Epstein and Dershowitz Teamed As much as Smear Israel Foyer Critics Mearsheimer and Walt

Newly uncovered emails reveal Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender, directly aided Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz in launching a vicious smear campaign against scholars John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt for daring to expose the Israel lobby’s stranglehold on U.S. foreign policy.

The coordination happened the same week Epstein was plotting to discredit one of his underage victims.

In March 2006, Harvard’s Kennedy School published the duo’s working paper, “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,” which laid bare how pro-Israel groups like AIPAC warp American interests to serve a foreign power. Mearsheimer and Walt wrote, “Other special interest groups have managed to skew U.S. foreign policy in directions they favored, but no lobby has managed to divert U.S. foreign policy as far from what the American national interest would otherwise suggest, while simultaneously convincing Americans that U.S. and Israeli interests are essentially identical.”​

Piers Morgan Uncensored confronted Mearsheimer and Dershowitz directly on the leaked Epstein emails, with Mearsheimer confirming Dershowitz’s smears devastated Walt’s career while Dershowitz defended circulating his rebuttal through Epstein as standard academic practice.

The backlash was immediate and ferocious. The Anti-Defamation League branded it an “anti-Jewish screed.” Harvard scrubbed its logo from the paper and added a disclaimer. Even The Atlantic, which commissioned it years earlier, killed the piece and paid a “$10,000 kill fee,” as Mearsheimer later told Tucker Carlson: “That’s the fastest $10,000 we ever made.”​

Drop Site News obtained Epstein’s emails from whistleblower group Distributed Denial of Secrets, verified by Bloomberg as authentic. In early April 2006, Epstein got drafts of Dershowitz’s hit piece, “Debunking the Newest – and Oldest – Jewish Conspiracy,” comparing the scholars to authors of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Epstein replied, “terrific…congragulations (sic).” Dershowitz’s assistant followed up: “Jeffrey, were you going to distribute this for Alan??” Epstein confirmed: “yes I’ve started.”​

Epstein, no stranger to Harvard influence, had donated millions and managed Leslie Wexner’s fortune, which funneled $20 million to the Kennedy School for programs like the Wexner Israel Fellowship training Israeli officials. He positioned himself as a patron to stars like Dershowitz and then-Harvard president Larry Summers.​

The irony couldn’t be thicker: elite financiers using cash and connections to bury a paper warning about exactly that dynamic—pro-Israel money pulling U.S. policy off course, especially amid the Iraq disaster. Mearsheimer told Drop Site, “I’m not surprised to see these emails, because Dershowitz and Epstein were close and both have a passionate attachment to Israel.”​

Same Week: Smearing a Child Victim

While orchestrating the academic takedown, Epstein fed Dershowitz—his lawyer—dirt on a 16-year-old accuser from Palm Beach police files. On April 10, days after Dershowitz’s piece dropped, Epstein sent character assassination material: drugs, shoplifting, family scandals. He griped to prosecutor Barry Krischer, “I hope you recognize that I am quite surprised by the recent turn of events, after you advised me almost two months ago that I was to just ‘chill’ … that the case was to ‘fizzle.’” He pushed for a meeting to peddle “exculpatory evidence.”​

Epstein’s sweetheart 2008 plea deal—13 months with work release—shielded co-conspirators. He kept ties with Summers until 2019, even giving romantic advice.​

Lasting Chill on Free Speech

The smears worked. Chicago Council on Global Affairs canceled their 2007 talk under pro-Israel pressure. Venues demanded “balanced” pro-Israel counter-speakers. Jeffrey Goldberg piled on in The New Republic, likening their views to Osama bin Laden’s and Father Coughlin’s rants. A decade later, Goldberg became The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief.

This proves Mearsheimer and Walt right: criticism of Israel lobby power triggers elite mobilization to silence dissent, protecting foreign interests over America’s. The establishment’s playbook—smear, defund, deplatform—remains alive, but leaks like these expose the rot.

For the full breakdown, watch Ryan Grim on Breaking Points.