Ehud Barak

Ehud Barak (born Ehud Brog, February 12, 1942, at Mishmar HaSharon, Mandatory Palestine) is an Israeli military and political leader who served as the fourteenth Prime Minister of Israel (1999-2001), Minister of Defense (2007-2013), and chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (1991-1995). Barak's career spans the command of the Sayeret Matkal special forces unit (including the documented 1973 Spring of Youth operation), the military intelligence directorate (Aman), the IDF chief-of-staff tenure, the prime ministership, and the defense ministry under Ehud Olmert and Benjamin Netanyahu. Barak's documented relationship with Jeffrey Epstein ran from the early 2000s through 2016 in the calendar record (Barak said in 2026 that he ended contact in 2019¹) and included Epstein brokering an introduction to Peter Thiel over Palantir and an arrangement through which Epstein quietly invested approximately one million dollars in the Israeli surveillance-tech startup Carbyne in 2015. Between 2004 and 2006, while he held no public office, the Wexner Foundation, of which Epstein was a trustee, paid Barak 2.3 million dollars for two commissioned studies, one of which was never completed; a 2026 Justice Department release showed Epstein's attorney writing that he had negotiated the contract.²³⁴⁵⁶

The Sayeret Matkal, Aman, and IDF Command Career

Barak's military career established his intelligence-community standing. He was commissioned into the Sayeret Matkal general-staff reconnaissance unit in the 1960s and commanded the unit through the operations of the 1970s, including Operation Isotope (the 1972 Sabena Flight 571 rescue) and Operation Spring of Youth (the 1973 Beirut operation targeting the Black September leadership, in which Barak led the ground team disguised as a woman). Barak rose to head the military intelligence directorate (Aman) and then served as chief of the General Staff of the IDF from 1991 to 1995, covering the Oslo Accords period and the Rabin assassination aftermath.²

The intelligence-community background underlies the subsequent Epstein and Thiel relationships. Barak's Aman tenure and his Sayeret Matkal command placed him at the center of the Israeli intelligence network, and his post-military and post-political career maintained the relationships with the Israeli intelligence and defense-technology sectors that Epstein and Thiel's pitches engaged.²

The Prime Ministership and the Political Career

Barak entered politics after the military career and served as Prime Minister from 1999 to 2001. His tenure covered the 2000 Camp David Summit with Yasser Arafat and Bill Clinton, at which Barak offered concessions on Jerusalem and the West Bank that Arafat rejected, leading to the collapse of the Oslo process. The summit's failure was followed by the outbreak of the Second Intifada in September 2000, which ended the negotiated-track framework for Israeli-Palestinian relations.²

In May 2000, Barak ordered the unilateral Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, ending the 22-year occupation that had begun under Menachem Begin in 1978. The withdrawal was completed rapidly and produced the documented assessment among Israeli security analysts that the retreat under fire had emboldened Hezbollah and established the precedent that armed resistance could force Israeli territorial withdrawals. Barak lost the February 2001 special election to Ariel Sharon and went into political opposition and the private sector.²

Barak returned as defense minister under Ehud Olmert from 2007 and continued in the role under Netanyahu through 2013. The defense-ministry tenure covered Operation Cast Lead (the 2008-09 Gaza war), the documented expansion of Israel's cyber-intelligence capabilities in the 2010s, the Stuxnet operation against Iranian nuclear facilities (attributed to a joint U.S.-Israeli effort), and the broader growth of the Israeli surveillance-technology export sector documented on the NSO Group and Carbyne pages.²

The Epstein Relationship and the Introduction

Shimon Peres introduced Barak to Epstein in 2002, and the relationship continued through 2016; Barak himself dated their first meeting to 2003 in a February 2026 interview.¹ Barak was photographed entering the Epstein Manhattan residence on multiple occasions, and the Epstein calendars document the recurring meetings. The Jacobin reporting (March 2026) and the Reason piece on Epstein's spy-industry connections (August 2025) document the substantive content: Epstein attempted to broker an introduction between Barak and Peter Thiel over Palantir, and an April 2014 Epstein email to Barak (documented in the Epstein Files Transparency Act releases) reads "I have Peter Thiel on the 19th in NY, if you like." A DOJ-released audio recording surfaced in which Epstein suggests to Barak that he reach out to Thiel.³⁴ Describing Epstein's gatherings to the Wall Street Journal in 2023, Barak said: "He often brought other interesting persons, from art or culture, law or science, finance, diplomacy or philanthropy."⁷ The released documents record regular correspondence among Barak, his wife, and Epstein, multiple visits by Barak to Epstein's Manhattan apartment, and one visit to his island.⁶

Barak subsequently described Thiel and Epstein as "owners" of a venture fund, a claim a Thiel spokesman has denied. The discrepancy is unresolved in the public record. Thiel is named over 2,200 times in the Epstein files per Al Jazeera reporting, and the volume of the Thiel-Epstein correspondence, combined with the Barak introduction, documents a sustained effort by Epstein to connect the Israeli-intelligence principal (Barak) with the commercial-surveillance-infrastructure principal (Thiel/Palantir). Epstein's promotional framing of Palantir to Barak ran alongside Barak's own subsequent relationships with Israeli surveillance-tech firms.³⁴

The Carbyne Investment

In 2015, Barak helped Epstein quietly invest approximately one million dollars in the Israeli police and emergency-response technology startup Reporty, which subsequently renamed itself Carbyne. The investment was arranged through Barak, and Forbes reported that it could have grown to be worth up to one hundred million dollars. Carbyne develops 911-emergency-communication and surveillance technology, including systems that integrate smartphone location, video, and incident data into emergency-response platforms. The technology has documented surveillance applications beyond the emergency-response function, and the Reason reporting characterizes the Carbyne investment as part of Epstein's broader effort to enter the surveillance-technology industry in the post-2008-conviction period.³⁸

Through the Carbyne investment, Epstein moved from social-network brokerage to direct commercial investment in surveillance technology, and Barak was the channel through which the investment was arranged. Reason reported, drawing on the Black Agenda Report's account of a Nigerian ports contract, that Epstein and Barak marketed Israeli surveillance technology internationally, including to Nigeria, with technology that had reportedly been tested on Palestinians. The international marketing extended the Barak-Epstein surveillance-tech relationship into the documented export context.³⁸

The Palantir-Israel Expansion

Palantir subsequently became a significant technology partner in Israel's military and intelligence efforts. The documented Jacobin reporting (March 2026) traces the Epstein-Barak-Thiel triangle to the subsequent Israeli procurement of Palantir platforms, though the causal chain from the 2014 introduction to the procurement outcome is not documented in primary form. The Israeli intelligence and defense-technology sector's documented adoption of Palantir data-fusion platforms, and the broader Thiel-network interest in the Israeli cyber-intelligence sector (including the Unit 8200 alumni network that staffs much of the Israeli cyber-security industry), is the commercial-institutional context in which the Epstein-brokered introduction is situated.⁴

The parapolitical question of whether the 2014 Epstein-brokered Barak-Thiel introduction was the originating channel for the subsequent Palantir-Israel relationship is not documented in the primary sources currently available. What is documented is that Epstein repeatedly and specifically pitched Palantir to Barak over the 2014-2016 period, that Barak and Thiel were connected through the introduction, and that Palantir subsequently expanded its Israeli-government business. The intermediate steps remain an open thread.³⁴

Meals with Vitaly Churkin, 2016

Epstein repeatedly invited the Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, to meet Barak. On January 2, 2016 he wrote to Churkin, "Ehud Barak in town this week if a meal is convenient."⁹ On August 28, 2016 he wrote, "Don't know if you have any interest . Ehud Barak and TOM Barrack at house tomorw . You are always welcome," and Churkin accepted a 1 p.m. time.¹⁰ Epstein's scheduler, Lesley Groff, then circulated the notice "Churkin to join lunch tomorrow as well," and the calendar entry for August 29, 2016 read "12:30pm LUNCH w/Ehud Barak, Tom Barrack and Vitaly Chrukin," a party of four with Epstein and the real estate investor Tom Barrack.¹¹ On November 13, 2016 Epstein wrote to Churkin, "Ehud coming today at 430 . As always you are welcome."¹²

The Black Cube Question, 2017

On November 6, 2017 The New Yorker reported that Harvey Weinstein had used the Israeli private intelligence company Black Cube, under contracts signed by his lawyer David Boies, to gather information on women accusing him and on journalists.¹³ On November 8 a spokesman for Barak said that Weinstein had asked Barak, more than a year earlier, about an Israeli company he had heard of, that Barak had told him it was "likely Black Cube" and "gave Weinstein its contact information," and that Barak "was not aware until this morning of the fact the company was hired by Weinstein, or for what purposes or operations."¹⁴ At 15:54 GMT that day Epstein wrote to Barak: "boies said he got to the mossad guys through you? true?" At 16:49 he wrote again: "Did Boies ask you to help Obtain former mossad agents to do dirty investigations. ? this is getting a lot of press, ." Barak answered on the morning of November 9: "Call me.. [number redacted] in Paris."¹⁵

The Wexner Foundation Payments

The Wexner Foundation, founded in 1983 by Leslie Wexner of L Brands, paid Barak 2.3 million dollars between 2004 and 2006, the years between his premiership and his 2007 return as defense minister.⁵⁶ The payments were for two commissioned studies. Barak completed a 267-page study on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; for a second study on leadership the foundation "received an abstract, but did not receive a full paper." Israel's Channel 12 reported that he did not finish it because he returned to politics in 2007, and he did not offer to return any of the money. The foundation said its management at the time "decided that the work done and material received was enough to end the project and justify the payment."⁵¹⁶ In a 2026 statement it described both works as books on leadership: Barak "only provided one completed manuscript plus an outline for the second one," was "paid in full over the years 2004-06," and the payments "were properly reported in the foundation's 990s."⁶

Epstein was a trustee of the foundation from 1992 to 2007. The foundation said, citing an independent review by the law firm Kegler Brown Hill + Ritter, that his role was "limited to dealing with documents and reports related to transferring the Wexner family's monetary support," that he "never donated a single dollar to the foundation," and that the Wexner family dismissed him when the first suspicions about him surfaced.⁵ During the 2019 Israeli election campaign, Benjamin Netanyahu's campaign released a video titled "What else has sex offender Epstein given to Barak?"⁵ The Attorney General, Avichai Mandelblit, declined to open an investigation, stating that Barak had been a private citizen at the time and that the statute of limitations had passed. The Likud petitioned the High Court of Justice; after the foundation told the court that Epstein was not involved in the decision to make the payments, the court rejected the petition in 2020, upholding Mandelblit's decision.⁶

The 2005 Emails and the 2026 Complaint

Among the documents the Justice Department published on January 30, 2026 was a December 2005 chain concerning the payments. On December 6, 2005, Barak's wife, Nili Priel, wrote to the foundation's president, Larry Moses: "Concerning the books according to the contract, there is a payment to be sent at this stage. Could you please let me know if it was transferred?" Moses passed the request to Peg Ugland, a vice president of the Wexner Investment Company, who wrote to Epstein's attorney Darren Indyke: "Darren, apparently, there is a payment due to Ehud Barak? Are you or Jeffrey handling the terms of the contract?" Indyke wrote to Epstein: "I was involved in the negotiation and execution of the document, but have not been involved in overseeing performance," noting that the foundation had committed to pay Barak 100,000 dollars for an abstract of each of the two books, and asked, "Please advise what you want Peg to tell Larry Moses." On December 8, 2005, Epstein replied: "Get a copy of what he sent."⁶

On March 1, 2026, the Likud member of the Knesset Avihai Boaron and the organization LAVI filed an eight-page criminal complaint with the Israel Police Commissioner, Daniel Levi, asking for an investigation of Barak and the foundation. The complaint alleged that both had "lied" to the High Court about Epstein's involvement and that the payments constituted bribery of a public official, stating that the emails "completely contradict the report that the Wexner Foundation submitted to the High Court, and through it misled the court, which in the end rejected the petition." Barak declined to comment on the complaint.⁶

The Channel 12 Interview

In an interview with Channel 12 on February 12, 2026, Barak said of Epstein, "I regret meeting him." He said: "I am responsible for all my actions and decisions, and there is definitely room to ask if there wasn't room for more in-depth judgment on my part," and that "only in 2019, when a reinvestigation of the whole story begins, does the breadth and depth of the man's heinous crimes become apparent and I cut off relations with him." He said he had assumed Epstein "had paid his debt to society," that there was "nothing wrong" with his use of Epstein's New York apartment, and called his words in a Justice Department audio recording referring to "beautiful girls" an "unfortunate choice of words and metaphor." Of any further documents he said: "no crime, no criminal act, nothing improper... I promise you that nothing will be discovered, because there is nothing." He apologized to friends, supporters, and "ordinary citizens who feel deep discomfort," but added, "I do not apologize to the hate machine, and I do not apologize to the purists without boundaries."¹ He has not been charged or accused of sexual misconduct.¹

Carbyne Correspondence, 2018-2019

On May 21, 2018 Epstein wrote to Peter Thiel: "FYI trae is meeting carbyne Ehud Barak co."¹⁷

On January 1, 2019 Barak forwarded to Jabor Al Thani, with Epstein copied, a Qatar presentation prepared by Carbyne's chief executive, Amir Elichai, writing: "Please find attached short presentation of Carbine. Public safety company of which I'm the chairman and leading investor. We are interested in participating in the security effort for the 2022 Games. We can work through a European company of your choice and minimize Israeli profile. Please consider." He closed, "Best to HH HBJ."¹⁸ In a reply of January 20 quoted in the same thread, Jabor Al Thani wrote that "Our security services company" wished to begin discussions about the presentation for the Qatar 2022 games and that "it will be appreciated if you are able to assist with any anti-drone services or technologies." Barak answered the next day that he was "Overwhelmed in Davos," and on February 3 wrote: "Sorry for the late response. Israeli politics is complicated and time consuming and I'm a little bit involved. We will be glad to explore with your services company the possibility of cooperation re the 2022 Games," naming Elichai as the contact and promising to address "the anti-drone issue in a separate email." He signed "Ehud Barak, Carbyne, Chairman." On February 4 Jabor Al Thani named the country manager of a Qatari company, Lysys WLL, as the contact on his side.¹⁹

On February 18, 2019 the investor Nicole Junkermann wrote to Epstein, in a message about the division of their interests, "Carbyne invested 1.5 m (1m you and 0.5m me) net of fees is3.9m your share, Ehud carry1.5 m and my share 2m," and asked, in connection with a separate China matter, "Can Ehud help?"²⁰ In late February and March 2019 the Tel Aviv law firm handling the investment told Darren Indyke that SUM (E.B.) Limited Partnership, the vehicle that had made the initial investment in Carbyne, held warrants to buy 61,251 additional Preferred A shares for 3.5 million dollars, the exercise of which would raise its holding from about 13 percent to about 26.33 percent on a fully diluted basis. Southern Trust Company, Epstein's Virgin Islands company, transferred 2.4 million dollars of the 3.6 million dollars raised. The Israeli bank receiving the funds then asked, under its anti-money-laundering rules, for the controlling person and citizenship of each limited partner.²¹ Epstein forwarded the request to Barak, who replied on March 11, 2019: "Jeff, That's the Israeli banks paranoia after they paid the penalties they've paid to the US authorities for past mistakes. According to our experience it was never leaked out of the banks. Just kept with them as an insurance policy. We have to follow on it. On a minimal but satisfying base."²¹ On March 12 Indyke wrote to Epstein, "I thought we did not want your name associated with this Investment?"; on March 14 Epstein confirmed that Indyke could identify him as the controlling person of Southern Trust.²² Epstein was arrested in New York four months later.

Carbyne After Epstein

Barak left the Carbyne board in 2019, the year of Epstein's arrest and death. The company's board also included Pinhas Buchris, a former commander of Unit 8200 and former director general of the Israeli Ministry of Defense. Axon Enterprise, the maker of Taser weapons and police body cameras, agreed to buy Carbyne for 625 million dollars in cash, a deal that closed in early 2026.⁸²³