Residents of a New York building majority-owned by Mark Epstein, the younger brother of financier Jeffrey Epstein, said former Israeli Prime Minister and Democratic Israel Chief Ehud Barak was a “frequent presence” there, The Daily Beast reported.
According to the report, several residents said they had seen Barak in the building “multiple times over the last few years,” while “nearly half a dozen more described running into his security detail.”
“When he wasn’t in his apartment, [the security guards] would hang out in the lobby as if it was their own living room,” one resident recalled. “They would sprawl out, they’d put all their [stuff] on the couches, and sometimes they ate on the table there.”
The building, located at 301 East 66th St. in the Upper East Side of New York, has been tied to trafficking charges against Jeffrey Epstein, the report noted.
When asked about his stays at the building, Barak told The Daily Beast, “Despite the fact that there was no wrongdoing on my part, and that there is not even the faintest suspicion of wrongdoing on my part, I’m not going to address these questions because in the current political environment in Israel, the mere fact of my response to such a question is churned up as spin in the political game.”
“As a former prime minister I’m accompanied by bodyguards everywhere I go,” he added.
Barak’s ties to Epstein have led to media scrutiny of both his relationship with the billionaire as well Barak’s financial dealings with Epstein, who was arrested last month on new charges.
In 2004, Barak received $2.3 million from the Wexner Foundation, which was established by Epstein’s benefactor and close friend, billionaire Leslie Wexner, owner of the L Brands corporation which includes the Victoria’s Secret brand.
Epstein was a trustee of the foundation when Barak received the money for unspecified consulting services.
In January 2016 – a decade after Epstein was first charged with a sex crime – a piece by The Daily Mail featured photographs of Barak visiting one of Epstein’s Manhattan residences.
Barak has admitted that he met “on occasion” with Epstein, including at Epstein’s now infamous private island, but denies ever meeting any of the young women or girls allegedly trafficked by Epstein.