Asked in July 2025 whether he smelled a rat in the handling of the Epstein files, John Kiriakou said he did — and that what he wanted to know was why nobody in the media was discussing the investigation that should have taken place: whether Epstein was working for a foreign intelligence service.[1]
Whether the question is taken seriously
Pressed on whether the intelligence community itself thinks there is merit in the suggestion, Kiriakou answered without qualification: “yes, it does. It does.”[2]
Why it is not pursued
“But the problem here is the accusation is that he was an access agent for the Israelis. And that’s something that the intelligence community really doesn’t like to touch.”[2]
The reason he gives is the value of the relationship rather than any assessment of the evidence. It is not, he stresses, a Five Eyes relationship of the kind the United States has with Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, but “this special relationship where we share so much. We provide so much. We work with the Israelis on issues all around the region.”[3]
Then the calculation, put as a question: “why upset the balance over one dead pedophile? Isn’t it easier just to cover it up?”[3]
What he is and is not claiming
The passage is an argument about institutional incentives, not a claim of knowledge. Kiriakou does not say he has seen an assessment concluding Epstein worked for Israeli intelligence; he says the question is credible enough to be worth investigating, that the community privately agrees it is, and that it will not be investigated because the answer would be inconvenient.
The underlying identification is one he makes elsewhere at length: that Epstein fits the textbook profile of an access agent — someone recruited not for what he knows but for whom he can get close to. Presidents, princes, billionaires and founders of technology companies are not recruitable; the man who entertains them at a private island with the rooms wired for audio and video is. “And then you just turn everything over to us, and we decide what to do with it.”[4][5]
He has also said he believes Epstein killed himself, on the grounds that conspiracies have too many moving parts and that a man facing life without parole as a convicted paedophile — never eligible for a work camp, never eligible for parole — could see he was finished.[6]