British Author John Sweeney Says Jeffrey Epstein DID Kill Himself, Had No Connections to Israeli Intelligence But Was a 'Nazi'

Did father Robert Maxwell’s early abuse taint Ghislaine long before she met Epstein?

In his new book ‘Hunting Ghislaine,’ UK journalist John Sweeney claims a horrific childhood made the magnate’s daughter into a sociopath and set the stage for her sex crimes

By JP O’ MALLEY

[...] A self-made multimillionaire, Robert Maxwell rose from extreme poverty in a Jewish shtetl in Czechoslovakia, where he attended yeshiva, a seminary for religious studies. As a teenager, he escaped the Nazis and joined the Czechoslovak Army in exile. He then went on to become a hero in the British Army decorated for his actions during World War II, an academic publishing magnate, a UK Labour Party MP, and eventually the owner of the Daily Mirror, one of the UK’s biggest-selling tabloids.

Following his death, world leaders collectively expressed their public condolences. Then-British prime minister John Major commended “an extraordinary life, lived to the full.” The Soviet Union’s Mikhail Gorbachev said Maxwell’s death had left him “deeply grieved.” Then-United States president George H.W. Bush, meanwhile, hailed Maxwell’s “unwavering fight against bigotry and oppression.”

But, as UK journalist John Sweeney writes in the opening pages of his new book, “We can set the pieties aside, Robert Maxwell was a monster, cruel, [and] mad — mad as a box of frogs.”

The book, “Hunting Ghislaine,” is based on the hit episode of the same name on the author’s podcast, “Sweeney Talks,” which has nearly 5 million downloads. It focuses on the strange and abusive relationship between Ghislaine Maxwell and her father, Robert, whose cruelty, Sweeney claims, deformed Ghislaine Maxwell long before she met Jeffrey Epstein.

TOI: You also explore the idea that perhaps Robert Maxwell was a pedophile and suggest that he may have abused his daughter Ghislaine. Is there any evidence to support this?

SWEENEY: This is a very difficult area. It’s common knowledge that in many cases where people [sexually] abuse children, they have been abused themselves. Is it the case here? Well, we don’t know. Even asking that question is difficult for several reasons.

TOI: Robert Maxwell lost most of his family in the Holocaust. You claim he denied his Jewish heritage for most of his life. Why did he choose to do that?

SWEENEY: When Maxwell came to London in the 1960s, he pretended not to be Jewish. That was partially because of the loathsome antisemitism that was a very real thing in London at the time. I also spoke to British journalist Jenni Frazer, who interviewed Maxwell for Britain’s Jewish Chronicle in 1986. She was sent by the paper to ask why Maxwell had been in denial of his Jewishness. She described how before the interview Maxwell purposely began using the lavatory very, very noisily and she was made to wait outside, where she could hear splashing noises. She said she was in no doubt that Maxwell put on this display deliberately as a power play and to make her feel uncomfortable.

TOI: In the book, you also include a quote from an interview Robert Maxwell did with the BBC’s “Desert Island Discs” radio program in 1987, where he described the pain of being a Holocaust survivor. “The sorrow of those losses are ever before me… I don’t hate as I did during the war, but I cannot forget or forgive,” he said. You seem to suggest in the book that there is a connection between his dark family history and Ghislaine Maxwell’s tragic story.

SWEENEY: Part of Ghislaine Maxwell’s tragedy is the awfulness of the Holocaust and the awful effect it had on Robert Maxwell. However, there are many Jews who are friends of mine who lost many members of their family in the Holocaust, and they have not become monsters. This is not the whole of the story. But it’s certainly part of it.

TOI: Many rumors have circulated since Robert Maxwell died in 1991. One says he could have been assassinated by Israeli intelligence. In the book, you cite a story from Ari Ben-Menashe, who worked with Israeli military intelligence for 10 years between 1977 and 1987. Ben-Menashe claimed that Maxwell had been assassinated by the Mossad for trying to blackmail it. What do you make of this claim?

SWEENEY: I’m not convinced by it. The problem is Ari Ben-Menashe is a fantasist. He testified that he personally witnessed George H.W. Bush meet members of the Iranian government in Paris in October 1980, as part of a secret Republican Party plot to keep the 52 US hostages held in Iran for longer, until [then-]president Jimmy Carter would lose the 1980 presidential election to Ronald Reagan. This [conspiracy theory], known as The October Surprise, was found by the US Congress to be entirely untrue.

Robert Maxwell was a big friend of Israel, especially towards the end of his life. He may also have helped Jews get out of Romania in the 1980s. Maxwell was given a grand burial on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. The Israelis felt indebted to him. The idea that Israeli intelligence would have bumped him off, I don’t buy it. There is no reason for it.

TOI: Julie K. Brown, an American journalist and author of “Perversion of Justice: The Jeffery Epstein Story” told The Times of Israel in July 2021 that “it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that Epstein had connections to the Israeli intelligence community.” What’s your view on this?

SWEENEY: I’m skeptical and I have seen no evidence for it. There was one story that appeared in Britain’s Mail on Sunday back in 1992 claiming that Epstein had some contact with the intelligence services. It could be possible that Epstein, who was Jewish, picked up tidbits and traded them with intelligence, who gave him stuff back. But that does not mean he had a serious relationship with Mossad.

EXCLUSIVE: Married Israeli politician Ehud Barak is seen hiding his face entering Jeffrey Epstein's NYC townhouse as bevy of young beauties were also spotted going into mansion - despite his claim he NEVER socialized with the pedophile and his girlshttps://t.co/wQBJDkfVzt

— HomerB (@HomerB33) July 16, 2019

TOI: You also look into the rumors that Robert Maxwell and Jeffery Epstein knew each other — this also suggests Epstein allegedly helped Robert Maxwell back in the 1980s to hide dirty money and that the true source of Epstein’s wealth was Maxwell’s dark gold. You refer to this as “the Holy Grail of Maxwellology.” Is there any truth in it?

SWEENEY: The two people who say that Robert Maxwell and Jeffery Epstein knew each other were Ari Ben-Menashe, who was a proven fantasist, and Steven Hoffenberg, who was one of America’s greatest fraudsters. In November 1991, [just before his death] Robert Maxwell was facing financial ruin. It doesn’t make sense that he would have squirreled money away via Epstein. Also, there is no evidence of the two men ever meeting. None whatsoever.

TOI: At one point in the book, you call Epstein “a bit of a Nazi.” Can you elaborate on this briefly?

SWEENEY: Epstein believed in transhumanism, which is this rather ghastly, far-right nonsense. The basic idea behind is that you can perfect the human being. Weirdly, transhumanism is not far off Nazism. To be fair to Robert Maxwell, at least he did fight the Nazis when he was serving with the British army, whereas Epstein, philosophically, was a bit of a Nazi himself.

TOI: While awaiting trial in August 2019, Epstein is said to have committed suicide in a New York prison. But rumors persist that he was murdered. What do you think happened?

SWEENEY: When Jeffery Epstein died, he was about to go to prison for a very long time. He hated prison, and he had tried to kill himself once before. I believe he succeeded on this occasion.