From Madame Claude’s Salon to Epstein’s Island: The unchanging currency of power |
The most telling image of the Jeffery Epstein saga is not of a private jet or a tropical island. It is the photograph of the frail, brilliant astrophysicist, Stephen Hawking, surrounded by fellow scientists, on that very island in 2006. The cognitive dissonance is staggering: What was the world’s pre-eminent cosmologist doing in the lair of a man even then known to be a predator. Epstein’s connection with Hawking is profoundly odd because it highlights his calculated strategy not only to launder his reputation but to gain access to the world of elite science and dual-use technology. As such, his network was a constellation of Nobel laureates, and the era’s most prestigious scientific minds, (among them Marvin Minsky, the AI pioneer at MIT, Oliver Sacks, Steven Pinsker …. The list is too long for this short article). By accepting Epstein’s lavish hospitality (flights on Lolita Express, stays on his island), scientists are compromised and could be subtly pressured for informal ‘consultations’ or insights: a brilliant and strategic move. More bizarrely, Epstein was known to place young women as ‘science students’ or assistants with his older scientist friends.
To understand Epstein, you must first understand Madame Claude, France’s most notorious and successful brothel keeper. At first glance, the differences seem stark. Claude’s world was that of Avenue Foch; Epstein’s was his private islands and Palm Beach: one a relic of a glamourous, permissive past, the other a modern horror. The infamous Parisian madam is often painted as a libertine icon of the 1960s and 1970s, a sophisticated curator of companionship for presidents, princes and spies. Her story is frequently sold as a chic transaction between ‘consenting adults’. Meanwhile, Jeffrey Epstein is rightly understood as a monster predator, a symbol of 21st century corruption and abuse of the vulnerable by the ultra-powerful.
But to view these two figures as separate phenomena is a profound mistake. In fact, Madame Claude, real name Fernande Grudet, (1923-2015) -whose life was featured in several films- prefigured the Epstein blueprint. A clear-eyed comparison reveals they operated from the same playbook. In the annals of 20th century scandal, few names are as shrouded in dangerous mystique as Madame Claude. In post-war Paris, she presided over an ultra-exclusive network of high-class ‘call girls’ (she called them her ‘swans’) who catered to an elite clientele of world leaders, royalty, foreign diplomats, politicians and movie stars, (her clients included John F. Kennedy, the Shah of Iran, Onassis and Marlon Brando). Claude’s salon was not just a brothel, it was an intelligence gathering annex, used to collect information and a honey- trap to gather kompromat. During the cold-war years, she provided the French external security service SDECE, with information and leverage over powerful figures. In return, the state provided la protection absolue; immunity. She was the perfect tool: Her scandal could be contained within her four walls, her name synonymous with vice, while the government officials and diplomats who used her service walked away untouched. She was the story, so they didn’t have to be.
While Epstein went to great lengths to cultivate an image of financial genius with a passion for cutting edge science, one question lingered for years: How did a man often described as intellectually shallow, (his functional illiteracy was revealed in all its wretchedness in his emails), with a murky financial history, build such a formidable global network? The answer lies in the question itself.
Epstein was the perfect ‘useful idiot’, whose apparent shortcomings were his greatest asset, with his sheer grotesqueness absorbing all scrutiny. His vulgar personal behaviour was actually his best disguise, making him look like a mere criminal than a spy.
Epstein was the perfect ‘useful idiot’, whose apparent shortcomings were his greatest asset, with his sheer grotesqueness absorbing all scrutiny. His vulgar personal behaviour was actually his best disguise, making him look like a mere criminal than a spy.
The leap to Jeffrey Epstein is an egregious evolution of Madame Claude into a globalised privatised age.
Ghislaine Maxwell was his most vital asset- the daughter of Robert Maxwell, a media mogul and a known Mossad asset. Her father, (Mossad code name: ‘The Little Czech’) was a pivotal figure in the clandestine arms and intelligence world,
Ghislaine Maxwell was his most vital asset- the daughter of Robert Maxwell, a media mogul and a known Mossad asset. Her father, (Mossad code name: ‘The Little Czech’) was a pivotal figure in the clandestine arms and intelligence world,
who owned significant stakes in a major Israeli defence contractor and was deeply involved in brokering arms deals between Israel and other regimes, most notably eastern Europe. Like Epstein, he died (supposedly of drowning after a heart attack) on his yacht in 1991 as his financial empire built on this opaque mix of arms, intelligence and media was collapsing. Heir to her father’s Mossad-adjacent world, Ghislaine Maxwell provided the real strategic lineage, Epstein provided the cover. Together, they commercialised and privatised the old playbook and moved in circles connected to global arms trafficking and cutting-edge science. By no means was Maxwell the genius behind any of this, she was the keystone in an arch. Removing her makes the visible structure collapse, but the foundations and the architects remained hidden. In consigning her life to prison, the real power believes it has successfully quarantined the story to the dungeon.
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The newly released documents lend further credence to this, revealing Epstein not as a lone predator, but as a fixer and advisor to Ehud Barak, the former Israeli PM and intelligence chief. The communications show a substantive years-long partnership, in which Epstein advised Barak on investments on Israeli drone technology and multi-billion dollar oil deals, warning him away from what he called ‘garbage’ ventures. Epstein’s New York apartment served as Barak’s de facto operational hub for meetings, including with a senior Gates Foundation adviser. Most tellingly, reports indicate Epstein helped establish an Israeli-Russian backchannel in the Syrian civil war.
Two further pieces of evidence shatter the lone wolf myth. (1) The financier Leon Black’s $158 million in payments to Epstein make no sense as ‘tax advice’, but make considerably more, and even perfect sense as investment in a blackmail and influence operation that could benefit his vast defence- industrial holdings. (2) Ehud Barak’s post-conviction visits (Epstein was convicted by a U.S court in June 2008 on charges of prostitution) were not social calls, with an audio recording capturing a discussion between the two on how ex-leaders monetize access, referring to ‘gigantic sums’. Barak’s longtime aide, a senior Israeli military intelligence officer, lived for extended periods in Epstein’s home. An FBI document released in 2025 cites a confidential informant who ‘became convinced that Epstein was a co-opted Mossad Agent’. The synthesis of these connections- from financial entanglements to intelligence links-, has been significantly aided by AI analysis, which processed fragmented documents across millions of pages to identify operational patterns a human researcher might miss.
As each chapter of this endless saga unfolds, the fallout reverberates, producing ripples that extend to the heart of the British government. The crumbling authority, both moral and political, of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who claimed he was ‘lied to repeatedly’, was triggered by his appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador. The new revelations show this was no simple error. Mandelson, while Business Secretary in 2010, forwarded to Epstein a confidential memo on £20 billion in government assets, and provided hours of advance notice of a £500 billion EU bailout, (referring to an emergency package for the Eurozone to stabilize the single currency during the Greek debt crisis). The bank records show financial transactions between the two and also confirm that when Epstein lobbied him on a banker’s tax, Mandelson suggested that a bank CEO should call the UK chancellor and ‘mildly threaten him’. Epstein also used Mandelson as a conduit, emailing him about brokering the sale of a major Israeli fuel company. His description of Mandelson as ‘sooooooooooo devious’ is the perfect, self-aware diagnosis from within the conspiracy. This latest exposure has forced a Metropolitan Police criminal investigation for ‘misconduct in a public office’, threatening the collapse of the Keir Starmer government.
The release of the Jeffrey Epstein documents by the U.S Department of Justice (DOJ) -three million pages of them- on 30 January 2026 was announced as closure. However, the millions of pages are not keys to the vault of secrets, but a new more sophisticated wall built around them. This was already clear almost two decades ago, in 2008. Epstein’s (inexplicably lenient) plea, brokered by ‘Israel’s attorney’ Alan Dershowitz and a prosecutor who later worked for Epstein’s lawyer, effectively gave the predator a de facto license to continue, with investigations stalled, and victims silenced. In the same year, Sarah Kellen, his longtime assistant, who arranged his appointments and ‘massages’, was also granted immunity under the ‘unprecedented’ non-Prosecution Agreement (NPA), which legal experts describe as a ‘wall’ freezing accountability. This, despite federal judges identifying Kellen (who later changed her name) as ‘a criminally responsible’ participant in Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation. to date, all information on her is ‘blocked’.
The story of Madame Claude ended with her quiet retirement.
Epstein’s death in 2019 was ‘necessary’ to many powerful entities: he wasn’t just a paedophile who could name famous friends, he was a living switchboard connecting Mossad, U.S Defence & Intelligence, global finance and political elites.
Epstein’s death in 2019 was ‘necessary’ to many powerful entities: he wasn’t just a paedophile who could name famous friends, he was a living switchboard connecting Mossad, U.S Defence & Intelligence, global finance and political elites.
Watching this story unfold in real time feels like trying to paint a portrait of a collapsing building. As soon as you finish one section, another wing caves in, revealing more grotesque details. The great document dump feels so hollow precisely because it is the final act of the great distraction. First, the authorities proudly state the files ‘contain no client list’. This is an admission of selective preservation, showing us the mechanism while erasing the register. Second,
unleashing a tsunami of salacious emails about celebrities and party plans deliberately reduces a geopolitical blackmail apparatus to tabloid fodder.
unleashing a tsunami of salacious emails about celebrities and party plans deliberately reduces a geopolitical blackmail apparatus to tabloid fodder.
The purpose is to make us argue about which billionaire was rude in an email, not to ask why a foreign intelligence chief used a convicted sex offender’s home as an office. Third, in a final brutal act, that was simultaneously a statement of priorities, the release failed to redact victim names thus re-traumatising the vulnerable. Tellingly, the names of enablers and powerful clients were, however, meticulously protected.
In the latest act in this theatre of the absurd, during the 9 February 2026 virtual congressional hearing (video link from her prison cell) Ghislaine’s Maxwell sat ‘robotic’ and ‘unrepentant’. Invoking her Fifth Amendment, she refused to talk, stating she would only provide a full account if pardoned and granted immunity by Trump- a final chilling transaction that revealed the enduring currency of her world: everything, even remorse, has a price.
The ultimate revelation of the Epstein files is that there is no revelation. We look at the puppet and its movements, when the real question has always been the puppeteers, whose shadows are still cast on the wall. As I write this, new names emerge. As you read this, more will have surfaced. More than an interruption of the story- it is the story. The scandal isn’t evolving, it is simply being revealed, layer by nauseating layer, and we have yet to see its core.
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