NEW YORK, NY – OCTOBER 18: President of Bard College Leon Botstein speaks during the “Changing Landscapes: From the Digital Classroom to the Global Campus” panal during the TIME Summit On Higher Education on October 18, 2012 in New York City. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for TIME)
Bard College has launched an “independent review” of its president’s ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein after newly released emails from the Department of Justice revealed close links between the two.
The liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, made the announcement in a statement from its board of trustees on Thursday. The board said it had retained the outside law firm WilmerHale to review the email correspondence. The New York Times reported that Dr. Leon Botstein, the college’s president since 1975, had long maintained that his relationship with Epstein was strictly philanthropic, aimed at securing a sizable donation to bolster Bard’s flagging finances. However, among the millions of emails released in January were messages suggesting they shared a personal relationship.
The Times Union, an Albany-based newspaper, reported on Thursday that Botstein wrote in one quoted email that he valued his “new friendship” with Epstein, ending a 2013 message with “Miss you.” The emails also show that Botstein visited Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse frequently and on at least one occasion, Epstein flew his helicopter to the Hudson Valley to see Botstein, landing on Bard’s campus, accompanied by women.
In 2017, the two appeared to collaborate on the purchase of a rare Swiss pocket watch from the 1920s, only to later express confusion over who owned it and who was responsible for paying for it. In another revelation from the latest batch of emails, Epstein connected filmmaker Woody Allen and his wife, Soon-Yi Previn, with Botstein after one of their daughters expressed interest in attending Bard. In an email, the family thanked Epstein for “getting Bechet into Bard,” though a spokesperson for Botstein told the Times that their daughter was admitted on merit alone.
The Times Union also reported that Botstein’s office organized a trip to Epstein’s island in 2012. He did not respond to press requests for comment on the day the report was published. Last week, however, he issued a campus-wide message apologizing for his relationship with Epstein, calling him a “truly evil man”.
On Friday, Botstein released a statement defending his actions. “As I have said for years, engaging with Jeffrey Epstein was in service of one agenda, which was fund-raising for Bard,” he said. “These interactions happened over years when I invested enormous time transforming Bard’s financial footing by pursuing and securing major donations for the college.”
