← The Epstein Files
The Epstein Files
File 101 - Thomas Barrack Texted Epstein 100+ Times While Running Trump's Inauguration. He's Still an Ambassador.
00:32:04
Loading summary
Transcript116 lines
- [00:00]
A
Hey, it's the creator of the Epstein Files. Before we get into today's episode, I need to tell you about my brand new podcast, Wardesk. If you value how we fact check the narrative and follow the raw data on this show, Wardesk is built for you. It's a massive ongoing investigation into the rapidly escalating developments happening in the Middle east right now. It is completely post partisan and follows the facts. Instead of cable news talking points, we go straight to the source to explain the reality of global conflict. Search for Wardesk on Apple podcasts or Spotify right now. Or check this episode's description for the links and hit follow. Alright, let's get into the episode. 3 million pages of evidence. Thousands of unsealed flight logs. Millions of data points, names, themes and and timelines connected. You are listening to the Epstein Files, the world's first AI native investigation into the case that traditional journalism simply could not handle.
- [01:13]
B
Welcome to the Epstein Files.
- [01:15]
C
Last time we documented 16 executives who resigned after Epstein documents dropped, naming everyone and tracking what each one knew.
- [01:23]
B
Today we are looking at Thomas Barack, Trump's inaugural committee chair, who raised $107 million for the 2017 inauguration and exchanged over 100 texts with Jeffrey Epstein while doing it. He is now the United States Ambassador to Turkey as part of our ongoing investigation.
- [01:40]
C
As always, every document and source we reference is available at epsteinfiles fm.
- [01:45]
B
So let us start with a document. The CBS News communication logs showing Barack in regular contact with Epstein for years. Because that paper trail sets the foundation for.
- [01:55]
C
You have to understand the baseline facts established by the files released under the Epstein Files Transparency act or the efta. We're looking at Thomas Barak. This is not some mid level staffer, right? He this is a billionaire real estate investor. He founded Colony Capital. That is a firm that manage billions in assets specializing in distressed real estate and massive global buyouts. He's a longtime personal friend of Donald Trump. A relationship dating back decades and in the cutthroat New York real estate market. Yeah, and during the transition period leading into 2017, he served as the designated chairman of the Presidential inaugural committee.
- [02:32]
B
The e58 communication logs show over 100 text messages and emails between Barack and Jeffrey Epstein. These communications span multiple years. The official story presented by defense teams and PR firms suggests Epstein was a ghost, a pariah after his 2008 conviction for soliciting a minority.
- [02:50]
C
The official story doesn't match the data. The relationship did not fracture. It accelerated.
- [02:55]
B
We start the micro timeline in September 2009. Put yourself in the Exact chronological context here. Epstein is released from the Palm Beach County Jail. The public record of his crimes is established. The details of his plea deal, the non prosecution agreement, the 13 months in a private wing, the daily work release. They are heavily publicized, right?
- [03:12]
C
There is no ambiguity. The tier one financial and political networks are fully aware of his status as a registered sex offender.
- [03:19]
B
I'm looking at the document here and it specifically says, from Thomas Barack to Jeffrey Epstein. Thinking about you. Hope you are good and life is calm again.
- [03:30]
C
Look at what they are leaving out of the public narrative. The official claim is that high society figures were duped, that they slowly distanced themselves once the reality of Epstein's crimes set in. That contradicts the evidence.
- [03:42]
B
He reaches out.
- [03:42]
C
Barack initiates the contact. He reaches out exactly when Epstein is most vulnerable, completely ignoring the radioactive nature of his legal status. The text implies a preexisting closeness. You do not send a thinking about your text to a casual acquaintance who just walked out of a county jail for sex crimes.
- [04:00]
B
The continuity is unbroken. We jump forward a few months to October 2010. Epstein is back in his New York townhouse, re establishing his network. He emails Barack to coordinate a meeting in Paris. Barack replies to the email specifically asking, will you see Sultan? This refers to Sultan Ahmed bin Sulaim, the Emirati business leader and DP World executive.
- [04:24]
C
Epstein is not hiding Barak. Epstein and the highest levels of Emirati economic power are actively coordinating international sit downs. T Key World is a massive logistics company. The Emirates are a critical strategic partner for the United States. Epstein is inserting himself into the middle
- [04:41]
B
of sovereign wealth discussions and the documentation shifts from social coordination to highly specific financial operations. By December 2012, JP Morgan sends an invitation for a prospective investor conference call regarding Colony Single Family Residential Inc. Barak
- [04:57]
C
is listed as the featured speaker.
- [04:59]
B
Exactly. This is a high level institutional investment call. Epstein receives this investor invitation and forwards it directly to Barack's personal private email. Epstein adds a single line of text to the forward. Don't you ever rest?
- [05:11]
C
The reply is what matters here.
- [05:13]
B
I'm looking at the document here and it specifically says in Barack's exact reply, not until you hire me as our butler. How is my role model?
- [05:20]
C
We must cross examine the language here, analyze the power dynamic. The official defense repeatedly insists Epstein was merely a peripheral social acquaintance, a hanger on who inflated his own importance.
- [05:32]
B
But you have a billionaire global real
- [05:34]
C
estate investor, a man who moves markets, jokingly begging to be hired as a butler and explicitly referring to a convicted sex offender as his role model. That level of deference is completely abnormal. It indicates Epstein held a form of leverage, financial or otherwise, that commanded absolute respect from a titan of industry.
- [05:54]
B
The timeline accelerates into early 2016. The presidential campaign heats up. Donald Trump wins the New Hampshire Republican primary, upending the political establishment. Barack emerges as a central figure in shaping the campaign, acting as an economic advisor and a crucial surrogate on television.
- [06:11]
C
Epstein increases his outreach precisely as Barack's political capital skyrockets. Epstein emails Barack, noting that he receives frequent press inquiries about Trump and the Clintons, but maintains his silence.
- [06:22]
B
It's a subtle flex.
- [06:23]
C
Exactly. Epstein is reminding the campaign's inner circle that he holds damaging information on multiple candidates, but he is choosing to keep his mouth shut. Barak replies, hope we're good. Let's catch up.
- [06:35]
B
In March 2016, the requests become highly specific. Epstein emails Barack regarding Barack's newborn baby. I'm looking at the document here and it specifically says, send photos of you and child. Make me smile.
- [06:48]
C
Stop and examine the audacity of that exchange. A registered sex offender, a man whose crimes involve the trafficking and abuse of minors, asks a high profile political surrogate to send photographs of a child.
- [07:00]
B
And the documentary record does not show Barak cutting off contact after this request.
- [07:04]
C
No, he does not block the number. He does not notify authorities. The communication channel remains wide open.
- [07:09]
B
April 2016. The campaign is facing intense scrutiny. Epstein sends Barack a warning. He forwards an email detailing a civil lawsuit filed by a woman using the pseudonym Katie Johnson. The lawsuit alleges that Epstein and Trump assaulted her in 1994.
- [07:24]
C
Epstein is acting as an intelligence node for the campaign. He flags the lawsuit directly for Barack, writing that the claim is nuts, but I thought you guys should know.
- [07:33]
B
The lawsuit is later withdrawn and Trump denies the accusations.
- [07:36]
C
But the mechanics of the exchange are vital. Epstein bypasses standard campaign communication channels and routes a critical threat warning directly to Barack. He is proving his utility.
- [07:46]
B
We hit August 2016. The general election is months away. The communications shift heavily toward operational security and international networking. On August 29, Barak texts Epstein met her Saudi friend. He loves you. How are you, Tom?
- [08:03]
C
Barak Epstein replying us with a strict directive. He instructs Barack to download signal for anyone unfamiliar. Signal is an encrypted messaging application. It's designed to auto delete communications. It prevents third party interception, including interception by federal law enforcement.
- [08:18]
B
Epstein then asks when Barack will be in New York, suggesting a dinner with Woody Allen.
- [08:22]
C
Barak replies, I am in Turkey there Monday. I will call it download now.
- [08:26]
B
The official story doesn't match the data. The transition to encrypted communications Occurs exactly as Barack assumes maximum political influence.
- [08:35]
C
Look at what they are leaving out. The FTA logs capture the metadata of their relationship, the timestamps, the bare existence of the contact. But the substantive coordination intentionally moves into a dark channel. Why does a real estate billionaire need military grade encryption to talk to his friend about dinner reservations?
- [08:54]
B
He doesn't.
- [08:55]
C
He needs it to hide the actual substance of their coordination on that exact same day.
- [08:59]
B
August 29, 2016. Epstein's calendar includes a specific it schedules a lunch meeting at his New York townhouse with three former Israeli Prime Minister Ahud Barak, Russian United Nations Ambassador Veedaly Churkin and Thomas Barak.
- [09:15]
C
You have to look at this from a geopolitical perspective. Epstein is operating as a super connector at the highest levels of global intelligence and diplomacy.
- [09:22]
B
He's also trying to get Peter Thiel in the mix around this time.
- [09:25]
C
Yes. He is placing the designated surrogate for the incoming American President at a table with Russian diplomatic leadership, Israeli intelligence, connected leadership, and tech billionaires like Thiel. Vitaly Churkin was a seasoned Soviet and Russian diplomat representing Putin's interests at the un. Ahuberak was intimately tied to Israel's defense and intelligence apparatus. Epstein is the middleman, facilitating this exact grouping.
- [09:50]
B
The day after the scheduled lunch meeting, financial records show Epstein purchased approximately $1 million in stock in Colony Capital Barracks. Publicly trade company.
- [09:58]
C
The pattern is established. Social connection leads to diplomatic introduction, which is immediately followed by a targeted financial transaction. It's a transactional ecosystem. Epstein buys equity in Barak's firm the moment Barak sits down with Epstein's foreign contacts.
- [10:13]
B
November 8, 2016. Election night flight records and source accounts place Epstein in Saudi Arabia, meeting directly with Saudi King Salman.
- [10:22]
C
November 9, 2016. The morning after the election, the entire global power structure shifts overnight. A senior Saudi official texts Epstein to ask the exact protocol regarding King Salman calling the newly elected President Trump to congratulate him.
- [10:39]
B
The Saudis do not call the State Department. They call Jeffrey Epstein.
- [10:42]
C
Right.
- [10:42]
B
I'm looking at the document here, and it specifically says in Epstein's exact reply, tom Barrack is your point person.
- [10:49]
C
The official argument suggests these were just routine texts between wealthy men in overlapping social circles. That contradicts the evidence. Epstein is actively directing foreign heads of state to use Thomas Barak as the primary access node to the incoming American President. He is managing the geopolitical traffic.
- [11:06]
B
The official claim breaks down entirely against the timeline. By late 2016, Epstein's status as a registered sex offender was a matter of global public record. Thomas Barrack was one of the most powerful gatekeepers in American Politics. The abnormal frequency of these 100 plus messages indicates a coordinated, sustained effort.
- [11:23]
C
What was Epstein extracting through this channel? He was securing proximity to the executive branch. He was demonstrating his immense value to foreign leaders by proving he could route them directly to the President's inner circle. To within hours of an election victory, he monetized access.
- [11:39]
B
That proximity brings us directly into the financial architecture of the transition. The man exchanging over 100 texts with Jeffrey Epstein was simultaneously raising and directing $107 million for the 2017 Presidential Inaugural Committee.
- [11:52]
C
We must establish the financial micro timeline. In late November 2016, Barack is formally named the Chairman of the Inaugural Committee. The mandate is massive. He is tasked with executing the most expensive presidential inauguration in American history. For context, the 2009 inauguration raised roughly $53 million. Barack More than doubled that figure.
- [12:13]
B
The donor solicitation process begins immediately. From late November through January 2017, the committee gathers funds. They solicit corporations, wealthy individuals and foreign entities routing money through American subsidiaries during this exact window of intense fundraising. The text logs show Barack and Epstein
- [12:33]
C
in overlapping locations on November 27, 2016. Right as the inaugural planning kicks into high gear, a business associate emails Epstein asking about his Thanksgiving. Epstein replies that he is in Palm beach with the Trump crowd. He writes that he is with Barrick and the boys in Chibi Wild. Wild.
- [12:51]
B
The access network expands internationally in January 2017, just days before the swearing in ceremony. So Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem contacts Epstein. The reporting on the IFTA files details this exact exchange. Sulayem asks Epstein if he should accept Barak's invitation to the inauguration.
- [13:07]
C
Epstein's network is directly populating the guest lists of the inaugural events. Sulaiman ultimately attends the Salute to Our Armed Services Ball. This is not a public viewing area on the National Mall. The Armed Services Ball is an exclusive, highly secure event held at the National Building Museum.
- [13:22]
B
The room is filled with defense contractors, military brass, and the incoming administration's cabinet.
- [13:28]
C
Yes, Epps Dean is advising foreign dignitaries on whether to accept VIP access to this specific room.
- [13:35]
B
I'm looking at the document here, and it specifically says in the Inaugural Committee's public financial disclosures that $107 million was raised and subsequently spent.
- [13:45]
C
The paper trail discrepancy emerges right here. Look at what they are leaving out. The public disclosures claim the funds were exhausted on event operations, security, venue rentals, private concerts, floral arrangements. However, subsequent federal investigations into the inaugural spending questioned where significant portions of that money were actually routed.
- [14:03]
B
Investigators flagged millions in unexplained vendor payments,
- [14:07]
C
massive consulting fees to newly formed LLCs. And they probed potential illegal foreign contributions flowing into the fund.
- [14:14]
B
The narrative presented to the public was that Barack's role as inaugural chairman was a purely patriotic ceremonial duty. A loyal friend throwing a party for the new President.
- [14:24]
C
That contradicts the evidence. The inaugural committee was the single most efficient unregulated gateway to the incoming administration. Presidential campaigns have strict donation limits. Inaugural committees do not. It was a primary mechanism for purchasing access. You write a seven figure check, you, you get a private dinner with the cabinet nominees.
- [14:43]
B
If Epstein wanted access, the $107 million inaugural fund was the optimal vector. We must examine who benefits from the total omission of Epstein's network in the public auditing of the inauguration's finances.
- [14:55]
C
The FTA documents prove Epstein's foreign contacts were actively soliciting his advice on attending barracks events. Yet no public audit of the inaugural funds has ever cross referenced the vendor payments or donor lists against Epstein's known associates. The accounting stops exactly where the Epstein connections begin.
- [15:14]
B
We pivot from the mechanics of the inauguration to the subsequent legal consequences. In July 2021, the Department of Justice unseals a federal indictment against Thomas Barack.
- [15:23]
C
The charges are severe. Barack is accused of acting as an unregistered foreign agent for the United Arab Emirates. He is charged with obstruction of justice and making multiple false statements to federal investigators. The DOJ alleges he weaponized his access to the President to advance the interests of a foreign government.
- [15:41]
B
The micro timeline of the federal investigation begins earlier in June 2019. The FBI conducts an initial interview with Barak. You have to picture the setting here. Federal agents sit down with a billionaire power broker. They ask specific targeted questions regarding his communications with UAE officials.
- [15:59]
C
They ask about his efforts to influence administration policy regarding the Saudi UAE blockade of Qatar.
- [16:04]
B
The statements Barak makes during this June 2019 interview form the absolute basis for the later false statement charges the FBI is meticulously mapping his transition era communications. They are scraping his servers. They are pulling his phone records. They are rebuilding his digital life from 2016 and 2017.
- [16:22]
C
The escalation hits in July 2021. Barack is arrested in Los Angeles. The optics are staggering. He spends two days in a federal holding cell. He is released on a $250 million bond package.
- [16:35]
B
We need to unpack a $250 million bond. You do not just hand over a check. You pledge massive real estate holdings, corporate assets and secure signatures from multiple wealthy co signers.
- [16:45]
C
It is one of the largest bond packages in American legal history. It signals that the DOJ viewed him as an Extreme flight risk with access to limitless foreign capital.
- [16:54]
B
The trial commences in the fall of 2022. It spans six grueling weeks. In federal court in New York. The prosecution presents a vast array of text messages, emails and calendar entries. They allege Barak marketed herself as the eyes, ears and the voice for the Emirates to manipulate American foreign policy from the inside.
- [17:12]
C
In November 2022, the jury delivers its verdict. Barack is acquitted on all counts. The defense successfully argued that his actions were just standard high level business networking, not covert foreign agency.
- [17:24]
B
We must dissect the glaring anomaly in this timeline. The Department of Justice executed a multi year forensic investigation into Thomas Barack's text messages and emails spanning the exact 2016-2017 transition period.
- [17:38]
C
They pulled his communications with the Saudis. They pulled his communications with the Emiratis. They mapped every lunch, every ph, every flight record regarding his Middle Eastern contacts.
- [17:47]
B
Yet they entirely omitted the parallel channel of over a hundred text messages with Jeffrey Epstein occurring during the exact same chronological window.
- [17:56]
C
The official argument suggests the Epstein texts were simply outside the scope of the UAE foreign agent case. They argue it was irrelevant to the specific FAR charges.
- [18:06]
B
Look at what they are leaving out. Any competent federal investigation scraping a subject's digital footprint for undisclosed foreign influence during a presidential transition or would capture communications arranging lunches with the Russian ambassador to the UN the decision to compartmentalize the Epstein data shielded the broader network.
- [18:23]
C
The foreign agent prosecution created a legal firewall. The DOJ prosecuted the narrow UAE angle, lost the case entirely, and effectively neutralized any subsequent broader investigation into who else Barak was brokering access for during that same period. Double jeopardy attaches to the foreign agent charges, and the Epstein angle is quietly buried in an evidence locker.
- [18:46]
B
Which brings us directly to the blind spots. We must analyze what the EFT documents fail to show. We have the framework, but we are missing the core material.
- [18:55]
C
First, we have to look at the severe distinction between metadata and content. The news report confirms the existence of over 100 communications. We have the timestamps, we have the sender and receiver. But the full transcripts of the signal messages remain missing.
- [19:09]
B
We know Epstein explicitly instructed Barak to Download Signal in August 2016. We know Barack confirmed the download. The transition to encrypted messaging right before the election creates a total blackout regarding the substance of their coordination.
- [19:23]
C
Signal operates on end to end encryption. Unless you have the physical device unlocked in your hands, you cannot read the messages. Not even telecom companies have the data. If the FBI did not seize Barack's physical unlocked phone and extract the signal database, those conversations regarding The Russian ambassador, the Saudis and the inaugural funds are permanently dark.
- [19:44]
B
Second, the question of physical access. Did Jeffrey Epstein actually attend the inaugural events in Washington D.C. in January 2017?
- [19:52]
C
The documentary record shows Epstein's network was there. But if Epstein himself was on a VIP access list, someone with ultimate executive authority approved his inclusion. The Secret Service screens every single name for those secure zones. If he was operating entirely in the shadows, avoiding the official manifests, he utilized Barack as his physical proxy in the room, directing traffic from a distance.
- [20:14]
B
We map the micro timeline of information suppression. Federal investigators executed a massive raid seizing evidence from Epstein's New York townhouse and his private island in July 2019. They confiscated hard drives, physical blackmail safes and personal communication devices.
- [20:29]
C
The Barak and Epstein communication logs were absolutely in federal custody. They sat in DOJ evidence lockers through the entirety of Barak's foreign agent investigation. They sat there through his 2021 indictment. They sat there during jury selection. They sat there through his entire 2022 trial.
- [20:46]
B
At every single stage of custody, an official had the authority to flag the fact that the chairman of the presidential inauguration was coordinating heavily with a convicted sex trafficking financier. At every stage, they chose not to disclose it. The public only learned of this because of journalistic leaks and the eventual E. FNA release.
- [21:05]
C
The most significant structural failure occurs after the acquittal. In December 2024, Donald Trump nominates Thomas Barack to be the United States Ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria.
- [21:15]
B
In April 2025, the United States Senate confirms Barak by a vote of 60 to 36.
- [21:21]
C
Stop and analyze the mechanics of a Senate confirmation for an ambassadorial post. It requires a grueling FBI background check. Specifically the SF86 form. This is 127 page document demanding total perjury backed disclosure of foreign contacts, financial entanglements and potential blackmail liabilities. Field agents, interview your neighbors, your business partners, your enemies.
- [21:44]
B
The Epstein texts existed in the federal record. The FBI already possessed the data from the 2019 raid. They had the communications. Yet Barak cleared the background check and secured one of the most highly sensitive diplomatic posts in the world, operating at the exact intersection of Russian, Syrian and Turkish intelligence operations.
- [22:03]
C
At which stage did the Epstein connection vanish? Did the FBI actively hide the communications from the background report they submitted to the Senate? Did the Senate Foreign Relations committee review the 100 plus texts with an own sex trafficker and deem them completely irrelevant to a man seeking a top tier security clearance? Or did the White House force the nomination through despite explicit intelligence warnings?
- [22:23]
B
Representative Thomas Massie took to the House floor to point out this exact discrepancy. He highlighted the glaring contradiction. The DOJ aggressively pursues international figures tied to Epstein, but completely fails to arrest or hold anyone accountable domestically.
- [22:39]
C
This brings us to the central thesis of the data. Asymmetric accountability. The rules apply differently depending on your proximity to sovereign power.
- [22:47]
B
We synthesize the evidence. Look at the international landscape. In the United Kingdom, figures like Peter Mandelson faced immense public destruction, forced resignations and legal ruin simply for their documented social ties to Epstein. The association alone was fatal to their careers.
- [23:04]
C
Contrast that with the United States. Thomas Barack exchanged over 100 texts with Epstein. He willingly referred to him as a role model. He controlled a $107 million unregulated inaugural fund. He actively arranged meetings with Russian diplomats. At Epstein's direct request, he faced massive federal charges for covert foreign influence.
- [23:23]
B
He was acquitted of those charges. And despite the documented evidence of his coordination with a global blackmail operation, he was subsequently elevated to one of the most sensitive diplomatic posts in the US government, operating in Ankara and Syria.
- [23:37]
C
The verified EFTA's documents prove the immense volume of the text. They prove the overlapping timeline during the presidential transition. They prove the Senate confirmation vote occurred. Despite this highly compromising data existing in federal custody for years, the mass of
- [23:53]
B
unanswered questions remain centered on the FBI background check and the missing encrypted signal transcripts. The pipeline of access from Epstein's network directly into the 2017 inauguration was never fully audited.
- [24:04]
C
Consider the ultimate provocation. What if the real currency Epstein traded wasn't just cash or stock options? What if the true value was the compromed? The compromising material generated during that chaotic transition period? The inaugural committee was a soft target, flush with unregulated foreign cash and men desperate for influence. The data indicates the deep integration with the Epstein network does not disqualify an individual from acquiring sovereign political power. In some networks, it appears to be a prerequisite.
- [24:35]
B
Remember, this is an ongoing investigation and everything we cited is sourced at Epsteinfiles FM.
- [24:40]
C
Next time on the Epstein Files. File 102. Casey Wasserman told Maxwell he wanted to see her in leather. He's running the 2028 Olympics.
- [24:52]
A
You have just heard an analysis of the official record. Every claim name and date mentioned in this episode is backed by primary source documents. You can view the original files for yourself at Epstein Files fm. If you value this data. First approach to journalism. Please leave a five star review wherever you're listening right now. It helps keep this investigation visible. We'll see you in the next file.