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More Harvard connections to Epstein revealed in newly released documents
The files show a Harvard professor exchanged chatty emails with Jeffrey Epstein years after his conviction, while Harvard Hillel continued to solicit donations from the billionaire.
A lauded Harvard University professor and former Harvard Hillel leaders kept up with disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein for years after his 2008 conviction, the latest batch of documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice reveals.
Physics professor Lisa Randall exchanged numerous chatty emails and phone calls with Epstein, even flying on his private jet in 2014 — a connection first reported by The Harvard Crimson.
“Just saying hello as I had a trip to the Caribbean and can see your island,” Randall wrote to Epstein on Nov. 28, 2014. “Where are you these days anyway? And how are you?”
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Epstein replied minutes later, saying he was en route to his private island and asking where Randall was staying. He emailed again the following day, informing Randall he would be flying back to Boston with LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and then-MIT Media Lab Director Joichi Ito.
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“You are welcome to hop on board,” he added.
When Randall accepted, Epstein instructed his staff to pick her up from Cruz Bay on Saint John and bring her to his island briefly before flying out. A manifest for the flight to Boston counted Randall as one of the passengers, a group that also included Ito, Hoffman, Epstein, and his former girlfriend Karyna Shuliak.
“I am appalled by the crimes that were revealed and the terrible harm [Epstein] caused his victims,” Randall said in an emailed statement. “I deeply regret maintaining contact.”
But Randall wasn’t Epstein’s only link to Harvard.
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In 2019, the university acknowledged it had received about $9 million directly from Epstein and his foundations over a decade ending in 2007. Harvard later sanctioned another professor who had close ties to Epstein, Martin Nowak. The newest batch of Epstein files also revealed that the financier intended to leave Nowak $5 million from his estate, per a trust agreement signed days before Epstein’s death in 2019. Separately, Harvard’s former president, Larry Summers, took a leave from teaching last fall after his own friendly relationship with Epstein came to light.
Meanwhile, former Harvard Hillel fundraisers personally solicited donations from Epstein even after the billionaire pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008. In a May 2010 letter — sent while Epstein was still on house arrest — then-Harvard Hillel President Bernie Steinberg sought Epstein’s help raising $25 million and thanked him for his “support of Harvard Hillel and the Harvard Jewish community during this important moment in history.”
Other emails from Epstein’s assistant, Lesley Groff, indicate Harvard Hillel affiliates sought phone calls and meetings with Epstein in 2010 and 2011 to discuss potential donations. In the early 1990s, Epstein had previously helped raise funds to construct a new Harvard Hillel building, Rosovsky Hall. The facility was named for Henry Rosovsky, the first Jewish dean of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences and a man whose name appears hundreds of times across the DOJ database of Epstein’s correspondence.
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Reached for comment, Harvard Hillel noted the individuals involved in the newly disclosed correspondence have not been affiliated with the organization for more than a decade “and most are since deceased.” Rosovsky, for instance, died in 2022.
“We regret that anyone associated with our organization contacted Mr. Epstein during the years in question, and in the intervening years Harvard Hillel has revised its fundraising guidelines with ethical standards that prohibit interactions of this nature,” Harvard Hillel added.
In an emailed statement, Randall said she met Epstein at a 2004 dinner party hosted by her then-book agent, John Brockman. Two years later, she attended an Epstein-sponsored conference in Saint Thomas.
“Epstein was often in touch with the scientific community, some of whom he funded, and he was often at events and in contact with scientists at Harvard and elsewhere,” Randall said. “I never received funding from him.”
Still, her emails with the late financier suggest a friendly relationship. In a 2010 email thread discussing Epstein’s plans for a trip to Paris, Randall teased the billionaire, writing, “Wow haven’t you had enough house arrest?” And after a series of hurricanes battered the Caribbean in September 2017, Randall wrote Epstein to check in: “so how did your island fare in the storm?”
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“Thx,” Epstein replied. “I guess better than being married but bad.”
Another exchange from August 2010 featured even more playful banter. Responding to a message from Epstein, Randall asked, “How come I never get Jew credit.”
“too pretty,” Epstein responded.
“Wow,” Randall fired back, “if that wasn’t a weasly maneuver I’d think it was a compliment.”
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