NY Post Pushes 'Epstein Was a Russian Asset' — The Internet Corrected Them in Hours

The Article That Got Ratio'd by Reality

On February 14, 2025, the New York Post published what it clearly intended as a bombshellLoaded Language: sources claiming Jeffrey Epstein was a Russian intelligence asset. The framing was dramatic. The implications were enormous. There was just one problem — the internet has receipts, and they don't match.

Within hours, X users slapped the post with a Community Note that read like a prosecutorial brief:

> "Current evidence strongly suggests Epstein worked for Israeli intelligence. With evidence of direct relationships with other Israeli intelligence assets, including Robert Maxwell. Epstein himself was Jewish. No evidence suggests connections with the Russian government."

That Community Note wasn't opinion. It was a summary of years of documented reporting, court filings, and public records. Let's walk through what the NY Post conveniently left out.

The Documented Israeli Intelligence Connections

Here's what actually exists in the public record — not anonymous sourcing, not vibes, not "people familiar with the matter." Documented, verifiable connections:

Robert Maxwell: Ghislaine Maxwell's father was reported by multiple credible sources — including veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh and authors Gordon Thomas and Martin Dillon — as having ties to Israeli intelligence. Robert Maxwell received a state funeral in Israel attended by the Prime Minister, six serving and former heads of Israeli intelligence, and senior government officials. The eulogies described him as a man who had "done more for Israel than can today be told."

Les Wexner: Epstein's primary financial patron, the billionaire behind L Brands (Victoria's Secret, The Limited), was described in a 2003 Wall Street Journal report as having given Epstein sweeping power over his finances, including a $77 million Manhattan townhouse. Wexner was also the founder of the Wexner Foundation, which funded Israeli leadership development programs.

Social and Political Connections: Epstein was photographed and documented in social settings with multiple current and former Israeli prime ministers. Ehud Barak, former Israeli PM and defense minister, was photographed entering Epstein's New York residence multiple times, as documented by the Daily Mail in 2019. Barak acknowledged the visits but denied wrongdoing.

Ari Ben-Menashe: The former Israeli military intelligence officer publicly claimed in interviews with journalist Zev Shalev (Narativ) that Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were Israeli intelligence assets. Ben-Menashe's credibility has been debated, but his claims were made on the record and under his real name — which is more than the NY Post's "sources" offered.

Steven Hoffenberg: Epstein's former business partner at Towers Financial (who later went to prison for a Ponzi scheme) stated in multiple interviews before his death that Epstein had intelligence connections. Hoffenberg died in 2022.

“Current evidence strongly suggests Epstein worked for Israeli intelligence. With evidence of direct relationships with other Israeli intelligence assets, including Robert Maxwell. — X Community Note”

What the NY Post Offered as Evidence

Anonymous sources.

That's it. No documents. No file numbers. No corroborating records. No named intelligence officials. No FOIA disclosures. Just "sources sayLoaded Language."

Compare that to the Israeli intelligence connection, which has: named individuals on record, photographic evidence, court documents, financial records, investigative books by credible journalists, and a state funeral attended by intelligence chiefs.

The Propaganda Technique: Misdirection

This is a textbook case of what media analysts call "narrative displacement" — introducing a competing narrative to draw attention away from a more documented one. The question isn't whether the NY Post fabricated the claim entirely. It's: who benefits from pinning Epstein on Russia instead of investigating the documented Israeli connections?

Consider the timing. The Epstein files are being released. New documents are surfacing. Researchers are digging. And suddenly, one of America's largest tabloids drops a "Russia did it" story with anonymous sourcing? That's not journalism. That's a narrative airbag.

The Community Note as a Correction Mechanism

What happened next is worth studying. X's Community Notes — a crowd-sourced fact-checking system — did what the NY Post's editors apparently wouldn't. Users compiled publicly available evidence, cited it, and delivered a correction that was more thoroughly sourced than the original article.

The ratio was immediate. The note currently has overwhelming consensus approval. The NY Post article remains unedited.

This is the new reality of media accountability. Legacy outlets can still run whatever they want — but they can no longer control the correction layer. The receipts are public, the crowd is literate, and the Community Note feature has become an informal peer-review system for news.

What This Tells Us About Epstein Coverage

The broader pattern here is not subtle. Every major outlet that has touched the Epstein story has either:

1. Published incomplete coverage that omits the Israeli intelligence angle entirely 2. Actively introduced competing narratives (Russia, "lone predator," "he acted alone") 3. Focused exclusively on celebrity names in the flight logs while ignoring the intelligence apparatus

The NY Post's article fits squarely in category 2. Whether by editorial choice or source manipulation, the effect is the same: the conversation shifts from documented connections to a speculative one. And the documented connections get another day without scrutiny.

The Receipts

The infographic that circulated alongside the Community Note compiled over a dozen data points — all from public reporting:

- Ghislaine Maxwell's father Robert Maxwell's intelligence ties (documented by Hersh, Thomas & Dillon) - Epstein's financial relationship with Les Wexner and Wexner's pro-Israel philanthropic work - Photographed meetings with Israeli political figures - On-record claims by Ari Ben-Menashe about intelligence recruitment - Financial flows from documented pro-Israel donors - Epstein's management of Wexner Foundation Israel programs

None of these prove Epstein was a Mossad agent — and Gen Us is not making that claim. What they prove is that there is a substantial, documented body of evidence pointing toward Israeli intelligence connections that deserves rigorous investigation. Pinning the story on Russia without addressing any of this isn't journalism. It's deflection.

The NY Post owes its readers either a retraction, an update, or — at minimum — an acknowledgment that the documented evidence points in a very different direction from their anonymous sources.

Don't hold your breath.