Why Did the New York Times Put an Epstein Figure on Stage?
Ellie Leonard traces Virginia Giuffre’s allegations, Ehud Barak’s record, and a media failure hiding in plain sight
by Ellie Leonard
Trigger Warning: This article contains discussion of sexual assault
For those of us who have finished reading Virginia Giuffre’s new best-seller Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice, there is a general consensus on the section of the book that hit the hardest, found in chapter 15: A Bridge Too Far.
Giuffre stated that in 2002, when she was about 18 years old, Jeffrey Epstein flew her out to Little St. James (known later as “Epstein’s Island”), where hundreds of underaged girls would be trafficked in and out from all over the world for Epstein and his friends. On this occasion, however, he brought in a “well-known Prime Minister,” who “raped [Virginia] more savagely than anyone had before.” The man choked her until she passed out, then let go until she came to, over and over again. “He wanted violence,” she remembered, and laughed at her when she pleaded with him to stop, taking “pleasure in seeing [her] in fear for [her] life.” She says she came away bleeding from her mouth and private area, front and back, and for days struggled to breathe and swallow. When she begged Epstein never to see the man again, he said coldly, “You’ll get that sometimes.”
This would forever be the day that changed Virginia’s life, despite the many times she had been trafficked to other men from as early as 13 years old, and for at least two years with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. It was the moment when she knew she might never leave this life, and die at the hands of a rich older man, flying somewhere above New York, or Palm Beach, Paris or the Virgin Islands.
Virginia doesn’t name the Prime Minister, but it doesn’t take a lot of digging to narrow it down. Of the nearly 90 different countries with prime ministers in 2002, only two landed in the pages of Epstein’s Black Book, U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, and Israel’s Ehud Barak. And after a little research, I concluded that not a single one of the other 88 had ever come in contact with Jeffrey Epstein.
Tony Blair allegedly met Epstein for the first time at his home at 10 Downing Street in May 2002, as arranged by Peter Mandelson, a close political ally. Mendelson, former U.K. ambassador to the U.S., was fired for his relationship with Epstein when the notorious Birthday Book became public, in which Mendelson heaps praises on his “intelligent, sharp-witted” friend, Jeffrey Epstein.
Initially Blair met with Epstein via his connection to Bill Clinton, hoping to use Epstein as a scientific resource and potential financial benefactor.
“I think TB would be interested in meeting Jeffrey, who is also a friend of mine, because Jeffrey is an active scientific catalyst/entrepreneur as well as someone who has his finger on the pulse of many worldwide markets and currencies.” - Peter Mandelson
Other than the initial meeting with Epstein, there is no other documentation to suggest the two men spent any more time together, whether traveling on Epstein’s planes or to any of his homes, for business or pleasure. There are no sexual allegations against Blair, and though there were rumors of an affair with Wendi Deng in 2013, he has maintained his innocence.
Ehud Barak, on the other hand, knew Jeffrey Epstein well, and has been seen several times going in and out of Epstein’s Manhattan home, his apartment buildings, and has visited Little Saint James at least once. And while he claims only to have met Epstein around “10 times,” and “never in the company of women or young girls,” flight logs, visitor logs, and Epstein’s personal schedules would show that the two men met at least 30 times between 2013 and 2017, including two flights on Epstein’s private jet and at least one trip to the island.
Records indicate that Barak and Epstein met sometime in 2002, introduced by former Israeli President Shimon Peres. However, Barak was the head of the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate (Aman) from 1983 to 1985, and was Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces starting in 1991. Robert Maxwell, Ghislaine Maxwell’s father, was deeply connected to both, and likely knew Barak, though there is no public record of their interactions.
Barak visited most of Epstein’s properties, and despite claiming to have a strict business-only relationship with him, emails between the men leaked by the hacker group Handala in May 2025 painted a different picture of their relationship. Barak relied heavily on Epstein for larger key decisions, such as the Israeli-Mongolian security deal, and arranging meetings with people like Peter Thiel and Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian oligarch. And despite claims that Barak rarely traveled anywhere without security, the letters indicate that he didn’t bring his team to Little Saint James.
Virginia Giuffre did not expressly name Ehud Barak in her memoir as the “well-known prime minister,” but did in court filings from sometime prior to 2015. Her allegations would later be made public by attorney Alan Dershowitz, when he unsealed her original statement in his defamation case against her (after also being accused by Giuffre). In November 2022, both parties dismissed their lawsuits without a settlement. But the damage had been done, and Giuffre named Ehud Barak as one of the men she was forced to have sex with, along with former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin.
So of the nearly 90 countries and their 90 prime ministers, Virginia Giuffre could only be talking about two men, one of whom is documented as having met with Epstein for one 30-minute meeting, and the other who is alleged to have slept with her and taken dozens of trips to meet Jeffrey Epstein at his homes all over the world.
Only one man left an 18-year-old girl unconscious over and over again, bleeding out her “mouth, vagina, and anus,” and unable to breathe well or swallow for days.
On November 12th, Jeffrey Epstein’s personal estate handed over nearly 23,000 documents to the House Oversight Committee, including more than 2,000 emails between Epstein and his friends. This included at least 28 documented emails between Epstein and Barak, and further discussion about Barak’s trips to Epstein’s house in Palm Beach and staying at the 301 66th Street apartments in New York City.
Two days prior to the release of the estate documents, the New York Times announced its DealBook Summit speaker lineup. I have worked at the DealBook every year since 2017 as a panel transcriber for the top CEOs and biggest names in industry and entertainment, including Bob Iger, Elon Musk, Prince Harry, Kim Kardashian, Jeff Bezos, Bill Clinton, Kamala Harris, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to name a few. It’s a vacuum of money and power and influence—the biggest people in the world speaking to a room full of the biggest people in the world.
But this year they invited none other than the former Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Barak. He’d be speaking with Nicholas Kristof about the armed conflict in Gaza, a necessary conversation. But of all the qualified, experienced, knowledgeable people to cover such an important topic, why would the Times bring in a well-known player in the Epstein files saga? I asked the organizer, Andrew Ross Sorkin.
“I have to admit, I was surprised to see the former Prime Minister on this year’s list for the DealBook, considering the controversial role he holds not only as Jeffrey Epstein’s close friend, but also the allegations against him,” I said, hoping Sorkin might give me a call and hash it out, like he’s done in the past. I laid out my reasons, everything the New York Times certainly already knew about Barak, Epstein, and Virginia Giuffre. Ninety minutes later, I got my response.
I’ll say here that I think Andrew Ross Sorkin is one of the smartest people I know. He worked his way up from an unpaid high-school intern, and never forgets a face (or your entire life story). And Nick Kristof has long been a champion against child sex abuse, namely by giving Dylan Farrow a platform to speak out against her father, Woody Allen. So the decision to bring Ehud Barak, a man alleged to have viciously sexually abused an 18-year-old girl on Jeffrey Epstein’s island, to the DealBook Summit to speak, not only confused me, but made me very, very angry.
I reached out to every person I thought could talk some sense into the Times, make them rethink their decision and pull Barak from the lineup. I got little response. But finally Politico reached out, first to me, and then to the New York Times, publishing the story in a small newsletter at the bottom of the page
It wasn’t nothing, but after talking with sources close to Giuffre who confirmed it was, indeed, Barak who had attacked her, I dug deeper into the files to understand why the New York Times would make such a statement in the middle of a high-profile investigation.
And then I found it.
Sometime around 1976, just after Jeffrey Epstein was fired by the Dalton School for poor performance as a math and physics teacher, he was offered a job at Bear Stearns, a major investment firm that would later collapse in the 2008 Financial Crisis. He’d caught the eye of Dalton father, Ace Greenberg, who brought Epstein into the fold of high finance. But before he did, Epstein was offered one more deal.
According to a 2014 unpublished draft from Michael Wolff found in the latest Epstein files, Jeffrey Epstein was recruited by none other than Arthur Ochs “Punch” Sulzberger, publisher of the New York Times. Punch had taken over the role from his brother-in-law, and would eventually hand it off to his son, “Pinch” (Arthur Jr.), in 1992, who passed it down to his son, A.G. Sulzberger, in 2018. So the man in charge of the the DealBook Summit was the grandson of the man who tried to hire Jeffrey Epstein, with zero journalism experience, to work for the New York Times.
I wasn’t able to stop Ehud Barak from speaking on December 3rd. But I don’t think I needed to. On October 20th, when we all read the first pages of Virginia Giuffre’s book, we knew who the “well-known Prime Minister” was. And the New York Times’ decision to give Barak a platform amidst one of the biggest, all-encompassing investigations in U.S. history, may well cement their place in time.
And as more files are released, with names, and pictures, and most importantly receipts, we all have the ability to choose the side of history on which we stand, as journalists, and as souls.
My little pen and I will continue to stand on the side with survivors.
After contacting the New York Times, I was not invited back to work for the DealBook Summit
Ellie is an author, editor, and owner of Red Pencil Transcripts, and works with filmmakers, podcasts, and journalists all over the world. She lives with her family just outside of New York City.
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Incredible and shocking account. And so disappointing regarding the Times.
And thank you to Ellie Leonard! Fantastic reporting. Keep it up!