Newly released emails and a Trump-ordered investigation have thrust billionaire LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman into the Epstein firestorm

Trump has categorically and consistently denied any wrongdoing, knowledge of Epstein’s sex trafficking operation, or involvement in the allegations in the newly released emails.

The controversy has escalated rapidly in recent days with Trump commander A Justice Department investigation into Hoffman, several other high-profile figures, and institutions like JPMorgan Chase then suddenly reversed his position and spoke in favor of releasing the full set of Epstein files. Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed on November 13 that she would begin an investigation. The move was widely interpreted as a political counterattack aimed at diverting attention from Trump’s ties to Epstein, relationships that the 20,000 newly released documents describe in detail.

Bondi has Try To further link Hoffman to Epstein in the past. During her controversial testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on October 7, she repeatedly mentioned Huffman’s name when asked about Epstein and Trump and described him as “one of Epstein’s closest confidants.” Hoffman has repeatedly denied any of these allegations.

On November 14, Hoffman to replytaking to X to demand “Trump must release all of the Epstein files: every person and every document in the files.” The LinkedIn co-founder accused Trump’s investigation of being “nothing more than political persecution and slander” and claimed he was never a client of Epstein and did not deal with him in any capacity other than as a fundraiser.

On Sunday evening Social Truth mailHowever, the president doubled down on his position. He said calls to release the entire cache of Epstein files were a “Democrat hoax,” and declared that “the Department of Justice has already turned over tens of thousands of pages to the public about Epstein, is looking into several Democratic operatives (Bill Clinton, Reed Hoffman, Larry Summers, etc.) and their connection to Epstein, and the House Oversight Committee can get everything they are legally entitled to, I don’t care!”

A White House spokesman repeated some of Trump’s claims, saying: luck“By releasing tens of thousands of pages of documents, cooperating with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena, and recently calling on President Trump for further investigations into Epstein’s Democratic friends, the Trump administration has done more for the victims than Democrats ever did. The Democratic Party has done nothing about Epstein for years; they are only pretending to care about these victims now as they try to score political points against President Trump.”

Hoffman did not respond to A luck Requested for comment regarding his ties to Epstein. JPMorgan Chase, Clinton and Summers also did not respond Luck Requests for comment.

Summers apologized for his relationship with Epstein in statement to Harvard crimson“I have the greatest regrets in my life. As I have said before, my association with Jeffrey Epstein was a terrible error in judgment,” he wrote.

Clinton spokesman refute The Trump administration claims in a post on

JPMorgan Chase, which previously settled a multimillion-dollar lawsuit with Epstein’s victims, He responded In Trump’s investigation, he said in a statement to CNN: “The government had information about his crimes and failed to share it with us or other banks. We regret any association we had with the man, but we did not assist him in committing his heinous actions. We ended our relationship with him years before he was arrested on sex trafficking charges.” (However, the bank continued to do business with Epstein even after his 2008 plea to a simple conviction, and worked with him until 2013.)

When Hoffman met Epstein

The relationship between Hoffman and Epstein began through Joi Ito, who served as director of the Media Lab at MIT. According to multiple reports, Hoffman first met Epstein when he helped raise funds for the MIT Media Lab from a convicted sex offender. In July 2013, Epstein met with Hoffman and others on the MIT campus. At this time, Epstein was already a registered sex offender, having pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from a minor in Florida.

Hoffman then visited Epstein’s private island, Little St. James, in 2014, according to Wall Street Journal. Ito was also present during this trip, which was described as a fund-raiser for MIT. According to Ito’s statement to magazineHoffman participated in a “fundraising event” on the island “at my request.” The documents also indicated that Hoffman and Ito were planning another visit to Epstein’s island later in 2014, with plans to fly from Palm Beach to the island for a weekend and then head to Boston.

The documents you obtained magazine 2023 also noted that Hoffman planned to stay overnight at Epstein’s Manhattan home on December 4, 2014, followed by a “breakfast party” the next morning that was expected to include both Epstein and Bill Gates. It remains unclear whether this visit actually occurred

The last known personal meeting between Epstein and Hoffman occurred in 2015, when Hoffman hosted a dinner party attended by Epstein alongside several Silicon Valley notables, including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Peter Thiel. Hoffman stated that he invited Epstein to this gathering based on assurances from Joi Ito that Epstein had been vetted and exonerated through the MIT approval process.

In 2023 Hoffman He claimed The 2015 dinner was the last time he interacted with Epstein. Unsealed emails were reviewed by luckHowever, it showed that Epstein He wrote to Hoffman at least once in 2017. This correspondence appears to be related to potential fundraising efforts aimed at offsetting the cuts Trump wanted to make to federal spending in his first term.

In an email to Hoffman dated March 16, 2017 and reproduced here with the original typos and other errors, Epstein says: “Massive donor-advised funding is an elegant solution to Trump’s proposed cuts to what some consider critical programs. You could organize a massive public charity that would continue the work of many worthwhile organizations. It’s not my thing but it’s structurally beautiful. Enormous wealth into private hands, Elon and Jeff’s space goals should be mirrored by many previous government goals, and we hope to see you soon.

The newly released emails do not show whether Hoffman responded.

Epstein died by suicide in a New York prison while awaiting trial on other sex trafficking charges in 2019.

MIT External Investigation a reportreleased in January 2020, also described Hoffman’s timeline. The report revealed that in July 2016, Ito sought advice from Hoffman about whether to allow Epstein to attend a Media Lab conference with “a lot of people” who might “see him and might know he was involved.” The report did not reveal whether Hoffman provided any advice or what it was

While Elon Musk accused Hoffman of being an Epstein client in 2024, no evidence of this type of relationship has actually emerged. Hoffman also strongly denied any such characterization.

Hoffman has issued several apologies and public statements regarding his dealings with Epstein. After the Epstein communications scandal at MIT broke publicly in September 2019, Hoffman apologized in statement To Axios: “By agreeing to participate in any fundraising activity where Epstein was present, I helped repair his reputation and perpetuate the injustice. For that, I deeply regret it.” This position was repeated in 2023 Magazine“It bothers me that by lending to my association, I helped his reputation and thus delayed justice for his survivors,” he said.

The House of Representatives is expected to vote Tuesday on a measure that would force the Justice Department to make all of Epstein’s files available to the public in a “searchable and downloadable format” within 30 days.