Kathrine Frich
The Epstein scandal continues to generate new questions.
This time, attention has shifted from his crimes to the possible intelligence value of the materials he amassed.
A former intelligence chief says the scale of the operation points far beyond personal motives.
Intelligence parallels
“Does the Epstein case bear any resemblance to an intelligence operation by opponents of the United States?” Paweł Pawłowski, host of the program WP Newsroom, asked his guest, Colonel Andrzej Derlatka, a former head of Poland’s Foreign Intelligence Agency and ex-ambassador to South Korea.
“Of course,” Derlatka replied, arguing that the case shows clear features associated with intelligence work rather than purely private wrongdoing.
He said the systematic collection of compromising material raised serious red flags from a security perspective.
Beyond blackmail
“Why would someone collect and gather compromising materials? One can assume that, to some extent, Epstein intended to use them for his private affairs, for some blackmail, but the scale of the collected materials exceeds private use,” Derlatka said.
In his view, the volume and nature of the material suggested a broader purpose, consistent with intelligence gathering rather than individual leverage.
Derlatka said this raised the possibility that Epstein may have acted, directly or indirectly, on behalf of foreign intelligence services.
Russia or Israel?
According to the former intelligence chief, Epstein could have worked with the services of two countries.
One possibility, he said, was Russia, a theory mentioned publicly by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
However, Derlatka argued that another country was a more likely candidate.
“In my opinion, Epstein’s partner was the Israeli intelligence service,” he said, pointing to what he described as a familiar operational pattern.
Shared interests
Derlatka noted that Israeli and Russian intelligence services had cooperated closely in the past.
Because of this, he said, material gathered by Epstein could have functioned as “convertible currency within the framework of cooperation between the services.”
“That cannot be ruled out,” he added.
This context, he argued, complicates attempts to assign responsibility to a single country.
Methods and precedent
The former intelligence chief said the style of the alleged operation also mattered.
“Due to a certain finesse here, I think it suits the Israelis better than the Russians, who tend to use more crude methods,” Derlatka said.
He cited the case of Jonathan Pollard, a U.S. naval intelligence analyst convicted of spying for Israel, as an example of similar practices.
Pollard was sentenced to life in prison in the United States and later released, eventually moving to Israel.
According to Derlatka, the Epstein case may ultimately be understood less as an isolated scandal and more as a window into how intelligence services exploit personal vulnerabilities.
Sources: WP Newsroom
