ISTANBUL 

Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein funded the Friends of Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) and the settlement-building organization Jewish National Fund (JNF), according to FBI documents published by the US Justice Department.

The documents show that Epstein sent $25,000 to the FIDF, which calls itself an “official organization" authorized to collect charitable donations on behalf of the soldiers of the Israeli army across the US.

According to the documents, Epstein also donated $15,000 to the nonprofit organization JNF.

On the JNF’s official website, the nongovernmental organization says it “gives all generations of Jews a unique voice in building a prosperous future for the land of Israel and its people.”

Epstein was Israeli spy

An undercover FBI informant "became convinced" that Epstein was an Israeli spy, according to a document that is among millions of pages released last week by the Justice Department.

The government record recounts the informant, known in government-speak as a confidential human source (CHS), recalling that Epstein's attorney, Alan Dershowitz, told then-US Attorney of the Southern District of Florida, Alexander Acosta, "that Epstein belonged to both U.S. and allied intelligence services."

"CHS shared phone calls between Dershowitz and Epstein during which he/she took notes. After these calls, Mossad would then call Dershowitz to debrief. Epstein was close to the former Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Barak, and trained as a spy under him," the document says.

Noting that Barak “believed Netanyahu was a criminal,” it said the informant “became convinced that Epstein was a co-opted Mossad Agent” amid regional rivalries involving Israel.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday stated that Epstein “did not work for Israel.”

In his first public comment on the Epstein documents, Netanyahu wrote on US social media company X that Epstein’s “unusual close relationship with Ehud Barak doesn't suggest Epstein worked for Israel. It proves the opposite.”

The latest batch of Epstein-related documents released by the Justice Department last week mentions several high-profile figures, including Dershowitz, as well as members of the political and financial elite.

Epstein was found dead in his New York City jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. In 2008, he pleaded guilty in a court in the state of Florida and was convicted of procuring a minor for prostitution, but critics call the relatively minor conviction—approved by Acosta—a “sweetheart deal.”

His victims have alleged that he operated a sprawling sex trafficking network that was used by members of the wealthy and political elite.