EXCLUSIVE: John Kerry’s Uncomfortable Epstein Connection
An original investigation from The Red Letter analyzing new documentation, and new insights from sources, for a definitive assessment of how Jeffrey Epstein peddled access to John Kerry.
Welcome back to The Red Letter.
UPDATE: Since publication at 2:20 p.m., Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna told The Red Letter that John Kerry “should be called into the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee for questioning.”
United States Senator. Presidential nominee. Secretary of State. Chief negotiator of the Iran Deal. Climate envoy. National Security Councilmember. As John Kerry held each of these titles at the highest levels of U.S. government and intelligence apparatuses, he also held close his association with Jeffrey Epstein that spanned three decades — and has received little scrutiny until now.
Newly reviewed Justice Department files reveal Epstein’s apparent fixation with Kerry and his eagerness to cultivate connections to the secretary of state and senior officials in his inner circle, including his then-deputy secretary of state William J. Burns. The documents show Epstein offered introductions and dangled access to both men to a rogues’ gallery of people including Donald Trump’s advisor Steve Bannon, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, tech entrepreneurs Peter Thiel and Reid Hoffman, disgraced Norwegian diplomat Terje Rød-Larsen and tarred Emirati shipping executive Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem.
Meanwhile, in private, he gamed out presidential shakeups and scenarios in which Kerry could re-emerge as a national political force and potential president as late as 2016. The messages read less like strategy than the musings of a man who imagined himself hovering just outside the realm of Kerry’s power.
I’ve been reporting on the Epstein story since 2019, when I first met Virginia Giuffre, with whom I would become close when we traveled the country in search of witnesses to Epstein’s crimes. Last year she died by suicide. Giuffre revealed to me that, while trafficked by Epstein, she had been sexually abused by Barak, Maine Senator George Mitchell, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and Governor Bill Richardson, among others. It was through her that I first learned about Kerry’s place in Epstein’s world. It’s something largely overlooked in the millions of pages of files. When she recalled that she encountered Kerry, I was in shock that he would be so closely associated with Epstein at the height of his sex trafficking operation, and just a few years before Kerry ran for President in 2004.
Since then, I’ve pored over thousands of documents and interviewed many knowledgeable witnesses—including victims, corroborating sources, and others with valuable information and insight.
What Epstein received from the Kerry relationship is obvious. What Kerry seized is not yet available publicly…
