Jeffrey Epstein was not just a convicted pedophile and a con man. He was a Mossad operative running a blackmail operation on behalf of a foreign government—and implicating the most powerful people in business, technology, and politics in America.

Or at least, that’s the view currently pushed by part of MAGA.

They have their reasons. Among them: It is the perfect wedge issue for the MAGA influencers who have been losing one policy fight after another inside the Trump administration. (For more on that, read our essay by Park MacDougald.)

What they don’t have is the facts.

I have covered Jeffrey Epstein since 2011—including his death in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 and the many twists and turns since then. I have spoken to dozens of victims, lawyers, and advocates.

And I have sat through years of previous releases of Epstein documents that—you will be unsurprised to know—were mostly duds.

The following is what I know—backed up by actual reporting. Not hearsay, not rumor, not innuendo.