Jeffrey Epstein Excuses
Wealthy and well-connected people surely could have gone elsewhere for financial advice and philanthropic support.
James Freeman hedcutBy James FreemanFollow
May 5, 2023 1:59 pm ET
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This March 28, 2017, photo provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry shows Jeffrey Epstein. PHOTO: /NEW YORK STATE SEX OFFENDER REGI/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Say what you will about the people who sit atop America’s elite institutions but many of them sure seem to believe in giving second chances to convicts—or at least to one convict. Even after officially becoming a sex offender who preyed on a child, Jeffrey Epstein seems to have been welcomed into the company of some of the world’s most powerful people. Perhaps they can now describe other convicts they welcomed into their business and social scene. And if they can’t, it seems additional explanation is in order to clarify what exactly they found special about Epstein.
The Journal’s Khadeeja Safdar, David Benoit and Kara Dapena report:
On Monday, Sept. 8, 2014, Jeffrey Epstein had a full calendar. He was scheduled to meet that day with Bill Gates, Thomas Pritzker, Leon Black and Mortimer Zuckerman, four of the richest men in the country, according to schedules and emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Epstein also planned meetings that day with a former top White House lawyer, a college president and a philanthropic adviser, three of the dozens of meetings the Journal reported he had with each of them.
It’s hard to think of people who had more options when it comes to financial expertise or philanthropic support. They are surely some of the most well-connected people in the country. Did they need to do business with Epstein? In describing the various meetings, the Journal reporters note:
The Four Seasons, a luxury-hotel chain in which Mr. Gates’s investment firm holds a stake, was the next scheduled stop. There, Epstein introduced Mr. Gates to Kathryn Ruemmler, who until earlier that year had served as President Obama’s top White House lawyer.
Over the next few years, Epstein often had appointments with Ms. Ruemmler, who was a partner at Latham & Watkins at the time and is now general counsel at Goldman Sachs.
Ms. Ruemmler had a professional relationship with Epstein and many of their meetings were about a mutual client, a Goldman Sachs spokesman said. “I regret ever knowing Jeffrey Epstein,” Ms. Ruemmler said... A spokeswoman for Latham & Watkins said Epstein wasn’t a client of the firm.
In a separate Journal report, Khadeeja Safdar and David Benoit report:
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Lawrence Summers wanted $1 million to fund an online poetry project his wife was developing. The former Treasury secretary and onetime Harvard University president turned to Jeffrey Epstein...
Mr. Summers continued to meet with Epstein and seek his help years after Harvard decided it would no longer accept his donations.
Reid Hoffman, a billionaire venture capitalist and LinkedIn co-founder, visited Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean and was scheduled to stay over at his Manhattan townhouse in 2014...
Mr. 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.
Surely a former Treasury secretary, a billionaire and MIT could have found plenty of non-Epstein avenues to fund education, whether related to poetry or physics.
Perhaps the Epstein circle was composed of trusting and forgiving people who wanted to give him a second chance. Are there other convicts with whom they developed similar relationships?
