The US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Wednesday released a 2016 email in which Jeffrey Epstein told Tom Barrack, now serving as US ambassador to Turkey, to “send photos of you and child. [sic] — make me smile.”
Epstein was a convicted sex offender who pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008 to state charges involving the solicitation of a minor.
The email appears in a 20,000-page set of Epstein-related documents that the committee published.
"In March 2016, Epstein emailed Barrack: “send photos of you and child. — make me smile.”
It is not clear from the document which child Epstein was referring to."https://t.co/kIOV9uvUtO pic.twitter.com/fjKgmc3O66
— Marc Owen Jones (@marcowenjones) November 13, 2025
The document does not identify which child Epstein meant.
The committee released the material after receiving it from the Epstein estate.
Barrack is a private equity investor who has been active in Republican politics for many years. He is also a longtime associate of President Donald Trump.
The US Senate confirmed Barrack in April as the ambassador to Turkey.
Barrack began his assignment in Ankara after presenting his credentials to the Turkish president.
Epstein’s email to Barrack was written in March 2016.
In the same exchange Epstein wrote that he was receiving many calls about his past connection to Trump, adding that he was not responding to those calls. Barrack replied by telling Epstein that they should catch up.
There is no information in the documents that explains the relationship between Epstein and Barrack and why Epstein wanted photographs.
Democrats on the committee had released a smaller set of Epstein emails earlier in the day.
Those earlier documents included messages in which Epstein claimed that Trump knew about the young women who visited his properties.
Trump wrote on his social media site that the renewed focus on Epstein was a political attempt to shift attention from other domestic issues.
Epstein died in federal custody in 2019 while facing federal sex trafficking charges.
Barrack continued his corporate and political work after Epstein’s death. He later faced federal charges related to alleged foreign lobbying for the United Arab Emirates. A jury found him not guilty in 2022.
Barrack has repeatedly praised President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as a key regional figure and has told Turkish media and regional forums that Turkey plays an essential role in diplomatic efforts involving Gaza, Syria and Ukraine.
In reported remarks that drew wide attention, Barrack said Trump wanted to “give Erdoğan what he needs” and described that need as “legitimacy,” which many analysts interpreted as support for Erdoğan’s political standing, while the opposition condemned the Turkish leader for seeking legitimacy from the US.
Barrack has also credited Turkey with helping shape ceasefire discussions in Gaza and has publicly thanked Ankara for its cooperation in pressure campaigns on Hamas.
These comments have led some analysts and columnists to argue that Barrack is overly sympathetic to Erdoğan and is minimizing concerns about Turkey’s political climate and the treatment of opposition figures.
Critics have gone further by describing Barrack as too close to Erdoğan’s government, with one widely shared commentary even labeling him as a “puppet” for the Turkish president.
The new document release has brought renewed public attention to contacts between Epstein and people in political and business networks.
Epstein first came under police investigation in Florida in the mid-2000s after reports that he had paid underage girls for sexualized massages at his home in Palm Beach, which led to a 2008 plea deal in Florida state court in which he admitted to a charge involving the solicitation of a minor and served about 13 months in a county jail with work release.
A parallel federal sex trafficking investigation was closed under a non prosecution agreement that protected Epstein and some unnamed associates from federal charges at the time.
Years later, federal prosecutors in New York brought a new case and arrested Epstein in July 2019 on sex trafficking and conspiracy charges that accused him of recruiting and paying underage girls in New York and Florida, but he was found dead in his cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial, in what authorities ruled a suicide.
Epstein’s estate has since faced multiple civil lawsuits from women who say he abused them when they were minors, while his associate Ghislaine Maxwell was separately tried and convicted on federal sex trafficking charges linked to the same pattern of conduct.
Epstein also had documented financial and social ties to former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, including investments in an Israeli emergency-services technology company linked to Israel’s security sector.
Leaked correspondence published this year shows Epstein staying in contact with Barak’s circle and interacting with a longtime Mossad veteran who spent extended periods inside Epstein’s New York townhouse.
Other leaked materials indicate that Epstein sought to assist Barak in advancing Israeli security and technology projects abroad, including discussions involving African and Asian governments.
Investigative reports have noted that Epstein channelled investments into Israeli ventures, including early funding for the surveillance-technology company now known as Carbyne.
These findings have revived long-running speculation about Epstein’s possible intelligence connections, although former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett and other officials have denied that he was linked to any Israeli service.