Episode Details

Reps. Jamie Raskin and Madeleine Dean are demanding that Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel open a federal investigation into former Bard College president Leon Botstein after congressional investigators uncovered communications they say raise serious questions about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and a young woman Epstein was allegedly trafficking in 2014. The centerpiece of the October 7 letter is an email sent from Botstein’s Bard account after Epstein arranged for the young woman, described as a foreign model and aspiring singer, to meet him for supposed educational and musical guidance. In that email, Botstein allegedly asked Epstein whether the woman was “for me” or whether Epstein was keeping her for himself. Raskin and Dean argue that the message cannot be viewed in isolation because Epstein was allegedly grooming the woman at the time through promises of education, career assistance and financial support while arranging extensive travel for her between Europe, Canada, New York, Florida, New Mexico and his Caribbean island. They also say Epstein later enlisted Botstein to help reassure the woman’s parents about him, including arranging special treatment and orchestra tickets. The lawmakers contend that these records easily satisfy the federal threshold for beginning an investigation into whether a crime “may have occurred,” while Botstein has denied authoring the disputed email and denied participating in Epstein’s criminal activity.

The letter also delivers a broader attack on DOJ and the FBI for maintaining that their review of the Epstein files uncovered no evidence warranting investigations of additional uncharged associates. Raskin and Dean argue that the Botstein material directly challenges that position and accuse federal authorities of possessing the information for roughly 18 months without meaningfully pursuing it. They additionally question why DOJ releases allegedly exposed the young woman’s name hundreds of times and included images showing her face while Botstein’s email address was redacted, demanding to know who authorized that disparate treatment and why. Beyond Botstein, they call for investigations into other Epstein associates, naming Leon Black, Jes Staley, Les Wexner, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Richard Kahn, Darren Indyke, Lesley Groff and Larry Visoski, while also demanding release of the complete Epstein files with survivor identities protected and congressional investigators given access to unredacted material. The fundamental argument of the letter is that the government cannot simultaneously claim there was insufficient evidence to investigate Epstein’s wider network while its own files contain communications that lawmakers say plainly warranted further inquiry.



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