Bard College's longtime president has said he can't recall if he visited Jeffrey Epstein's private island, maintaining that his relationship with the billionaire financier was strictly professional. Newly released emails suggest otherwise. "I had a great time. The place is great," Leon Botstein wrote Epstein the day after a planned 2012 visit to his island southeast of St. Thomas, according to Justice Department documents made public Jan. 30, per the New York Times. Botstein's spokesperson now says that line referred only to St. Thomas. The rep previously claimed Botstein had gotten sick on the trip and stayed in a bungalow, with uncertainty whether the bungalow was on or off Epstein's island.
Botstein, music director of the American Symphony Orchestra, is mentioned more than 2,500 times across the files, per the Albany Times Union. Emails show him adopting an admiring tone toward Epstein well after his 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution. He wrote of cherishing "this new friendship" in 2013, adding, "I have real admiration for how you go about doing things," and invited Epstein to visit the Bard High School Early College campus in Queens. He also sent a sympathetic note after damaging press coverage in 2018, saying he hoped Epstein was "holding up as well as can be expected."
Botstein has repeatedly insisted the relationship was purely transactional and focused on fundraising for Bard. Despite the emails, he says Epstein "wasn't a friend." But if Bard College students had one word for the revelations, it would be "gross," per the Times Union. "He was willing to socialize with a convicted sex offender, just for money that might not even benefit students," one tells the outlet. "It's so sad to see someone who we thought was on the right side supporting all of this horrible stuff," says another.
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