Harvard Expands Epstein Probe to Include Donors, Faculty Named in New Justice Department Records

Harvard will expand its probe into its ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey E. Epstein to include major University donors identified in the newly released Department of Justice records, a Harvard spokesperson confirmed Wednesday evening.

The newly disclosed federal files detail Epstein’s connections to several prominent Harvard benefactors — including business magnates Andrew L. Farkas ’82, Leslie H. Wexner, and Gerald L. Chan — among others. Until now, the University had said its review was focused on Harvard affiliates, including faculty members.

It will also probe professors revealed to have corresponded with Epstein in the newly released federal files, University spokesperson Jason A. Newton confirmed.

Newton did not specify which donors would be included in the probe.

The move follows the release of millions of pages of Justice Department records spanning more than a decade of correspondence, financial documents, and photographs related to the disgraced financier.

Until recently, Harvard’s probe was limited to the contents of a cache of documents released in November that revealed a yearslong correspondence between University President Lawrence H. Summers and Epstein. Those files also detailed ties between Epstein and Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan M. Dershowitz and English professor emerita Elisa F. New.

Newly disclosed federal materials indicate Epstein’s connections to Harvard extended beyond those previously identified, including correspondence with several professors, among them physicist Lisa J. Randall ’84, geneticist George M. Church, and string theorist Andrew E. Strominger '77.

The records also trace substantial financial ties between Epstein and major Harvard donors.

Farkas — a real estate magnate and founder of the merchant bank Island Capital — chairs the Hasty Pudding Institute, which received at least $375,000 from Epstein between 2013 and 2019. The donations were coordinated by Farkas. A theater in the former Hasty Pudding building was renamed Farkas Hall in 2011 to recognize his financial support.

Farkas was deeply enmeshed in Epstein’s network. The two vacationed together on Epstein’s private Caribbean island, exchanged thousands of emails, and pursued business dealings.

In one 2018 exchange, Farkas told Epstein he considered himself to be “amongst your best friends.”

Wexner, who donated more than $42 million to the Harvard Kennedy School — where a building bears his name — employed Epstein as his personal financial manager for more than a decade before cutting ties in 2007.

An internal August 2019 DOJ memo included in the released files referred to Wexner as Epstein’s potential co-conspirator, though Wexner has long maintained he was unaware of Epstein’s criminal conduct.

Chan, whose $350 million gift ranks as the second largest in University history, also engaged in preliminary talks with Epstein to explore constructing a branch of the Beijing-based Tsinghua University in Boston. The plans never materialized.

Epstein has long been embedded in Harvard’s inner orbit. In the early 1990s, Epstein also maintained a residence in Cambridge, where he hosted a small circle of guests, including Maxwell and at least one young woman. He rented the home from former Harvard Medical School professor William A. Haseltine from 1993 to 1995.

In the wake of the first November release, Summers faced professional fallout for his affiliation with the sex offender. Summers and Epstein had an extraordinarily close relationship, trading hundreds of messages on everything from politics and economics to romantic woes.

In dozens of threads, Summers asked Epstein for advice as he pursued a romantic relationship with a woman he described as a mentee. At one point, Epstein suggested that Summers was not fulfilling the needs of his romantic partner. Summers pushed back, saying he secured professional and financial support for her in an exchange released in the DOJ files.

“I’m not so sure that being mentored by me, having me support her child, being elevated to a leader on China in global economy by collaborating with me and getting to have me as partner if she can find courage to tell her parents is really so useless,” he wrote.

Their correspondence continued until a day before Epstein’s 2019 arrest.

After the scope of Summers’ relationship with Epstein became public, he went on leave from teaching at Harvard and stepped back from public commitments, writing in a statement that his continued relationship with Epstein was “a major error of judgement.” He promptly lost or gave up positions at various outlets and think tanks.

Harvard’s probe remains ongoing. Newton did not say how long the probe will continue.

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

—Staff writer Elise A. Spenner can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @EliseSpenner.