as his “financial bodyguard.” He boasted of his bonafides: “I know how wall street will try to play” [sic].

A few weeks later, he sent another letter, suggesting he could help shield Saudi assets from JASTA, the US law Congress had passed on September 11 of that year allowing 9/11 survivors to sue Saudi Arabia.

Incredibly, Epstein also networked MBS’s people with top U.S. lawyers Ken Starr and Kathy Ruemmler. The pair, one a Republican and one a Democrat, were apparently enlisted to help the Kingdom stave off JASTA litigation (and possibly challenge the constitutionality of JASTA entirely).

Starr, who has since died, did meet with Raafat at least once, and emails indicate Ruemmler also met with the Saudis. In one, she told Epstein, “they want me to come to Saudi with you.”

As the activities of Epstein and Rød-Larsen come to light, Al Jazeera reports that Palestinian leaders “are now questioning whether Oslo’s foundational agreements of the two-state solution were brokered by a mediator – Rød-Larsen – vulnerable to elite blackmail and foreign intelligence.” Mustafa Barghouti, General Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, said he was “not surprised at all” by the corruption allegations. “We never felt comfortable with this person from the very first moment. Oslo was a trap … and I have no doubt that Terje Rød-Larsen was being effectively influenced by the Israeli side all along.”

Meanwhile, in Norway, investigators seized documents related to the Oslo Accords that Rød-Larsen reportedly stashed in his basement. Some have reportedly also turned up in Israel. Yesterday, the Norwegian Parliament voted to open an investigation into links between Epstein and the Norwegian Foreign Office.

Paranoia about non-secure comms pervades Epstein’s texts with Rød-Larsen. The men are forever trying to get off text and get each other on the phone. Their exchanges are filled with references to some meeting or person, followed by “call me” and repeated “tried you”s as the men juggled different time zones.

But as the Trump Era commenced, Epstein’s sense of security was just lax enough that after Christmas 2016, he fielded – and never erased – a Michael Wolff message lauding him on his new Saudi advisory role:

“I have been thinking about this Saudi thing. It is really the ultimate change-the-narrative gift. It instantly redefines you-- in kind of a mind-boggling way. When its underway take me with you on one trip and l’ll do the story. Good for the Saudis, because story gets out in a sy=pathetic fashion, and for you because it turns you into the Jew with the M=ddle East in the palm of his hand” [sic].

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Next Week – The Epstein Accords: The Trump Years

The Oversight Committee might ask Kathy Ruemmler about the following interactions with Epstein regarding the Saudis:

• Epstein introducing Ruemmler and Raafat via email

• Epstein writing to the Saudis and Rød-Larsen: “kathy will see you both in new york on the weekend”

• Ruemmler writing to Epstein in October 2016: “They want me to come to Saudi with you”

• Epstein telling Ruemmler a week after Trump’s election that MBS aide Raafat was moving to NY for 2 weeks to “begin work seriously”

• Epstein telling Ruemmler around the same time that various Saudi documents remain “privileged” to him

• Epstein telling Raafat that Ruemmler needed to do a “conflict check” with her firm, followed by “conflict ok.”

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