Tucker Carlson claims Jeffrey Epstein worked for Israel to blackmail US officials: ‘Every single person in DC thinks that’

‘I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t think that,’ the former Fox News host told an audience on Friday

Saturday 12 July 2025 17:57 BST

Former Trump lawyer claims he knows Epstein client list names

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Tucker Carlson has claimed that deceased child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was working for the Israeli government and that “every single person in Washington D.C.” thinks the same.

“I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t think that. I don’t know any of them that hate Israel. But no one feels they can say that,” the former Fox News host told an audience in Florida on Friday.

Carlson also suggested that the disgraced financier may have been running “a blackmail operation” as he discussed new information recently released by the Department of Justice.

A two-page memo from the DOJ and FBI said that Epstein had no “client list,” and that the convicted pedophile died by suicide in his jail cell in 2019, shortly before going to trial – angering some among the MAGA faithful.

Speaking about the development at a Turning Point USA summit in Tampa, Carlson slammed the findings of the administration.“The real question is, why was he doing this, on whose behalf, and where did the money come from?” he said.

A two-page memo, recently released by the DOJ and FBI, said that Epstein had no ‘client list,’ and that the convicted pedophile died by suicide in his jail cell in 2019, shortly before going to trial – angering some among the MAGA faithful (AP)

“I think the real answer is Jeffrey Epstein was working on behalf of intel services, probably not American. And we have every right to ask, on whose behalf was he working?

“Now, no one’s allowed to say that the foreign government is Israel because we have been somehow cowed into thinking that’s naughty. There is nothing wrong with saying that. There is nothing hateful about saying that, Carlson said.

“There’s nothing anti-Semitic about saying that. There’s nothing even anti-Israel about saying that.

“And you have the right to expect your government will not act against your interests, and you have a right to demand that foreign governments not be allowed to act against your interests.”

Carlson has become one of the the big names on the list of MAGA luminaries who are irate over the DOJ’s conclusions and previously accused the DOJ of ‘covering up’ Epstein’s so-called ‘client list’ (Getty Images)

Carlson has become one of the the big names on the list of MAGA luminaries who are irate over the DOJ’s conclusions and previously insisted there was an “obvious” reason why Attorney General Pam Bondi was “covering up” the “client list.”

In addition, footage capturing Epstein’s final hours – also released by the DOJ – has fuelled further conspiracy theories, after it appeared to have a minute of footage missing.

A digital clock visible on the bottom left corner of the footage jumps from 11:58:58 p.m. to 12:00:00 a.m. Officials have not yet offered an explanation for the time gap to The Independent or the New York Times.