Epstein’s sick emails: Paedophile backed Tommy Robinson and holocaust ‘jokes’
Epstein files reveal paedophile’s ties to Europe’s far right: Disgraced billionaire supported Tommy Robinson’s release and boasted of global political influence
Paedophile Jeffrey Epstein supported far-right activist Tommy Robinson and traded grotesque Holocaust “jokes” in private emails now released by US lawmakers.
“TOMMY ROBINSON. !! good work,” the child sex offender wrote to an unnamed figure in one message celebrating the activist’s release from jail in 2018. The 42-year-old, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, had been jailed for contempt after filming a trial in breach of a reporting restriction.
In another congratulatory note, Epstein added: “Kristallnacht always has the big fire.” The disgraced financier, who was Jewish, went further in a separate message, writing: “Come join us at Auschwitz, opening night, special,” in reference to the 2018 mid-term elections, which saw US Democrats seize control of the House of Representatives. The disturbing comments appear in a tranche of 23,000 documents released last week, initially making headlines for references to Donald Trump and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former Duke of York.
Buried within the material is a previously unseen side of Epstein – his interest in and involvement with Right-wing movements on both sides of the Atlantic. The emails show Epstein maintained a sprawling global network of political contacts.
He swapped messages with figures across the American establishment, European diplomats, academics and officials from Russia to Saudi Arabia – often discussing how to fuel a populist resurgence in Europe.
Among those in contact was Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s former chief strategist. Epstein encouraged him to push conservative movements across the continent and even advised him on which Trump officials he believed the president should fire.
When Bannon explored forming a “supergroup” to boost far-Right parties in the 2019 European Parliament elections, Epstein responded that such a resurgence was “doable” but required significant time on the ground.
“Lots and lots of face time and hand-holding,” he wrote in July 2018. “A Right-wing resurgence in Europe is ‘doable’ but ‘time-consuming’,” Epstein said in another message. “There are many leaders of countries we can organise for you to have one on one with, I think you want to be an insider, not an outsider flying in and out.”
When Bannon asked if figures like Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell or Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin could be removed, Epstein replied: “jared and ivanka, need to go. !!!” — referring to Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Throughout the cache, Epstein casts himself as a global fixer with access to the powerful. He boasted of meetings with Arab League leaders and claimed he was receiving a “download” from them.
“Can you believe MBS sent me a TENT carpets and all,” he wrote to billionaire Tom Pritzker in December 2016, bragging about gifts from Mohammed bin Salman, now the Saudi crown prince.
Epstein also pushed himself as a middleman to the Kremlin. In June 2018, ahead of the high-stakes Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki, he suggested that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov should meet with him.
“I think you might suggest to Putin that Lavrov can get insight on talking to me,” he wrote to Thorbjorn Jagland, former Norwegian prime minister and then head of the Council of Europe. Jagland replied: “I’ll meet Lavrov’s assistant on Monday and will suggest.” Whether any meeting took place is unclear.
As investigations intensified in late 2018, Epstein portrayed himself as collateral in a wider political attack, telling an unnamed associate he was being targeted because of Trump.
The associate told him: “they’re really just trying to take down Trump and doing whatever they can to do that!” Epstein replied: “It’s wild, because i am the one able to take him down.”
Epstein died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, in what authorities ruled a suicide.
