Harvard professor Lisa J. Randall ’84 maintained years of contact with convicted sex offender Jeffrey E. Epstein — exchanging emails and phone calls and flying on his private jet in 2014 — according to documents released Friday by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The records show that Randall’s interactions with Epstein — which have not been previously reported — spanned nearly a decade and included in-person meetings and hundreds of messages, continuing years after his 2008 arrest.

The Friday documents also indicate that Randall — who has been a tenured physics professor at Harvard since 2001 — briefly visited Epstein’s private Caribbean island on Nov. 30, 2014, while traveling with a group of guests.

Email correspondence from late November 2014 shows Randall and Epstein coordinating their movements while both were in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

On Nov. 28, Randall told Epstein that she was in the vicinity of his island.

“Just saying hello as I had a trip to the Caribbean and can see your island. Where are you these days anyway? And how are you?” Randall wrote.

Epstein replied within minutes that he was en route to the island and asked where Randall was staying. Randall responded that she was in St. John. The following day, Epstein wrote that he had “arrived with Reid Hoffman and Joi Ito in tow” and would be “flying to boston.”

He added that Randall was “welcome to hop on board.”

Emails sent by Epstein’s staff early on Nov. 30 lay out the travel sequence. In a message sent around 7 a.m., a staff member wrote that Epstein had a boat captain pick Randall up from Cruz Bay on St. John at noon and bring her to Epstein’s island.

From there, she was scheduled to depart by helicopter at approximately 1:30 p.m. to the St. Thomas Jet Center — where Epstein’s private plane would depart from.

Other messages from the same period show that Randall was not the only one to accompany Epstein back to Boston. The flight also carried former MIT Media Lab director Joichi Ito, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Epstein’s then-girlfriend Karyna Shuliak, and researcher Andreas Machl.

One email circulated among Epstein’s pilot and staff listed Randall and Machl as “extra passengers” on the return flight. (Epstein also sent an email to billionaire Peter A. Thiel the day before Randall arrived, writing that “you should have come you are missed.”)

The precise route appears to have been under discussion until the day before departure. In a Nov. 29 email, Randall wrote that she had arranged for a ferry directly to the Charlotte Amalie airport on St. Thomas, asking whether that option would be “simpler.”

Public flight records reviewed by The Crimson show a private jet departing from Charlotte Amalie to Boston on Nov. 30. A passenger manifest released on Friday also lists Lisa Randall as one of seven passengers on the flight.

In a Saturday statement to The Crimson, Randall did not address flying on Epstein’s jet in 2014, but wrote that she was introduced to the financier in 2004 at a dinner hosted by her then-literary agent, John Brockman, a longtime Epstein associate.

She wrote that she attended a gravity conference in St. Thomas in 2006 that Epstein sponsored.

“Epstein was often in touch with the scientific community, many of whom were Brockman clients, and at Harvard on many occasions,” she wrote.

“I am appalled by the full extent of allegations against him and deeply regret maintaining contact,” Randall added.

During the fall 2025 semester, Randall taught two physics courses — including a freshman seminar with 13 students and a graduate-level course with six.

After Epstein’s 2008 conviction, the emails show Randall continuing to correspond with him for several years, at one point bantering about his arrest and subsequent house arrest. (Epstein served 13 months of his 18-month Florida prison sentence, followed by a year of house arrest.)

“Wow haven’t you had enough house arrest?” she wrote to Epstein in July 2010.

In a separate exchange from August 2010, Epstein offered Randall a brief stay in a New York apartment he owned.

Epstein and Randall also met in person during Epstein’s visits to Cambridge. Emails show the pair met in April 2011 in an office in Brattle Square. Randall also appeared on lists of Harvard affiliates Epstein planned to see during visits in 2010 and 2013.

Randall’s connection to Epstein appears to have been facilitated by Brockman. In August 2009, Randall was considering leaving the Harvard physics department, and, according to Brockman, was offered positions at California Institute of Technology and New York University.

In turn, Brockman emailed Epstein, real estate magnate Nicholas J. Pritzker, billionaire Elon Musk, and entrepreneur Sean Parker, among others, seeking advice.

“She’s unhappy at Harvard,” he wrote. “I am writing to all of you because I am out of my depth in advising her on her choices between universities and physics departments, compensation packages, etc.”

In his reply, Epstein suggested that NYU “would be much better,” adding that Randall “is not a great physicist" but an “attractor.” He wrote that he would be “happy to speak to her directly.”

The two scheduled a call shortly thereafter and continued corresponding regularly for several years. Their emails often included informal banter. In the August 2010 exchange, Randall asked, “How come I never get Jew credit.”

“too pretty,” Epstein replied.

“Wow if that wasn’t a weasly maneuver I’d think it was a compliment,” Randall responded.

After 2014, the steady stream of emails slowed to a trickle. In 2017, after a hurricane tore through the Carribean, Randall checked back in.

“so how did your island fare in the storm?” she asked.

—Staff writer Megan L. Blonigen can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X at @MeganBlonigen.

—Staff writer Hugo C. Chiasson can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at hcc.35. Follow him on X @HugoChiassonn.