By Alison Weir
In four detailed articles published on April 30, 2023, May 3, 2023, May 17, 2023, and December 19, 2023, the Wall Street Journal described prominent individuals who spent time with Jeffrey Epstein after his 2008 conviction.
At the time these influential individuals met with Epstein he was a known pedophile and a registered sex offender. He had pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution, and there was abundant evidence that he had sexually assaulted at least forty minors, often trafficking them to others. Many of his young victims came from impoverished backgrounds, some virtually homeless.
This was widely known. As the Journal notes, Epstein’s case had “generated waves of media coverage at the time, with publications in the U.S. and abroad reporting on accusations from underage girls and young women.” Some of the victims he preyed upon were young teens wearing braces.
Yet, this did not deter powerful individuals from spending time with Epstein – even though there were indications that his activities had not ceased. The Journal reports:
“In the years after he registered as a sex offender, Epstein was rarely alone. He was often accompanied by attractive young women in their late teens or 20s. They opened the door at his New York townhouse when billionaires came calling. They sat beside him at meetings with bankers and celebrities. They traveled with him on his private jet to visit scientists, political leaders and tech-company founders. Photos of some of them with Epstein appeared in tabloid newspapers.”
The Journal reports that “despite the negative press, Epstein’s days were filled from morning to night with meetings with prominent people, the documents show. There were dinners at New York restaurants, meetings at luxury hotels and gatherings in the offices of prominent law firms. Many appointments were held at Epstein’s townhouse in Manhattan.”
The Journal points out that the townhouse where many of these meetings took place was deeply problematic. Prosecutors state that “the townhouse is where Epstein sexually abused female victims for years, many underage, and that he paid some of them to recruit their friends to engage in sexual activity.”
The Journal’s articles show that these connections with powerful individuals helped him continue his sexual exploitation and assaults on young women, some of them minors.
A lawyer who represented more than 150 of Epstein’s accusers says: “Without having legitimate connections to so many high-powered people, Jeffrey Epstein would not have been able to traffic most of these women after 2008.”
The Journal reports:
“He lured dozens of women by promising to use his connections to powerful people to get them jobs or other opportunities. He then groomed most of the women for his personal sexual exploitation, and passed a select group to other men for sex.”
“Epstein told some of the women he could get them into Woody Allen films or secure them a job at the United Nations. He promised others he could help them get modeling gigs at Victoria’s Secret. He told the Polish model he could help her get involved at the Gates Foundation. He conjured up many such offers for women.”
“Epstein frequently had the women attend such meetings or listen to calls with billionaires,” the Journal reports. “He sometimes brought them on trips to visit Harvard and other universities.”
A lawyer for the victims says: “He used the powerful people he was intermingling with to further facilitate his sex trafficking scheme, whether those people knew it or not. He was using everyone around him to create this facade of legitimacy.”
There are several examples. “In 2010, Epstein told the Russian model that she could get an audition with a Hollywood film director, then instructed her to wear a Snow White costume in the townhouse to practice for a role.”
The Journal continues: “When it became clear to the Russian model that she wasn’t getting the types of acting or modeling jobs Epstein had been promising for years, he connected her with Rød-Larsen, then head of the International Peace Institute, and dangled an opportunity to work at the United Nations.”
The Journal reports that “Epstein called some of the young women he sexually exploited ‘assistants.’” These “assistants” were often pressured to stay with Epstein:
“When some women in his inner circle tried to cut ties, they were presented with bills showing they were on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars in housing, dental and other expenses—money they didn’t have. The Journal reviewed one woman’s bill detailing years of expenses totaling more than half a million dollars.”
It is valuable to keep this context in mind when considering the people, listed below, who continued to spend time with Epstein.
Below are excerpts from the Wall Street Journal’s reports:
[Journalist Philip Weiss has written about “how central Israel was in Epstein’s circle.” The content below includes some information on that aspect in brackets. This information was not in the Wall Street Journal articles.]
Noam Chomsky
Epstein arranged several meetings in 2015 and 2016 with the author and political activist, while he was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.”
When asked about his relationship with Epstein, Chomsky replied in an email: “First response is that it is none of your business. Or anyone’s. Second is that I knew him and we met occasionally.”
In March 2015, Epstein scheduled a gathering with Mr. Chomsky and Harvard University professor Martin Nowak and other academics, according to the documents. Mr. Chomsky said they had several meetings at Mr. Nowak’s research institute to discuss neuroscience and other topics.
Two months later, Epstein planned to fly with Mr. Chomsky and his wife to have dinner with them and movie director Woody Allen and his wife, Soon-Yi Previn, the documents show.
“If there was a flight, which I doubt, it would have been from Boston to New York, 30 minutes,” Chomsky said. “I’m unaware of the principle that requires that I inform you about an evening spent with a great artist.”
In response to questions from the Journal, Chomsky confirmed that he received a March 2018 transfer of roughly $270,000 from an Epstein-linked account. He said it was “restricted to rearrangement of my own funds, and did not involve one penny from Epstein.”
Chomsky explained that he asked Epstein for help with a “technical matter” that he said involved “a simple, quick, transfer of funds.”
[Professor Chomsky has written and spokenly widely in support of Palestinian rights, although he has opposed the BDS campaign and has been accused of minimizing the significant role of the Israel lobby.]
Ehud Barak
After Epstein was arrested in 2019, photos were published in newspapers showing Mr. Barak, the Israeli politician, entering Epstein’s townhouse in 2016.
The documents provide new details about his scheduled meetings. They show that between 2013 and 2017, Epstein planned at least three dozen meetings with Mr. Barak. They had appointments every month for 11 consecutive months starting in December 2015, the documents show.
Mr. Barak told the Journal he was introduced to Epstein in 2003 by Shimon Peres, another former prime minister of Israel, at a social event with U.S. dignitaries, and that he would regularly visit Epstein when he traveled to New York. “Quite often, I came to the townhouse with my wife,” Mr. Barak said. Mr. Peres died in 2016.
Mr. Barak also took flights on Epstein’s private jet, the documents show. In January 2014, he met Epstein at his Palm Beach mansion and then they flew together to Tampa, where Epstein dropped him off and continued on to New York.
“I flew only twice on his airplane, together with my wife and Israeli security detail,” Mr. Barak said. He said he remembers the trip in Florida was to visit a U.S. military installation in Tampa.
Mr. Barak also met Epstein in 2015 with Mr. Chomsky, now 94, a linguistics professor and political activist who has been critical of capitalism and U.S. foreign policy.
Mr. Chomsky said Epstein arranged the meeting with Mr. Barak for them to discuss “Israel’s policies with regard to Palestinian issues and the international arena.”
[Israel advocate]
Woody Allen
Epstein was known to have been friendly with Mr. Allen. The documents reveal new details about some of their activities and how often they met. They were scheduled to get together nearly every month in 2014 and 2015.
In November 2012, an assistant to Mr. Allen sent one of Epstein’s assistants a note: “Woody was wondering if Jeffrey would be interested in watching his new film either today or tomorrow?” Epstein said he was available.
Epstein and Mr. Allen also planned visits to the studio of artist Jeff Koons in 2013, and to Sotheby’s auction house in 2017, the documents show. Mr. Koons didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Epstein arranged for Mr. Allen to join dozens of dinners at Epstein’s townhouse. Mr. Allen went with his wife, Ms. Previn.
“Woody and Soon-Yi lived in the same neighborhood as Epstein and were frequently invited to dinner parties at his townhouse,” said a spokeswoman for the couple. “There were always other guests at those gatherings.”
“Woody never had a business meeting with Epstein and not once spent time with him without Soon-Yi also being present,” the spokeswoman said.
In October 2014, Epstein planned for Mr. Allen to give lessons on film editing at his townhouse to a group of guests watching Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” the documents show.
Lawrence Summers
The former Treasury secretary and onetime Harvard University president had more than a dozen meetings scheduled with Epstein from 2013 through 2016, including several dinners, the documents show.
Summers emailed Epstein in 2014 asking for help fundraising for an online poetry project that his wife, Harvard professor Elisa New, was working on. In 2016, a nonprofit linked to Epstein donated $110,000 to New’s nonprofit, which develops video content about poetry, according to tax records.
Epstein donated millions of dollars to Harvard during Mr. Summers’s tenure as the university’s president from 2001 to 2006. Harvard has said it decided to reject donations from Epstein after his 2008 guilty plea in Florida.
Mr. Summers continued to meet with Epstein and seek his help years after Harvard decided it would no longer accept his donations.
Mr. Summers, who remains a Harvard professor, had more than a dozen meetings scheduled with Epstein from 2013 through 2016, including several dinners, the documents show.
Mr. Summers didn’t solicit donations for Harvard from Epstein after his conviction and didn’t personally receive money from him, his spokeswoman said. “Their interactions primarily focused on global economic issues,” she said.
But he did solicit donations for Ms. New, his wife. In 2014, Ms. New, a professor of English, was hoping to expand to the general public her Harvard coursework about poetry. She established the nonprofit that received the Epstein donation and later created a public-television series, the spokeswoman said.
Lawrence Summers wanted $1 million to fund an online poetry project his wife was developing. The former Treasury secretary and onetime Harvard University president turned to Jeffrey Epstein.
“I need small scale philanthropy advice. My life will be better if I raise $1m for Lisa,” Mr. Summers said in an email to Epstein in April 2014, referring to his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor. “Mostly it will go to make it a PBS series and for teacher training. Ideas?”
Epstein replied that they could meet in Cambridge, Mass. Mr. Summers invited him to dinner, according to a trove of documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Two days later they made plans to meet at The Fireplace, a cozy restaurant in nearby Brookline, one of several meetings the two men scheduled that year.
In 2016, a nonprofit linked to Epstein donated $110,000 to Ms. New’s nonprofit, which develops video content about poetry, according to tax records.
Leon Black
Leon Black, the billionaire co-founder of private-equity giant Apollo Global Management, scheduled more than 100 meetings with Epstein from 2013 to 2017.
Mr. Black declined to comment. He stepped down after an Apollo investigation found he paid Epstein for tax planning and estate advice.
[“Epstein and Black shared a love for Israel. The Leon Black Family Foundation gave $1,000,000 to Birthright, the Zionist indoctrination program, in 2016–in 2017. And another $100,000 to the Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces. The Black Foundation also gave $250,000 to Birthright in 2009.”]
Leon Botstein
Leon Botstein, the president of Bard College, invited Epstein, who brought a group of young female guests, to the campus.
Mr. Botstein, 76, president of Bard College since 1975, had about two dozen meetings scheduled with Epstein over about four years, which were mostly visits to the townhouse.
Mr. Botstein, also the longtime music director for the American Symphony Orchestra, invited Epstein to an opera at Bard in 2013, then a concert at the college in 2016, the documents indicate. Epstein planned each time to bring some of his young female assistants and arrive by helicopter.
Botstein said he received checks from an account linked to Epstein in 2016 totaling about $150,000. Botstein said he donated the sum to Bard that year as part of a more than $1 million donation. A spokesman for Bard College confirmed that the school received the donation from Botstein.
Botstein said Epstein designated him as a consultant of an entity and made the payments as if they were fees for consulting work, but he said he didn’t do any consulting work for Epstein. A spokesman for Botstein said the funds were compensation for serving a one-year term on an advisory board for Gratitude America. Epstein created the foundation in 2012 and used the charity to steer funds to various causes, the Journal has reported.
[Haddassah Magazine reports: “Botstein hails from a rich Jewish heritage and an ardently Zionist background”….. Some of his actions have “generated some controversy in the American Jewish community.” Professor and Palestine activist Joel Kovel exposed a quote by Botstein from the Chronicle of Higher Education, Jan 5, 2014: “As an active member of the Jewish community, I recognize that the American Jewish community is disproportionately generous to American higher education. For the president of an institution to express his or her solidarity with Israel is welcomed by a very important part of their support base.”]
Glenn Dubin and Eva Andersson-Dubin
Andersson-Dubin, a physician and former Miss Sweden, has said she dated Epstein in the 1980s. Epstein connected her husband, Glenn Dubin, to JPMorgan Chase, which bought control of his hedge fund, Highbridge Capital Management, in 2004 for more than $1 billion. Epstein earned a fee for the transaction, the Journal has reported.
The documents reveal Epstein offering help to one of the Dubins’ daughters, as he did for the children of other contacts. In 2012, Epstein emailed the Dubins’ daughter that he would arrange modeling jobs for her with apparel brands. In 2014, he scheduled a meeting between her and a professor at Harvard, where she was a student, the documents show.
Eva Andersson-Dubin, a longtime friend and the wife of hedge-fund billionaire Glenn Dubin, invited Epstein to charity events, to which he contributed.
In the summer of 2015, Epstein sent Dr. Andersson-Dubin a “funny story” about checking into a California hotel with a young woman.
“I went to park the car and the bellman said to Karnya ‘is that your father,’ ” Epstein, then 62, wrote in an email, referring to his female companion, then in her 20s.
Dr. Andersson-Dubin wrote back: “Glenn laughs so hard!!!!”
Mortimer Zuckerman
The real-estate investor and media owner was scheduled to meet Epstein more than a dozen times over the years, the documents show. On some occasions, the two men planned to meet at Zuckerman’s office or home, which was near Epstein’s townhouse, the documents show.
One night in January 2014, Epstein waited past 11 p.m. to meet with Zuckerman, who was scheduled to visit his townhouse at 10:30 p.m., the documents show.
A spokeswoman for Zuckerman had no comment on the scheduled meetings.
Terje Rød-Larsen
Epstein made plans for the Norwegian diplomat to visit his private island in 2012. Rød-Larsen was scheduled to visit so frequently to Epstein’s townhouse—dozens of times from 2013 to 2017—that the staff knew to have cucumbers on hand for his gin, the documents show.
[He had] helped negotiate the Oslo Accords in the 1990s.In 2013, Rød-Larsen wrote an email inviting a Polish model to Norway, which she used to obtain a visa to travel with Epstein to Norway. The model said she also accompanied an IPI team to Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan in 2014.
In October 2014, he was on the guest list when Epstein planned for Woody Allen to give lessons on film editing at Epstein’s townhouse to a group watching Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” the documents show.
Rød-Larsen resigned in 2020 as president of the International Peace Institute after a Norwegian newspaper reported he visited the townhouse frequently, had received a $130,000 personal loan from Epstein, and had accepted about $650,000 in donations from Epstein foundations for the nonprofit.
Kathryn Ruemmler
The White House counsel under then-President Barack Obama had dozens of meetings with Epstein in the years after her White House service and before she became a top lawyer at Goldman Sachs Group in 2020. Epstein also planned for her to join a 2015 trip to Paris and a 2017 visit to Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean.
Epstein visited apartments Ruemmler was considering buying. In October 2014, Epstein knew her travel plans and told an assistant to look into her flight. “See if there is a first class seat,” he wrote, “if so upgrade her.”
In 2014, Epstein called Ms. Ruemmler within weeks of her leaving the Obama White House. Epstein planned a lunch in August 2014 at his townhouse, followed by a series of meetings to introduce her to a wider circle of his acquaintances.
Over the next few years, Ms. Ruemmler, then a partner specializing in white-collar defense at Latham & Watkins, had more than three dozen appointments with Epstein, including for lunches and dinners.
Epstein also connected Ms. Ruemmler with Ariane de Rothschild, who is now chief executive of the Swiss private bank Edmond de Rothschild Group. The bank hired Ms. Ruemmler’s law firm, Latham & Watkins, after the introduction to help with U.S. regulatory matters, according to the bank and the Goldman spokesman.
Barnaby Marsh
When he was an executive at the large charitable fund John Templeton Foundation, Marsh met with Epstein roughly two dozen times, often for breakfast at the townhouse, the documents show.
Marsh, who advises wealthy people on philanthropy, said he went to Epstein’s townhouse for gatherings because it was full of billionaires and academics who had many of the same interests in charitable giving. Marsh said Epstein openly discussed his jail time.
Ariane de Rothschild
A member of the famous banking family had more than a dozen meetings with Epstein. He sought her advice with staffing and furnishings as well as discussed business deals with her, according to the documents.
De Rothschild, CEO of the Swiss private bank Edmond de Rothschild Group, negotiated a $25 million contract with Epstein in 2015 for one of Epstein’s companies to provide risk analysis and other services to the bank, the documents show.
One of Epstein’s scheduled meetings with Mrs. de Rothschild, in January 2014, included another of his regular guests: Joshua Cooper Ramo, then co-chief executive of Henry Kissinger’s corporate consulting firm.
Thomas Pritzker
Epstein scheduled several events at his townhouse with Pritzker, the chairman of Hyatt Hotels and member of a wealthy and politically connected Chicago family, according to the documents.
Pritzker had at least six meetings with Epstein in just one year alone.
Pritzker and Hyatt representatives didn’t respond to requests for comment about the scheduled meetings.
William Burns
William Burns, director of the Central Intelligence Agency since 2021, and former ambassador to Russia, had three meetings scheduled with Epstein in 2014, when he was deputy secretary of state, the documents show. They first met in Washington and then Mr. Burns visited Epstein’s townhouse in Manhattan.
A lunch was planned that August at the office of law firm Steptoe & Johnson in Washington. Epstein scheduled two evening appointments that September with Mr. Burns at his townhouse, the documents show.
Peter Thiel
A Silicon Valley investor and co-founder of PayPal, Thiel had several scheduled meetings with Epstein from 2014 to 2016, the documents show.
Thiel first met Epstein in 2014, after an introduction from Reid Hoffman, and said Epstein subsequently lured him to meetings with the promises of more introductions. “He was a crazed networker and low on substance in one-on-one conversations,” Thiel said. “It was all smoke and mirrors.”
In October 2016, when Thiel had been backing Trump’s campaign for president, Epstein scheduled a lunch with him and Russia’s ambassador to the U.N., according to the documents.
Nicholas Ribis
Epstein and Ribis, a former CEO of Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts in the 1990s, were scheduled to meet several times from 2011 to 2017, the documents show.
Some of those meetings were in 2016, after Ribis was named as one of the backers of a political-action committee supporting the Trump campaign.
Ramsey Elkholy
An anthropologist and musician who billed himself as a modeling scout and introduced several women to Epstein. Elkholy was communicating with Epstein about finding attractive women who might interest him, and Elkholy brought several of them to the townhouse, according to the schedules and people familiar with the matter.
In an interview, Elkholy said he brought friends, including models, to Epstein’s townhouse. He said he knew Epstein was a wealthy bachelor who liked beautiful women and massages, but wasn’t aware of the extent of Epstein’s activities.
Bill Gates
Epstein scheduled several meetings at his townhouse with the Microsoft mogul and visited Gates at his office in Seattle. Gates was photographed with multiple models introduced to him by Epstein. Gates was scheduled to spend more than six hours accompanying Epstein to meetings on one day, Sept. 8, 2014, according to the documents.
In 2013, Epstein met a Russian woman Gates was having a consensual affair with and later paid for her to attend software-coding school, according to people familiar with the matter.
[Microsoft has many connections that help Israel, statements are mixed]
Reid Hoffman
The documents reveal that the billionaire venture capitalist and LinkedIn co-founder visited Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean for a weekend, and was scheduled to stay overnight at his Manhattan townhouse in 2014.
In 2014, Hoffman introduced Epstein to fellow investor Peter Thiel.
The documents reveal that Epstein had plans for Mr. Hoffman and Mr. Ito (see below) to visit his private island in March 2014 and in November 2014. On the second date, Epstein planned to travel with both men from Palm Beach to the island for a weekend and then fly together to Boston.
When the venture capitalist had a flight scheduled to land late at night in New York on Dec. 4, 2014, Epstein arranged for Mr. Hoffman to stay overnight in his townhouse, the documents show. The following morning, Mr. Hoffman was scheduled to attend a “breakfast party” with Epstein, Mr. Gates and others, according to the documents.
Thorbjørn Jagland
A former Norwegian prime minister who had several scheduled meetings at Epstein’s townhouse. In 2014, Epstein told a Polish model that he planned to introduce them. “jagland is head of the council of europe and the chair of the nobel peace prize, I want you to meet.” Epstein wrote to the Polish model.
Jagland didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Joi Ito
The former head of MIT’s Media Lab accepted donations from Epstein. Ito had plans to visit Epstein’s private island in November 2014 with Reid Hoffman, as well as fly together to Boston.
Ito said in an email: “Reid attended a few fundraising events at my request, including one trip to Little St. James, after I confirmed to Reid that Mr. Epstein had been an approved donor target for MIT in accordance with university rules and regulations.”
In many cases the above individuals say they didn’t know about Epstein’s activities and regretted their connections with him.
Some claimed to hope he had been “rehabilitated,” despite indications suggesting that the sexual assaults and exploitation were continuing. In some cases they deny that the meetings took place.
For more information on this and additional details see the Wall Street Journal articles linked above and the embedded links in this post.
[/speaker-mute]Alison Weir is executive director of If Americans Knew, president of the Council for the National Interest, and author of Against Our Better Judgment: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Was Used to Create Israel.
RELATED:
- WATCH: Tucker Carlson & Darryl Cooper: Jeffrey Epstein and the culture of corruption
- The Jeffrey Epstein Cover-Up Continues
- Does Ghislaine have Epstein’s blackmail videos (for Israel)?
- Jeffrey Epstein & The Maxwells, Mossad’s First Family of Spies
- Tucker Carlson & Darryl Cooper: Jeffrey Epstein and the culture of corruption (video)
- ABC anchor caught on mic saying network quashed Epstein story
