“It’s the world’s largest honeytrap operation,” the source told the Mail on Sunday.
One source pointed to the sheer number of extremely powerful people — including Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Trump, Putin and Bill Gates — who have all been placed in compromising positions by Epstein.
All of the figures named in the Epstein files deny wrongdoing or knowledge of Epstein’s sexual abuse while they were acquainted.
Epstein died in August 2019 in his prison cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan; his death was ruled a suicide by hanging.
The Mail on Sunday alleged Epstein could have been introduced to espionage through the late disgraced media tycoon Robert Maxwell, father of his girlfriend, Ghislaine.
Maxwell, a former British politician and newspaper owner, reportedly worked as a Soviet asset in the 1970s, and also helped Israeli intelligence agency Mossad extradite Jewish people from the Soviet Union to Israel.
He is suspected of laundering money from Russia to the West with the help of Epstein in return, the sources said.
Maxwell’s 1991 death — when his body was found floating in the Atlantic Ocean after he went missing from his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine — has long been the subject of conspiracy theories.
Emails reveal new theory about whom Jeffrey Epstein was really working for
By Anthony Blair Published Feb. 2, 2026
Thousands of cryptic messages tying Jeffrey Epstein to Vladimir Putin have been discovered in the latest release of files related to the late pedophile financier — raising a new theory about whom he was really working for.
Emails showing unnamed sources discussing meetings between Epstein and the Russian president are prompting questions about whether the disgraced Wall Street figure may have trafficked girls from Russia in a state-backed effort to run the world’s “largest honeytrap” to ensnare the rich and the powerful.
Putin is named almost 1,000 times in the latest tranche of documents released Friday, while there are almost 10,000 references to Moscow.
People close to the Russian tyrant say he maintained his links to Epstein even after the financier’s 2008 conviction for engaging a child in prostitution.
Other newly released documents pointed to Epstein’s alleged strong influence in Russia, with the perv sending one in November 2010 asking an unnamed recipient if they needed a Russian visa.
In another email, dated Sept. 11, 2011, an anonymous messenger discusses plans for an “appointment with Putin” on Epstein’s next trip to Russia.
“Spoke with Igor. He said last time you were in Palm Beach, you told him you had an appointment with Putin on Sept 16 and that he could go ahead and book his ticket to Russia to arrive a few days before you,” the newly released email reads.
In May 2013, Epstein wrote that he wanted to help Putin and Russia “reinvent the financial system,” in an email to Council of Europe secretary general Thorbjorn Jagland.
That same month, in an email to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Epstein claimed Putin had tried to set up a meeting with him, which he had turned down.
“Putin asked that i meet him in st petersburg the same time as his economic conference I told him no. If he wants to meet he will need to set aside real time and privacy, lets see what happens [sic],” Epstein wrote.
A subsequent 2014 email suggests another upcoming meeting between Putin and Epstein.
“Hey Jeffrey, I wasn’t able to convince [LinkedIn co-founder] Reid [Hoffman] to change his schedule to go meet Putin with you,” the email from Japanese entrepreneur Joi Ito reads.
A further email suggests that Putin and Epstein’s scheduled 2014 meeting was canceled in the wake of the MH17 disaster, when Russian forces shot down a passenger jet over Ukraine, killing 298 people.
In May 2014 — following the Maidan Revolution in Ukraine and the Russian takeover of Crimea — Epstein said the new movement “should provide many opportunities,” in an email believed to belong to French banker Ariane de Rothschild.
In 2018, Epstein emailed President Trump’s then-White House chief of staff, Steve Bannon, about an upcoming meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Jagland.
Shortly afterward, Epstein wrote that Lavrov could “get insight on talking to me,” in an email to Jagland.
In the same exchange, he bragged that he had helped Russia’s former UN ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, “understand” Trump.
“Churkin was great. He understood trump after our conversations. it is not complex. he must be seen to get something its that simple,” Epstein said of Churkin, who had died the previous year in 2017.
