Jeffrey Epstein moved through elite circles long after he became a registered sex offender, and the newly released emails confirm this with unsettling clarity.
More than 20,000 emails published by the House Oversight Committee show how Epstein stayed connected to politicians, journalists, academics, financiers, and cultural figures between 2009 and 2019.
Highlights
- Over 20,000 emails reveal Epstein maintained ties with elites despite his 2008 sex offender conviction.
- Michael Wolff advised Epstein on Trump media strategies, discussing hush money and election tactics.
- Epstein corresponded with various figures, including Noam Chomsky, Peter Thiel, and Kathryn Ruemmler.
- House Oversight emails suggest Epstein may have influenced Delegate Stacey Plaskett’s questioning at a 2019 hearing.
The documents, riddled with spelling errors, paint a glaring picture of the elite scene in New York before #MeToo.
Newly released emails reveal that Epstein still interacted with elite circles even after his conviction
Epstein worked the levers of wealth and connections at a constant rate. In 2008, he pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor. Yet the emails show that his conviction barely slowed his social or professional activity.
While President Donald Trump and the former Prince Andrew have been mentioned in the emails, the correspondents also reveal the not-so-obvious power players around Epstein.
BP Daily lists seven of these mostly unpresumptuous yet influential individuals.
Michael Wolff
Image credits: Jared Siskin/Getty Images
Journalist and Trump biographer Michael Wolff, who has re-entered the limelight recently with his exposés on Epstein and Trump, was perhaps one of Epstein’s most frequent correspondents.
Wolff, previously a journalist for The New York Times, has authored several books about the wealthy and the famous. One of his most popular books, Fire and Fury, chronicles Trump’s first term as president and includes salacious details about the White House.
In an email correspondence between Wolff and Epstein, Wolff appears to give Epstein advice in relation to Trump. In the 2015 email, Wolff informs Epstein that CNN was planning to ask Trump, who was then a presidential candidate, about his relationship with Epstein.
“If we were able to craft an answer for him, what do you think it should be?” Epstein asked Wolff. The two then discussed a media strategy, where Wolff at one point writes, “I think you should let him hang himself.”
A year later, just days before the U.S. presidential election, Wolff wrote to Epstein with an opportunity to sit for an interview that would “finish” Trump.
Epstein discussed Trump with many New York elites, including Wolff, Chomsky, and Ruemmler
Image credits: Davidoff Studios/Getty Images
Wolff’s media strategy advice to Epstein went beyond Trump.
In January 2015, Epstein wrote to Wolff, saying a former girlfriend could corroborate several claims, including that President Bill Clinton “was never on the island.”
He later emails Wolff asking, “Who should break the story” that “Clinton was NEVER EVER there, never.”
Wolff also emailed Epstein to notify him of Reuters’ plan to publish a story about a rape lawsuit against Epstein and Trump.
Larry Summers
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Emails revealed several exchanges between Epstein and Larry Summers, former President Bill Clinton’s Treasury Secretary and former Harvard University president. The emails indicate the two met for dinner frequently, and that Summers asked Epstein for romantic advice.
Epstein also connected Summers to prominent global figures, such as in July 2018, when Epstein proposed a meeting with the “presidnt [sic] of united nations, interesting person for you.”
Just months later, Summers emailed Epstein in November, where he seemed to forward an email he received from a woman. He then asked Epstein for his advice.
“Think no response for a while probably appropriate,” Summers wrote, to which Epstein replied, “she’s already beginning to sound needy :) nice.”
After the emails were released, Summers said he would step back from public commitments, but would continue his teaching work. “I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they have caused,” he said in a statement to CBS News.
Kathryn Ruemmler
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Kathryn Ruemmler, who served as White House counsel during Barack Obama’s presidency, was also named in the emails.
Just like with Wolff, Epstein and Ruemmler described a strategy from Trump. In 2018, they discussed hush money payments made by Trump to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the presidential elections.
“The principled case for impeachment is clear. What’s missing is the courage,” Ruemmler wrote. Trump was later convicted of falsifying business records over the issue. “You see, I know how dirty donald is,” Epstein wrote to Ruemmler.
In 2017, Ruemmler said Trump was “so gross,” and Epstein replied that he was “worse in real life and up close.”
In 2023, Ruemmler told the Wall Street Journal, “I regret ever knowing Jeffrey Epstein.”
Peter Thiel
Image credits: Nordin Catic/Getty Images
Peter Thiel is a billionaire investor and Trump supporter, and the founder of a surveillance company, Palantir Technologies. The company offers tools for surveillance and defense. Thiel has work contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the Israeli military.
He was invited by Epstein in 2018 to his Caribbean island. Some of Epstein's crimes are hypothesized to have been committed on this island.
A bit before this invitation, Epstein wrote to Thiel, saying, “I liked your Trump exaggerations not lies.”
A representative of Thiel has denied that Thiel visited the island, according to Politico. In a 2024 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Thiel said he only met Epstein a few times and did not ask enough questions about him.
Noam Chomsky
Image credits: David Corio/Getty Images
Noam Chomsky, a famed academic and linguist, had academic and personal correspondence with Epstein. At times, they too discussed Trump.
In December 2016, Chomsky wrote to Epstein, “I notice your prediction was right about Trump avoiding the White House as far too primitive.” Chomsky was also invited to the Caribbean.
In 2016, Epstein wrote to Chomsky and his wife, Valeria, “Caribbean is close to Brazil. If you wanted, you are always welcome, and Valeria can meet you there.”
Below, a letter written by Chomsky about Epstein
Chomsky responded, “Still eager to make it to the Caribbean, but it looks as though we’ll have to wait.”
The emails show that the two met occasionally for dinner, signaling that Epstein moved in intellectual circles.
“First response is that it is none of your business or anyone’s. Second is that I knew him and we met occasionally,” Chomsky said about his relationship with Epstein to The Wall Street Journal in April 2023.
Peggy Siegal
Image credits: Mireya Acierto/Getty Images
Prominent New York publicist Peggy Siegal advised Epstein as the scandal unfolded around him. In 2011, he wrote to Siegal, asking her to contact the founder of The Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington, to discredit the story of Virginia Giuffre.
Virginia Giuffre was one of Epstein’s most prominent accusers, alleging that she was sexually abused by him and trafficked to other powerful men.
Epstein wrote to Siegal for advice about discrediting Virginia Giuffre
Siegal responded to Epstein, saying, “If you rewrite your last email in better grammar, (and so I have a better understanding) I can cut and paste and send it to Ariana Huffington from me….”
Siegal told the BBC she had never passed Epstein's request to Huffington, and Huffington corroborated this to Politico.
Stacey Plaskett
Image credits: Jemal Countess/Getty Images
Stacey Plaskett, the Democratic nonvoting House delegate from the Virgin Islands, where Epstein’s island was located, also appeared in Epstein’s correspondence. The emails tie back to a 2019 House Oversight Committee hearing with Michael Cohen, former attorney to Trump, and suggest that Epstein may have influenced some of Plaskett’s questions during the hearing.
During the hearing, Epstein asked Plaskett to flag when Cohen mentioned Trump’s former assistant, Rhona Graff, and the timing of the texts coincided with her questions.
Cohen was testifying against Trump, mainly about the hush money payments Trump made to cover up his extramarital affairs. “Cohen brought up RONA - keeper of the secrets,” Epstein messaged Plaskett, misspelling Graff’s first name.
Image credits: Emily Michot/Getty Images
“RONA??” Plaskett responded. “Quick I’m up next is that an acronym,” she said.
“Thats his assistant,” Epstein replied.
“Good work,” Epstein messaged Plaskett minutes after she was done questioning Cohen.
Plaskett defended her interactions with Epstein on the basis that he was her constituent and that their contact was strictly about information-gathering. After the latest Epstein email dump, the House voted 209-214 against formally censuring Plaskett for her contact with Epstein.
Landon Thomas Jr.
Another journalist found at the crossroads of journalistic ethics and personal networking, Landon Thomas Jr., was a then New York Times reporter. By January 2019, he was out of his job after it was revealed that he had asked Epstein for a $30,000 donation to a cultural center in New York City.
In December 2015, Thomas wrote to Epstein, referring to his New York Times story from 2022 in which he quoted Trump as calling Epstein a “terrific guy” who “likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.” Back then, Trump and Epstein were close friends.
“Now everyone is coming to me thinking I have juicy info on you and Trump. Because of this,” Thomas wrote.
In one message, Epstein asked Thomas, “would you like photos of donald and girls in bikinis in my kitchen,” to which the reporter replied, “Yes!!”
‘Would you like photos of donald and girls in bikinis in my kitchen,’ Epstein asked Thomas Jr. in one email
In another email, Epstein wrote, “ask my houseman about donald almost walking through the door leaving his nose print on the glass as young women were swimming in the pool he was so focused he walked straight into the door.”
In March 2018, Thomas sent Epstein an article by The Daily Beast that said Trump was close “to a psychiatric breakdown.”
Epstein responded, “he [Trump] feels alone, and is nuts !!! , I told everyone from day one. evil beyond belief mad, and most thought i was speaking metaphorically, its obvious he could crack. stormy daniels. ? lies after lies after lies.”
The documents don’t accuse the individuals in Epstein’s emails of crimes, but paint the picture of a culture where people with power stayed close to one another even when the crimes of others were obvious.