Names released from Epstein’s calendar
(www.wsj.com)
You're viewing a single comment thread. View all comments, or full comment thread.
Comments (6)
sorted by:
Who Are the Names in Jeffrey Epstein’s Calendar?
WSJ investigation reveals meetings with politicians and executives and the kinds of favors Epstein did for them
By Khadeeja Safdar and David Benoit Updated Sept. 2, 2023 8:00 am ET
A multipart investigation by The Wall Street Journal has revealed prominent people who met multiple times with Jeffrey Epstein.
The Journal’s reporting, based on thousands of pages of emails and schedules largely from 2013 to 2017, also provides new details about how often or where people met with Epstein, and the kinds of favors Epstein did for them.
It shows Epstein had contacts with an array of powerful people long after he was a registered sex offender. He had pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution. He was arrested again in 2019 on sex-trafficking charges, and died that year in jail awaiting trial.
Here is a look at some of the prominent people in the Journal’s reporting:
Woody Allen
The Oscar-winning movie director attended dozens of dinners with his wife, Soon-Yi Previn, at Epstein’s mansion and invited Epstein to film screenings.
In October 2014, Epstein planned for Allen to give lessons on film editing at his townhouse to a group of guests watching Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” the documents show.
“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.
Ehud Barak
The former Israeli prime minister visited Epstein dozens of times and accepted flights on Epstein’s private jet. Between 2013 and 2017, Epstein planned at least three dozen meetings with Barak. In January 2014, he met Epstein at his Palm Beach mansion and then they flew together to Tampa, the documents show.
Barak said he would regularly visit Epstein when he traveled to New York and would meet interesting people at Epstein’s townhouse to discuss politics and other topics. “Quite often, I came to the townhouse with my wife,” Barak said.
“I flew only twice on his airplane, together with my wife and Israeli security detail,” Barak said. He said he remembers the trip in Florida was to visit a U.S. military installation in Tampa.
“In retrospect, [Epstein] seems to be a terrible version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but at the time seemed to be an intelligent person, socially well connected,” he said.
Thomas Barrack
Barrack, a real-estate investor and founder of Colony Capital, and Epstein had known each other for years and his name appears in Epstein’s address book. In 2016, Barrack was a fundraiser and informal adviser for Donald Trump’s campaign when Epstein began scheduling a series of meetings with him.
Included in those meetings was an August lunch with Russia’s United Nations ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, and Barak, the former prime minister of Israel, the documents show.
Barrack declined to comment.
Leon Black
The billionaire co-founder of private-equity giant Apollo Global Management had more than 100 meetings scheduled with Epstein from 2013 to 2017. They typically were scheduled to meet at Epstein’s townhouse and occasionally at Black’s office, the documents show.
The billionaire stepped down as Apollo’s CEO in March 2021. An Apollo review found he paid Epstein $158 million for estate planning and tax work. The U.S. Senate Finance Committee is now investigating Black’s taxes and those payments to Epstein. Black said he paid all his taxes.
Black declined to comment about the scheduled meetings. Apollo has said Epstein was working for Black, not Apollo.
Leon Botstein
The president of Bard College had about two dozen meetings with Epstein over about four years, which were mostly visits to the townhouse. Botstein also invited Epstein, who brought a group of young female guests, to the campus.
Botstein said he first visited Epstein’s townhouse in 2012 to thank him for $75,000 in unsolicited donations to Bard’s high schools, then he returned over several years in an attempt to get more donations.
“I was an unsuccessful fundraiser and actually the object of a little bit of sadism on his part in dangling philanthropic support,” said Botstein. “That was my relationship with him.”
Botstein, also the 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.
Botstein said he was expecting Epstein to support classical music causes and that the school took precautions when he visited. “Because of his previous record, we had security ready,” he said. “He did not have any free access to anybody.”
Botstein later confirmed to the Journal that 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 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.
William Burns
The documents show that the director of the Central Intelligence Agency since 2021 had three meetings scheduled with Epstein in 2014, when he was deputy secretary of state. They first met at a law firm office in Washington, D.C., and then Burns visited Epstein’s townhouse in New York City.
Burns recalls being introduced in Washington by a mutual friend, and meeting Epstein once briefly in New York as he was preparing to leave government service, said a CIA spokeswoman. “The director did not know anything about him, other than that he was introduced as an expert in the financial services sector and offered general advice on transition to the private sector,” she said. “They had no relationship.”
Sergey Brin
Epstein was advising the Google co-founder in 2007 on setting up a tax-saving trust for his children, according to court documents.
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 2015, Epstein planned to fly with 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.”
Vitaly Churkin
Russia’s U.N. ambassador had at least eight meetings scheduled with Epstein from 2015 until 2017, when Churkin died suddenly of an apparent heart attack, the documents show.
In 2016, Epstein scheduled lunches with Churkin and Trump campaign backers Peter Thiel and Thomas Barrack.
Epstein also had several meetings with Churkin’s son, Max, who was then a business school student in New York and now works at one of Russia’s largest banks, the documents show. Max Churkin didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Epstein had his final scheduled meeting with Vitaly Churkin on Jan. 10, 2017. The following month, the diplomat died on the eve of his 65th birthday.
Three days after Churkin’s death, Epstein sent an email to Thiel: “as you read my russian ambassador friend died. life is short, start with dessert.”
Joshua Cooper Ramo
Epstein scheduled more than a dozen meetings from 2013 to 2017 with Ramo, then co-chief executive of Henry Kissinger’s corporate consulting firm, the documents show.
Many of Ramo’s appointments with Epstein were in the evenings, typically after 5 p.m., at the townhouse. Ramo also was invited to a breakfast at the townhouse in September 2013, the documents show.
Ramo didn’t respond to requests for comment. A spokeswoman for Kissinger said he wasn’t aware that Ramo was meeting with Epstein.
Glenn Dubin and Eva Andersson-Dubin
Andersson-Dubin, a physician and former Miss Sweden, has said she dated Epstein in the 1980s. Epstein connected 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.
A spokeswoman for the Dubins said Epstein didn’t make introductions for modeling jobs for their daughter. After Epstein was arrested in 2019, the Dubins said that they were “horrified,” and that they had continued their friendship after his 2008 guilty plea because they believed he had rehabilitated himself.
Mary Erdoes
The head of JPMorgan’s asset and wealth management division made two trips to Epstein’s townhouse, in 2011 and 2013, when Epstein still was a client of the bank, people familiar with the matter said and court documents show. She exchanged dozens of emails with him and discussed sharing with him fees related to a charitable fund the bank was considering launching.
Erdoes previously had said she recalled only one meeting, which was the meeting where she fired him as a client.
After she fired him in 2013, bankers in her division continued to meet with Epstein, the Journal reported. A JPMorgan spokesman said the level of interaction with Epstein wasn’t atypical for a client of a private bank. Any meeting held with Epstein after 2013, the spokesman said, was regarding other JPMorgan bank clients whom Epstein represented.
Bill Gates
The Microsoft mogul was scheduled to spend more than six hours accompanying Epstein to meetings on one day, Sept. 8, 2014, according to the documents. Epstein also scheduled several meetings with Gates at his townhouse.
Gates has said he discussed philanthropy with Epstein, and it was a mistake to meet with him. Gates runs, with his ex-wife, one of the world’s biggest philanthropies.
“As Bill has said many times before, it was a mistake to have ever met with him and he deeply regrets it,” said a spokeswoman for Gates.
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.
After Epstein had failed to persuade Gates to participate in a multibillion-dollar charitable fund that Epstein tried to establish with JPMorgan, Epstein asked Gates to reimburse him for the cost of the woman’s course, according to the people familiar with the matter.
The implication behind the message, according to people who have viewed it, was that Epstein could reveal the affair if Gates didn’t keep up an association between the two men. The spokeswoman for Gates said he didn’t make a payment.
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.
Hoffman said he met with Epstein to raise funds for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and that he regrets interacting with Epstein after his conviction. In 2014, Hoffman introduced Epstein to fellow investor Peter Thiel.
“It gnaws at me that, by lending my association, I helped his reputation, and thus delayed justice for his survivors,” Hoffman said in an email.
MIT has said it was a mistake to accept gifts from Epstein and that it was “the result of collective and significant errors in judgment.”
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.
“I had high hopes that he would follow the paths of others who used their ‘second chance’ to make a positive impact in the world,” Marsh said. “In the end, he disappointed me.”
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 and Hyatt representatives didn’t respond to requests for comment about the scheduled meetings.
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.
Ribis had only a passing connection and had no business relationship with Epstein, a spokesman for Ribis said.
Bill Richardson
Epstein planned a dinner with Richardson at his townhouse in September 2016, the documents show.
The former New Mexico governor said he didn’t meet with Epstein in 2016 and that he doesn’t know why he appears in the schedules. He said he gave to charity a 2006 donation that Epstein made to his gubernatorial campaign.
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.
In 2019, after Epstein was arrested, the bank denied that de Rothschild met with Epstein and said it had no business links with him.
The bank acknowledged to the Journal that its earlier statement wasn’t accurate. It said de Rothschild met with Epstein as part of her normal duties at the bank between 2013 and 2019, and Epstein introduced the bank to U.S. finance leaders, recommended law firms and provided tax and risk consulting.
“In parallel to that, Epstein solicited her personally on a couple occasions for advice and services on estate management,” the bank said.
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.
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.
The IPI said in 2020 that it was unaware of the donations and the loan, and that Rød-Larsen had apologized for his “failed judgment.” Rød-Larsen didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Kathryn Ruemmler
The White House counsel under 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. He 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.”
Ruemmler had a professional relationship with Epstein in connection with her role at law firm Latham & Watkins LLP and didn’t travel with him, a Goldman Sachs spokesman said. Most of their meetings involved a mutual client and Epstein introduced her to potential clients, the spokesman said. “I regret ever knowing Jeffrey Epstein,” Ruemmler said.
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 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.
Summers “deeply regrets being in contact with Epstein after his conviction,” and New’s nonprofit “regrets accepting funding from Epstein,” said a spokeswoman for the couple. New’s nonprofit later made a contribution “exceeding the amount received, to a group working against sex trafficking,” the spokeswoman said.
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. Thiel said the meeting featured “nothing memorable.”
“I was rather naive,” Thiel said in an interview, “and I didn’t think enough about what Epstein’s agenda might have been.”
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.
Write to Khadeeja Safdar at [email protected] and David Benoit at [email protected]