Ehud Batak
Ehud Barak is a former prime minister and Minister of Defense of Israel. A September 2013 email showed Barak informing Epstein that
Larry Summers had withdrawn from consideration to chair the Federal Reserve, writing, "A major blow to a friend. ... Now he'll probably be free in the next few days." Later that day, Epstein emailed Barak to schedule meetings for him with billionaire banker
Ariane de Rothschild and an individual referred to as the "kissinger china guy". A representative for Barak did not respond to a request for comment.
In a 2013 recording of Barak and Epstein released by the DOJ, Epstein encouraged Barak to "look at" working with
Peter Thiel's company
Palantir.Previously leaked emails from Barak's account show Epstein leveraged his relationship with Barak to approach powerful figures like Thiel, a former director of Israeli signals intelligence, and two people in
Vladimir Putin's circle (former Russian deputy minister of economic development Sergey Belyakov and
Viktor Vekselberg). leak also contained an email where Barak complimented Epstein on his "Great, impressive island". In another email released by the DOJ, Epstein told Barak he was attempting to meet with Putin to discuss investment opportunities.