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January 31, 2026 — 5:00pm
Washington: Former prime minister Kevin Rudd has denied ever visiting convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein at his New York home, despite such a meeting appearing in Epstein’s schedule in 2014, according to new emails released by the US Department of Justice.
In a lengthy, detailed statement he also denied any friendship with Epstein after a mutual associate, the then secretary-general of the Council of Europe, described Rudd in an email to Epstein as “a friend of both of us”.
About 3 million pages of documents relating to Epstein were released by the US Department of Justice on Friday, US time, under a congressional order, shedding further light on the deceased financier’s network of contacts in business, politics and the media.
Emails in the data dump show Rudd appeared on Epstein’s daily schedule for Sunday, June 8, 2014, at 4.30pm. According to the schedule, Epstein flew to New York that morning from his private island, Little Saint James, for planned meetings that included lunch with venture capitalist Joi Ito and film director Woody Allen, and later, a meeting with Rudd.
Rudd, who is in his final two months as Australia’s ambassador to the United States, said he did not attend.
“Our office has no records of this meeting, and the published documents gave no indication about who was involved in organising it. In any case, they were unsuccessful in arranging the introduction,” his office said.
The emails appeared to show some uncertainty on Epstein’s part about whether the former Australian prime minister would attend, and when. On June 6, two days before the appointment, Epstein emailed his long-time assistant Lesley Groff to ask for non-vegetarian food at Sunday’s lunch “as now kevin rudd is also coming”.
Seconds later, he emailed Ito to say: “Kevin Rudd might also stop by former prime minister austrailia [sic].”
Thousands of people are mentioned in the Epstein files, and it is not a sign of any wrongdoing. This masthead does not assert there was any form of personal relationship between Epstein and Rudd.
In a statement from his office, the former prime minister repeated his previous denials of ever corresponding with Epstein or visiting any of his properties.
“Dr Rudd also has no reason to believe that he ever met with Jeffrey Epstein at any time. We cannot rule out the possibility that they might have attended the same event at some stage, since Dr Rudd has attended literally thousands of functions in New York over the years,” Rudd’s office said.
“Most references to Dr Rudd in these latest documents mention him in passing. Others indicate there were attempts by mutual acquaintances of Jeffrey Epstein to introduce him to Dr Rudd. No introduction ever took place, and there is no evidence of any direct contact between Jeffrey Epstein and either Dr Rudd or his office.”
Another email in the trove refers to a dinner Epstein planned in September 2015 with the then-president of Mongolia. Epstein is asked by an assistant: “Kevin Rudd has also asked if he can bring his wife and son. Would that be ok?” Epstein replies: “Ok.”
Rudd’s office said that on that occasion, Rudd was invited to the event by the International Peace Institute [IPI] – a think tank he chaired at the time – but he ultimately declined. “We do not know whether or not the dinner went ahead without him.”
The newly published Epstein emails also show that in 2016, then-secretary-general of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland emailed Epstein suggesting a visit to his private island. In an unrelated aside he added: “Kevin Rudd, a friend of both of us just left my house.”
Rudd’s office acknowledged having dinner with Jagland at his home in Strasbourg that night but said: “The secretary-general’s reference to Dr Rudd being ‘a friend of both of us’ appears based solely on their shared connection to the IPI.”
Rudd has previously acknowledged distant ties to Epstein through the IPI. In 2020 he said he was “blindsided” when he learnt the previous year that Epstein had donated $650,000 to the organisation over the decade.
He also accepted the chief executive’s resignation after it emerged they had taken an undisclosed personal loan from Epstein.
At that time Rudd acknowledged being on a 2014 teleconference call that included Epstein, and attending an event to which Epstein was also invited, but said he had “no recollection whatsoever” of meeting the man.
Rudd was largely based at Harvard University in 2014 before moving to New York in 2015, when he became president of the Asia Society Policy Institute. He later became president and chief executive of the Asia Society, and is leaving the US ambassadorship after three years to return to those roles.
In the new statement about the emails released by the Justice Department, Rudd’s office said: “Even if these various records were somehow to be accepted at face value, none of them allege that Dr Rudd engaged in any wrongful activity or had any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.
“Dr Rudd’s legal team is prepared to launch legal action against any defamatory statements asserting any kind of personal relationship between Dr Rudd and Epstein.”
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