New York's elite are starting to regret fawning over Epstein trends now
When Jeffrey Epstein visited Bard College in Red Hook, New York state, he insisted on doing so in style. His helicopter would land at the prestigious university overlooking the Hudson River and he'd disembark surrounded by an entourage of attractive young women.
And perhaps that was just as well for the largely female student population — although the College president, Leon Botstein, insists they had 'security ready . . . he did not have any free access to anybody'.
Mr Botstein, a celebrated Swiss-American conductor who invited Epstein to a classical concert and an opera at Bard, has now been named in a shocking new trove of emails and documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal — along with other top academics, world leaders, diplomats, business tycoons, Oscar-winning directors and even the current head of the CIA.
These papers, which include Epstein's diary schedules, reveal the astonishing extent to which America's great and good cynically continued to fawn over the paedophile in the years after he had admitted sex offences involving a child and had been publicly accused of abusing scores more girls as young as 14 years old.
How on earth, one might ask, could Mr Botstein invite such a man as his guest of honour?
New York's elite are starting to regret fawning over Jeffery Epstein after he was exposed as a paedophile as cache of documents reveal hundreds of meetings
At Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan mansion in 2011, from left: James E. Staley, at the time a senior JPMorgan executive; former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers;Mr. Epstein; Bill Gates, Microsoft's co-founder; and Boris Nikolic, who was the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's science advise
These papers, which include Epstein's diary schedules, reveal the astonishing extent to which America's great and good cynically continued to fawn over the paedophile in the years after he had admitted sex offences involving a child
He had also been publicly accused of abusing scores more girls as young as 14 years old
'We believe in rehabilitation,' he has explained. Like many others, it might be added, he also believed in the power of the chequebook and hoped for sizeable donations to boost the college coffers.
Unfortunately for Bard College though, the super-wealthy financier, whom Mr Botstein now says he found 'odd and arrogant', was also 'sadistic' — prone to dangling the promise of cash that he never ended up donating.
That may have been particularly disappointing for the college president who invested a lot of time in Epstein. In addition to the two visits to the campus, the pair had around two dozen meetings over four years, mostly at Epstein's New York mansion — reputedly the biggest private home in the city — following his donation of 66 laptops to New York high schools run by Bard College.
As the new documents show, Mr Botstein is hardly alone in deeply regretting his connection with America's most notorious sex offender during the years he sought to launder his soiled reputation in U.S. high society, by fostering a reputation as a philanthropist and sponsor of the arts and sciences.
Far from being shunned in disgrace, Epstein was so successful that on a single day in September 2014, the new documents show, he was scheduled to meet with four of America's richest men, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Also meeting Epstein separately that day were the former chief lawyer in Barack Obama's White House, a leading billionaire philanthrophy expert and Bard's Mr Botstein.
This was eight years after Epstein was first publicly accused of abusing children, immediately prompting several politicians to return donations from him. And six years after he admitted soliciting prostitution from an underage girl in Palm Beach, Florida in a scandalously lenient deal that involved his spending just 13 months in a work-release programme.
Even Virginia Giuffre's shattering allegations that Epstein had farmed her out for underage sex to Prince Andrew (accusations he denies) were three years old by then.
Was it really too much to expect of the rich, influential and well-connected types who flocked around Epstein to go elsewhere for the cash, counsel and company they sought from him?
Far from being shunned in disgrace, Epstein was so successful that on a single day in September 2014, the new documents show, he was scheduled to meet with four of America's richest men, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates
Even Virginia Giuffre's shattering allegations that Epstein had farmed her out for underage sex to Prince Andrew (accusations he denies) were three years old by then
Apparently so. The people associating with him regularly in the years running up to 2019, when he was arrested in New York on sex-trafficking charges, range from actor and director Woody Allen, a regular dinner guest and film-going companion, to Larry Summers, Barack Obama's ex-Treasury Secretary and the former President of Harvard University.
The documents reveal that even the supposedly high-minded academic Noam Chomsky, scourge of capitalism and intellectual darling of the Left, was meeting Epstein for dinner and other meetings, and was offered a seat on the paedophile's notorious private jet, nicknamed the 'Lolita Express'. There is no suggestion that Chomsky was involved in any of Epstein's illegal activities.
In fact, embarrassingly for the US. Left — which is already smarting from Epstein's history as a generous Democrat party donor — nearly everyone who still swarmed enthusiastically around Epstein hailed from that side of America's political divide.
Others now squirming with embarrassment over their Epstein links are billionaire media baron Mort Zuckerman, tech entrepreneur and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and, perhaps most astonishingly, the current director of the CIA, William Burns. There was also ex-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barack.
Former Barclays boss Jes Staley has already joined Prince Andrew in seeing his career and reputation destroyed by his long association with Epstein,
Nearly four years after Epstein died by his own hand in a New York jail cell, the feeling persists that the scandal is far from over — though many of those named will wish that it were.
There may be even more to be revealed about the high-powered friends he flew on his private jet and invited to his various multi-million-dollar homes, where the discovery of secret recording devices suggests he may have been blackmailing some of them.
Former Barclays boss Jes Staley has already joined Prince Andrew in seeing his career and reputation destroyed by his long association with Epstein, while Bill Gates's friendship with Epstein was reportedly a factor in his wife Melinda's decision to divorce him in 2021.
Last week a New York judge ruled that allegations Staley was aware of Epstein's sexual offences could support a claim for damages by the latter's alleged victims against JPMorgan, the US bank where he Staley worked and which bankrolled Epstein for years as a prized customer. Staley has himself now been accused of sexually abusing a young woman at Epstein's Virgin Islands retreat. (Staley and JPMorgan deny any wrongdoing).
Will others soon follow Staley?
Woody Allen is among those long known to have been a friend of Epstein in those final years. He has himself been dogged by allegations (which he denies and which never resulted in charges) that he molested his seven-year-old adopted daughter,
