During an all-hands meeting with CBS News staffers last week, editor-in-chief Bari Weiss attempted to lay out a bold new vision for the network. She encouraged her staff to think of the decades-old TV news operation as a "start-up," and to prioritize "scoops of ideas," "scoops of investigation," and "scoops of explanation." She also announced the arrival of 19 new CBS News contributors, one of those contributors, Peter Attia, exchanged a bunch of emails with convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein.
Attia, a quack who calls himself a doctor but is really more of an influencer, was brought to CBS News to contribute ideas about longevity and aging. He is the author of a book titled Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity, and his website describes him as the founder of a medical practice that "applies the principles of Medicine 3.0 to patients with the goal of simultaneously lengthening their lifespan and increasing their healthspan." I probably don't need to tell you that he has a podcast, or that he likely got the CBS gig because Weiss interviewed him on her own podcast in 2023.
Attia's name is all over the latest batch of documents related to Epstein's case that the Department of Justice released on Friday. He exchanged hundreds of emails with Epstein, years after the sex offender and human trafficker had pleaded guilty to child prostitution charges. The volume and content of the emails indicate that Attia and Epstein had a close relationship.
The emails reveal that in January 2016, Attia was staying in an apartment owned by Epstein. In an email conversation with Epstein's personal assistant, Attia said that he'd be heading back to San Diego the next day and asked if there's anything he should do to clean up the apartment before he left. Epstein's assistant told him not to worry about any cleaning, thanked him, and told him to have a safe trip home. To which Attia responded:
No…thank YOU so much. See you next time, hopefully JE in town when I'm back in 2 weeks. I go into JE withdrawal when I don't see him…
In February 2016, Attia sent an email to Epstein with the subject line "confirmed." The email read:
Pussy is, indeed, low carb.
Still awaiting results on gluten content, though.
Another email thread from April 2016 shows Attia and Epstein discussing the differences between the Cayman Islands and Epstein's own private island, known as Little Saint James. The conversation ends with Attia writing, "I need to visit some time..."
Also in February 2016, Epstein and Attia carried on a conversation in which Epstein seemed to be seeking Attia's input on his recent blood test results. Attia offered this to his friend:
I can't talk now but we should find 60-90 to rigorously go through the entire set of labs. Bit by bit is not helpful. Have you decided if you're interested in living longer (solely for the ladies, of course)?
In June 2015, Epstein sent an email to Attia with the subject line "Got a fresh shipment." The message contained a redacted image. "Please tell you found that picture on line…bastard," responded Attia, to which Epstein replied, "fraid not." Attia then wrote:
You the biggest problem with becoming friends with you?
The life you lead is so outrageous, and yet I can't tell a soul…
Update (12:07 p.m.): Attia has released a long statement on his Twitter account attempting to explain his relationship with Epstein.
In explaining the June 2015 email thread in which he wrote "The life you lead is so outrageous, and yet I can't tell a soul…" to Epstein, Attia writes:
In June 2015, I sent Epstein an email with the subject line “Got a fresh shipment.” The email contained a photograph of bottles of metformin, a medication I had just received from the pharmacy for my own use. The subject line referred to the picture of the bottles of medication.
He replied with the words “me too” and attached a photograph of an adult woman. I responded with crude, tasteless banter. Reading that exchange now is very embarrassing, and I will not defend it. I’m ashamed of myself for everything about this. At the time, I understood this exchange as juvenile, not a reference to anything dark or harmful.
[...]
One line in that exchange, about his life being outrageous and me not being able to tell anyone, is being interpreted as awareness of wrongdoing. That is not how I meant it at all. What I was referring to, poorly and flippantly, was the discretion commanded by those social and professional circles–the idea that you don’t talk about who you meet, the dinners you attend and the power and influence of the people in those settings. What I wrote in that email reads terribly, and I own that.
