Emails open window into Epstein’s wide network of high-profile friends

3 weeks ago 13

Washington: When Donald Trump became president for the first time, at the start of 2017, Jeffrey Epstein felt he had some wisdom to impart to the world about how to handle the brash businessman-turned-leader of the free world. He gave some of it to the Russians.

“I think you might suggest to putin, that lavrov, can get insight on talking to me,” Epstein wrote to Thorbjorn Jagland, then the secretary general of the Council of Europe, in the summer of 2018.

He was referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who are both still in those roles.

Donald Trump, his then wife-to-be, Melania Knauss, with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in Florida in 2000.

Epstein indicated he used to speak about Trump with Vitaly Churkin, a former Russian diplomat who died in 2017. “churkin was great,” Epstein wrote. “he understood trump after our conversations. it is not complex. he [Trump] must be seen to get something. its that simple [sic].”

The trove of documents released yesterday by the House Oversight Committee reveals that Epstein - who was convicted of sex offences in a 2008 plea deal, including procuring a minor for prostitution - maintained a vast, high-profile network of friends with whom he corresponded.

It spanned the worlds of media, politics, law, diplomacy, science, technology and finance, and Epstein and his pen pals sometimes acknowledged the disgraced financier’s penchant for women who were – as Trump once put it – “on the younger side”.

Epstein’s relationships with these people are generally already known, and many of the people have since made public statements saying they regretted their associations with Epstein.

In 2014, Epstein was emailing lawyer Kathryn Ruemmler, who had just left the Obama White House, where she served as chief counsel. The two appeared to be discussing her career.

“Most girls do not have to worry about this crap,” Ruemmler told Epstein. He began his reply: “‘girls?’ careful i will renew an old habit.”

List of names

Epstein then rattled off a list of names, implying that he would be meeting with them while they were in New York City for a climate summit that week.

The names appeared to include venture capitalist Peter Thiel, former Treasury secretary Larry Summers, former US ambassador to Russia Bill Burns, former British prime minister Gordon Brown, billionaire investor Leon Black, Indian politician and diplomat Hardeep Puri (whose name Epstein misspelled as ‘puree’) and someone named “Woody”, among others.

Former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers.

“you are a welcome guest at any,” Epstein told Ruemmler.

Summers, who was treasury secretary to Bill Clinton and also served in a senior economic role under Obama, was emailing Epstein regularly in 2017.

“I’m trying to figure why American elite think if u murder your baby by beating and abandonment it must be irrelevant to your admission to Harvard, but hit on a few women 10 years ago and can’t work at a network or think tank,” Summers wrote to Epstein in October of that year. “DO NOT REPEAT THIS INSIGHT,” he added.

In an exchange about Trump, Epstein told Summers: “your world does not understand how dumb he really is. he will blame everyone around him. for bad results.”

Summers also took aim at the then-president, telling Epstein the consensus view of people he met on a trip to Saudi Arabia was that “Donald is a clown, increasingly dangerous on foreign policy”.

Also in 2017, Epstein had contact with Deepak Chopra, the Indian-American new age guru, who was fascinated by Trump’s claims that Obama had wiretapped Trump Tower. “Is he loco?” Chopra asked Epstein.

There are multiple exchanges between Epstein and Ehud Barak, a former Israeli prime minister and defence minister. The Wall Street Journal has previously reported that Barak visited Epstein “dozens of times”, including accepting flights on Epstein’s private jet while visiting his homes in Florida and New York.

Epstein was in regular contact with biotech venture capitalist Boris Nikolic, who was an adviser to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.

“Met your friend bill clinton followed up with sarkozy,” Nikolic wrote in 2010, referring to the then president of France, Nicholas Sarkozy (who was incidentally released from jail a few days ago and is appealing his conviction in a campaign finance scandal).

“Later in day meeting your other friend prince andrew as he has some questions re microsoft.” Epstein replied: “you can tell andrew we are friends.”

Nikolic informed Epstein that, at an event, he had been flirting with a “22 years old hot blond blue eyes mexican chick”, who was there with her husband. “Did not have a chance to check him out,” Nikolic wrote. “But as we concluded, anything good is rented.”

There are numerous conversations between Epstein and his friend Lawrence Krauss, the theoretical physicist who retired from Arizona State University in 2019 after sexual misconduct allegations.

In 2018, while discussing a “Women in the World conference” convened by editor Tina Brown, Krauss suggested they convene a “men of the world conference” which would feature Kevin Spacey, Bill Clinton, Al Franken and Woody Allen.

The emails show Epstein discussed geopolitics and markets with renowned professor Noam Chomsky, was regularly advised on media matters by the author and journalist Michael Wolff, and maintained a friendly relationship with then New York Times reporter Landon Thomas Jr – who left the paper in 2019.

In a 2015 exchange with Thomas, Epstein offered to provide Thomas with “photso [sic] of donald and girls in bikinis in my kitchen”. It was not clear whether Epstein actually possessed such images; none have surfaced.

Bill Clinton (right) with Jeffrey Epstein.

Meanwhile, in 2016, emails with investor Tom Barrack – a friend, adviser and fundraiser of Trump’s, who is now the US ambassador to Turkey – Epstein said he was receiving many calls each week from reporters interested in his relationship with the president, Mar–a-Lago, “beauty contest” and Bill Clinton.

“my answers are always i have nothing to say. or i try to ignore altogether,” Epstein relayed.

The email trove shows Epstein stayed in contact with many of these friends until 2019, the year he was arrested on sex-trafficking charges and then died in prison awaiting trial. For example, Epstein was planning a lunch with Wolff in May of that year, just six weeks before his arrest.