Ever since it was disclosed that financier Leon Black had paid Jeffrey Epstein over $150 million for tax and estate planning in 2014, six years after the latter pleaded guilty to child prostitution charges, I have been fascinated by the notion that the disgraced sex offender, who made little outward intellectual contribution to the world, had all these highly valuable forms of expertise. Many powerful people have claimed that Epstein was some sort of charismatic polymath.
Legal scholar Alan Dershowitz once said that Epstein had a "probing, inquiring mind." He also relayed that Larry Summers—the economist who over his career ran the World Bank, the U.S. Treasury, and Harvard—admired Epstein's economic thinking. A spokesman for former President Bill Clinton said in 2002 that the former president admired Epstein's "keen sense of global markets and an in-depth knowledge of twenty-first-century science." Of his former employee Epstein, then-Bear Stearns CEO Jimmy Cayne said in that same article, "He is a very smart guy."
Perhaps these people had their own reasons for frequently asserting Epstein's brilliance. It was less controversial to do so in the early 2000s. And yet, even after his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution of a minor, plenty of people still held the same sentiment—they just took it to private correspondence. The trove of documents released by the House Oversight Committee this week shows that a staggering variety of high-profile figures were hitting up the sex criminal for expertise on a range of topics. The effort Epstein put into his responses may disabuse a reader of the notion that he was some kind of operative genius.
Below you will find a list of those who requested advice, followed by Epstein's replies. The most relevant parts are highlighted in squares, and each email exchange should be read bottom to top for proper chronology. This collection is non-exhaustive, as there were 20,000 pages of documents to sift through, but it should give you a sense of Epstein's probing, inquiring mind.
Expertise sought: Physics and neuroscience
Inquirer: New age figure Deepak Chopra
Expertise sought: Handling allegations of sexual misconduct
Inquirer: Lawrence Krauss, prominent scientific skeptic, director of Arizona State University's Origins Project, and professor until 2019, when ASU determined that he'd violated university policy after being accused of sexual misconduct. The BuzzFeed story referenced by Krauss was published four days prior to his email.
Expertise sought: Travel and apparel for visiting Dubai
Inquirer: Former Obama White House counsel Kathy Ruemmler, who met with Epstein frequently after leaving her post and before joining Goldman Sachs as their Global Head of Regulatory Affairs in 2019. Per a 2023 Wall Street Journal report on Epstein's schedule, Ruemmler was scheduled to join a 2015 trip to Paris as well as a 2017 visit to Epstein's private island. She denied going on either, though she did meet with Epstein at his Manhattan townhouse. The Journal reported that Epstein and his staff weighed whether Ruemmler "would be uncomfortable with the presence of young women who worked as assistants and staffers at the townhouse."
Expertise sought: Cognitive science/biology/sociology/???
Inquirer: Cognitive scientist Joscha Bach, a prominent researcher, philosopher, and TED/Lex Fridman-style media fixture whose work at the MIT Media Lab was funded in large part by Epstein.
Expertise sought: Backstopping Trump admin cuts to science
Inquirer: Email appears unprompted, but sent to MIT Media Lab head Joi Ito and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. Hoffman, who introduced Peter Thiel to Epstein in 2014, falsely claimed in the process that Epstein was "one of the guys who invented derivatives." Hoffman funded the Media Lab's "Disobedience Award," given to people who challenge "norms, rules, or laws that sustain society’s injustices." The final winners earned their award for their "stand against sexual assault and harassment."
Expertise sought: Identifying elementary fraud
Inquirer: Maldives President Mohamed Waheed Hassan, who found the time to email Epstein in January 2013 despite being in office for less than two years. He was president during a notably turbulent time in Maldivian politics, which, given what he was emailing Epstein about, he was clearly not cut out to navigate.
Exchange:
Expertise sought: How to write to Serena Williams about poetry
Inquirer: Harvard English professor Elisa New, who had several literature initiatives funded by Epstein. She is also married to Epstein associate Larry Summers.
Expertise sought: Woody Allen's approval to appear on camera
Inquirer: Harvard English professor Elisa New (again)
Expertise sought: Cholesterol medication
Inquirer: Emirati businessman Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, currently working with such people as Ted Cruz to recognize the breakaway state of Somaliland as its own country so the UAE and U.S. can use it as a port.
Expertise sought: Employment status of a romantic interest
Inquirer: Jonathan Farkas, heir to the Alexander's department store fortune. His family has been peripherally involved with the second Trump administration, and his wife Somers was sworn in as ambassador to Malta last month.
Expertise sought: How Obama can secure his legacy in science
Inquirer: Idea unprompted, but sent to Joi Ito, head of MIT Media Lab. Since resigning from MIT shortly after Epstein's 2019 arrest, Ito has worked for the Japanese government and advised the Kazakh government on AI.
Expertise sought: Whether Sundance, Utah is nice
Inquirer: Harvard physicist Lisa Randall
Expertise sought: Creating luck
Inquirer: Philanthropy strategist and risk expert Barnaby Marsh, who often met with rich people at Epstein's townhouse, where he "openly discussed" his previous conviction. "So many of these billionaires knew him," Marsh told the Wall Street Journal in 2023. "Nobody ever said ‘Watch out for him.’"
Expertise sought: Whether to vote for Donald Trump due to excessive wokeness
Inquirer: Piss Christ artist Andres Serrano
Expertise sought: Radical breakthroughs
Inquirer: Jeffrey Epstein himself
If you're sifting through the emails and find anything else on this theme, drop us a line at tips@defector.com.
