Megyn Kelly Champions Tucker Carlson’s Theory That Epstein Worked for Israel — But Admits She Has No Evidence
Megyn Kelly embraced the theory that Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex criminal, was an Israeli intelligence asset over the weekend and doubled down on it after Tucker Carlson and former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett traded blows over the claim on Monday morning.
Carlson made headlines with his comments at a Turning Point USA conference over the weekend, where he said the following:
And 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? How does a guy go from being a math teacher at the Dalton School in thelate 70s with no college degree to having multiple airplanes, a private island, and the largest residential house in Manhattan? Where did all the money come from? And no one has ever gotten to the bottom of that because no one has ever tried. And moreover, it’s extremely obvious to anyone who watches, that this guy had direct connections to a foreign government.
Now, no one’s allowed to say that the foreign government is Israel because we have been somehow cowed into thinking that’s naughty. [cheers] There is nothing wrong with saying that. There is nothing hateful about saying that. 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. [cheers] That’s not creepy. It shouldn’t be forbidden. And yet all of us have trained ourselves to believe that you can’t say that somehow. That that’s like too naughty and forbidden. And the effect of making that off-limits has been to create a lot of resentment and I’ll say it, hate online, where people feel like they can’t just say, “What the hell is this? You have the former Israeli prime minister living in your house? You have all this contact with a foreign government. Were you working on behalf of them? Were you running a blackmail operation on behalf of a foreign government?
At the same conference, Kelly also touted the theory during a conversation with TPUSA’s founder and CEO, Charlie Kirk — though she admitted she lacked any hard evidence to support the notion:
CHARLIE KIRK: Do you think there’s any intel community involvement in this?
MEGYN KELLY: I wouldn’t be surprised one bit. I am convinced, based on my own sources and my own reporting on this story, he wasn’t one of ours.
KIRK: So he wasn’t American, which leaves basically three options: MI6, Saudi, or Mossad. Which one would you choose?
KELLY: I guess Mossad, given his connection to Ghislaine Maxwell
KIRK: So what does that mean?
KELLY: Well, I mean, it’s possible that that’s the reason everything is getting buried. That there is some treasure trove, and it’s getting buried because-
KIRK: How many people here believe that? Raise your hand. Okay, I’d say about half, half the hands think that it’s being buried because of an Israeli thing.
KELLY: It could be, I really don’t know.
KIRK: Again, I have no evidence to suggest that, I’m just-
KELLY: Yeah, no, me neither. I did think it was very odd how, look, half of you raised your hands because you’ve heard that theory, you’ve heard it debated, you have questions, but the one time Pam Bondi was asked a question about this at the Cabinet meeting on Monday, she was like, “And as for whether he was an agent, that I don’t know. I haven’t looked into that, I’ll get back to you.” You haven’t looked into it!? What do you mean you haven’t? So that was kind of a fishy answer.
KIRK: And Megyn, remember, Alexander Acosta in 2007, he said he was told to treat Epstein carefully because he was an intel asset. That was one of Trump’s Cabinet secretaries, who was literally a U.S. attorney three hours from here in Florida, he said that himself.
KELLY: Well, and let me tell you the consequences of that. His subpoena, his search warrant on Jeffrey Epstein’s residence was very narrow. It was not the kind of like, let’s get everything. Let’s see everything inside this guy’s dressers, and so on. It was very, very narrowly tailored. And to this day, that’s what the FBI is stuck with. So it really is possible that Dan [Bongino] and Kash [Patel] got in there and, you know, in like a Geraldo [Rivera] and Al Capone’s vault situation opened it up and were like, “Oh my gosh, there’s nothing in here. Like we did not find the magic documents, or photos ,or evidence of anything.” And why not? I don’t know we’ll ever know why not.
Then on Monday, Bennett rebuked those pushing the theory, calling Carlson out by name.
“As a former Israeli Prime Minister, with the Mossad having reported directly to me, I say to you with 100% certainty: The accusation that Jeffrey Epstein somehow worked for Israel or the Mossad running a blackmail ring is categorically and totally false,” wrote Bennett on X. “Epstein’s conduct, both the criminal and the merely despicable, had nothing whatsoever to do with the Mossad or the State of Israel. Epstein never worked for the Mossad. This accusation is a lie being peddled by prominent online personalities such as Tucker Carlson pretending they know things they don’t. They just make things up, say it with confidence and these lies stick, because it’s Israel. There’s a vicious wave of slander and lies against my country and my people, and we just won’t take it anymore.”
Kelly deemed Bennett’s denial “meaningless.”
“The U.S. Attny who spiked the case, Alex Acosta, is on record as saying Epstein was an intel agent and he was told to get rid of the prosecution. If Epstein was an agent it was clearly either for the U.S. or Israel – both deny it (what would you expect them to say?). He had multiple (odd) Israeli connections. This denial is meaningless,” fired back Kelly. “Acosta later told DOJ’s Office of Prof. Respon. that he did not have any info Epstein was an intel asset, which contrasted w/earlier reporting that he told the Trump transition team Epstein ‘belonged to intelligence’ & had been ordered to ‘leave it alone.’ Also that he’d ‘been told’ to back off. Main Justice was the one who approved the Epstein plea deal & would have been the only one who could have told Acosta to stand down on the prosecution, so there is reason to Q whether DOJ’s OPR earnestly sought and got truthful answers from Acosta when it ‘investigated’ in 2020 after Epstein died & a huge controversy erupted.”
She continued:
Also when Acosta was asked, at a press conference in 2019 about the reporting that he’d allegedly said Epstein was an asset & he’d been told to stand down on the case (which let’s remember – he did), his pathetic non-denial denial was a classic example of deception. Go look.
Two final points: it’s true that the Acosta statement re Epstein “belonging to intelligence” & being “above [Acosta’s] pay grade” was hearsay (reporter Vicky Ward hadn’t talked directly to Acosta). However she had spoken to a Trump team member who said Acosta said it & Acosta’s later non-denial denial was pathetic. Also, fwiw, Ari Ben-Menashe (former Israeli intel) – who has quite a history – has publicly stated that Epstein was a Mossad spy & that he (Ben Menashe) was his Israeli handler. Others including Danny Yatom who ran Mossad for 3 years say it’s not true.
Carlson has emerged as a vocal critic of Israel in recent years, welcoming a number of controversial, and arguably anti-Semitic guests on to his program. Kelly nevertheless defended Carlson, whom she called a “force for good,” in an interview last fall.
