Hristo Grozev: The most important thing in the Epstein files is not the sexual aspect but the Russian connection

From Faktor, the original source is an interview to UA news:

"Hristo Grozev: Trump's feeling that Russian intelligence services know everything Epstein knew is enough

December 27, 2025 

— Hristo, do you believe that the Russian intelligence services were able to obtain compromising information against Trump precisely because of the case against Jeffrey Epstein? 

This is not necessarily the kind of compromising evidence that everyone has been thinking about for years. Some hope, others fear, that such compromising evidence will not emerge — namely, of a sexual nature. But what we see from the correspondence published yesterday speaks of something else. That Jeffrey Epstein himself offered his services to Russian intelligence, to the Russian state, so that they could better profile, create a psychological profile of Trump himself and understand what his weak points were as a personality, how to negotiate with him in a way that they could win. 

There are no specific references to compromising sexual material. But this, of course, is an extremely interesting topic, because it raises the question of why a person who was a billionaire, who had his own island and his own airline, who was involved in sex trafficking, including underage girls, wanted to communicate and under what circumstances did this communication take place with the Russian services? 

He himself claims in their letters that he met with a representative of Russia - with the then ambassador Churkin, who died in 2017. He was a key person who actually helped Trump gain legitimacy as an international factor even before he won the 2016 election. So the question arises - what was the topic of this communication? 

To me, this is obvious because Russian intelligence has always understood that there are rich people, wealthy people from the West, who, if we look at their motivation through Maslow's pyramid, have already accumulated more than enough money for several lifetimes. They consider themselves successful, but they need something more, something different - to be factors in the international, geopolitical plan. They have certain unfulfilled dreams that are not related to money. And this is neither the first nor the only case. 

 Jeffrey Epstein.... There have been such cases before - with Robert Maxwell in the UK. Or rather, a story that is close to me, because it also affected my life - the story of the German-Austrian businessman and former billionaire Jan Marsalek, who is now hiding in Moscow. 

The story of Epstein and Marsalek is quite similar, because both of them had a huge amount of compromising material — personal compromising material and knowledge of the psychological profiles of influential figures. Epstein — mainly on American political figures, including Trump, and Marsalek — on German and Austrian ones. And they openly traded this with the Russian special services in order to gain importance, recognition — to be perceived as “super spies,” as people who communicate with major countries and are a factor in geopolitical terms.

— Hristo, how do you think this compromising material is used at all, if it was actually obtained from Epstein or through Epstein by the Russian intelligence services? In what case could it go public and what would that look like? 

Compromising material of this nature only works when it is not made public. Imagine that Trump understood — and he certainly understood — that Epstein is a person who knows specific cases of sexual crimes that are also mentioned in other conversations. That Trump had meetings with girls, often possibly underage, and others not — but the very fact that Trump knows that Epstein knows it, and that Trump knows that Epstein communicated with representatives of the Russian government — this fact in itself will forever influence and shape Trump's behavior. 

After that, there is no need to publish anything anymore. And it should never be published. Because the feeling of caution, the feeling that the Russian intelligence services know everything that Epstein knows because they communicated with him — that is more than enough. 

So once again — and yesterday I was answering many questions from other journalists — what exactly the compromising material is is not that important. The mere feeling that "they know everything" is quite enough and should never come to light.  

— Is such compromising material often used in political negotiations — behind the scenes or between intelligence agencies? And how often is it reminded that one side has compromising material against the other? 

 

It doesn’t even need to be reminded. Sometimes it is done, but the very fact of understanding that such compromising material can exist — even without a precise definition of what it is — is more than enough. 

 

In the case of Jan Marsalek, whom I mentioned, he claims to have compromising material of a sexual nature against German politicians. And, of course, such hints — if they reached me, they certainly reached these politicians as well. And they will forever be much more attentive to the state that possesses such information. In this case, the German state will not insist on Marsalek’s return to Germany, because they are afraid that he might actually publish this compromising material...

 

— What do you think — is Putin afraid of the publication of compromising information against him, or has he already learned to deny everything? Because we see how many investigations have been conducted into corruption in Russia, into the rule of Vladimir Putin and his entourage. He always prefers to ignore them. How dangerous is this compromising information for the Russian government? 

 

I do not agree that he ignores it. He does it publicly, and then sends his poisoners and murderers. I mean that publicly, inside Russia, in front of Russian citizens, he prefers not to notice it. But it is clear that the repressive machine is working at full speed. 

 

It is important to understand that if the repressive machine is working, it means that it is affecting him. It is affecting him and he is afraid. His public behavior differs from what he is actually doing behind the scenes. 

 

After the war began, after the full-scale invasion, he began to care less about it. I recently read chats that became part of a criminal case against spies who were following me and Roman Dobrokhotov. In them, FSB representatives directly discuss that after the start of the war in 2022, they no longer care how they look abroad. The reputational cost that existed before has completely disappeared. 

 

Therefore, I can say that after the start of the war, they care much less about their public image and, accordingly, they are ready for much more terrible actions than before."