Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News

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The Wall Street Journal’s second exploration of the documents of Jeffrey Epstein revealed that the now-deceased pedophile and child trafficker had appointments with famed movie director Woody Allen as well as a former member of the Clinton cabinet and an ex-prime minister of Israel. 

According to the Journal’s report, Epstein’s schedules and email records indicate that he met with Allen, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and Apollo Global Management co-founder Leon Black at least once, though in some cases far more often, between 2013 and 2017. 

The Journal’s initial report revealed Epstein had met with (CIA) Director William Burns, Bard College president Leon Botstein, Obama White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, and noted professor Noam Chomsky.

It is unclear what the substance of each of these meetings was, but most of the new names said the meetings were an attempt to garner money from Epstein or use him as a means of making connections with other powerful people. 

In the case of Summers – who says that he reached out to Epstein for “small-scale philanthropy advice” and to raise funds for an online poetry project being funded by Summers’ wife, Elisa New – a series of meetings yielded an eventual $110,000 donation. 

Some of the meetings in question occurred after Epstein was convicted of various sex crimes, and even after Harvard University – where both Summers and his wife were employed during the time in question – began refusing to accept donations from Epstein or his affiliated nonprofit organizations. 

Through a spokesperson, Summers told the Journal that he  “deeply regrets being in contact with Epstein after his conviction,” and that New’s nonprofit “regrets accepting funding from Epstein.” 

The couple also stated that they had donated money “exceeding the amount received, to a group working against sex trafficking.” 

Allen, through his representation, said that he and Epstein never had a business relationship and that any meeting Epstein referenced was attended by multiple people. 

ASSESSING THE EVIDENCE

Each person whose name was revealed in the second Wall Street Journal report serves as an interesting case study in separating fact from fiction when studying the documents of a dead criminal. 

His documents say much, but prove little, and taken as a whole are only one despicable man’s accounting of what might have happened. 

Barak is a great example of the crevasse that exists between the Epstein files and the accounts of those listed in the documents. 

Epstein listed Barak as a person who flew aboard Epstein’s private plane dozens of times, but Barak said the number was two. 

“I flew only twice on his airplane, together with my wife and Israeli security detail,” Barak said. “I never participated in any party or any other improper event around [Epstein] and never met him with girls or minors or even adult women in improper context or behavior.”