One of the problems in trying to make sense of the literal deluge of appalling stuff in the latest Jeffrey Epstein dump is, well, that it is a deluge and it can be very difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff, the speculation from the hard evidence, and the accusations from the actual criminal – or deeply reprehensible – behaviour.
Three million documents in any kind of file dump is simply enormous and the sheer overload of information can be a constant distraction from where public focus really should be, in my opinion. I’ve written about that and what needs to be done previously: release the fully unredacted files (except where necessitated to protect victims); investigation how a convicted sex offender retained so much power and influence; and hold those powerful figures who worked with Epstein post his 2008 conviction to account.
Some of the creepiest messages to and from Epstein still have key information blacked out, and only a full reveal can bring clarity to the endless speculation about what messages like this one in a 2014 email means: “Thank you for a fun night… Your littlest girl was a little naughty.”
But one area that has arguably received less attention in the legacy media are the documents which reveal Epstein’s deep connections to the scientific community, some of whom were full-throated in their support for him after his 2008 conviction – and his interest in transgender research and his links to one of the foremost transgender surgeons in the US.
It has been reported that he considered himself a “science philanthropist” but the peculiarities of the gatherings he organised must have been hard to miss. When he brought 21 physicists together for a 2006 meeting about gravity on his private island, he was always followed by a group of something like three or four young women,” the New York Times was told. Did no-one think this was odd?
And from Slate: “Epstein’s former neighbor, the psychologist and computer scientist Roger Schank, describes another such event that he attended: a meeting of artificial-intelligence experts, organized by Marvin Minsky and held on Epstein’s island in April 2002. “Epstein walks into the conference with two girls on his arm,” said Schank. The scientists were holding their discussions in a small room, and as they talked, “[Epstein] was in the back, on a couch, hugging and kissing these girls”. ” A little different from the customary science conference then, one imagines.
As more than one observer has remarked, the lure of Epstein’s funding also brought scientists into his entourage – and it is an unsettling insight into how scientists seem to be impervious to the sources of funding for the research they are most interested in, and how, in turn, they may be influenced towards research by the funding source. Epstein has also been described as being “fascinated by eugenics” – not the first powerful but profoundly evil person to have that interest.
SCIENTIST ‘RAISED’ BY RELATIONSHIP
A warning: many of the exchanges below are lewd and disturbing, reflecting the sordid lubriciousness of too many involved in this supposedly golden circle, but they give an insight that’s important to understand.
The scientific journal, Nature, noted that Epstein “invested millions in science projects and socialized with researchers” – although the source of Epstein’s massive wealth remains largely an unsolved puzzle.
It was already known that, after Epstein’s initial conviction for sex crimes in 2008, some scientists continued to associate with and take money from him, prompting fallout at top research institutions. For instance, Epstein gave US$800,000 to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, which led two scientists to resign in protest and the university to suspend another, Nature reported.
The latest files release “has unveiled even more scientists in his orbit”, the journal observed – thought some were already known, such as theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss who received $250,000 from Epstein for a science-outreach organisation.
The scientists contacted by Nature said they had no knowledge of Epstein’s “horrendous crimes”, yet they communicated and received funds from him after his conviction for soliciting sex from a minor. In fact, Krauss previously defended him, saying: “Jeffrey (Epstein) has surrounded himself with beautiful women and young women, but they’re not as young as the ones that were claimed”.
“As a scientist, I always judge things on empirical evidence, and he always has women ages 19 to 23 around him, but I’ve never seen anything else, so as a scientist, my presumption is that whatever the problems were I would believe him over other people.”
“I don’t feel tarnished in any way by my relationship with Jeffrey; I feel raised by it,” he said.
Others also continued to correspond seeking funding. “For instance, in 2013, Nathan Wolfe, then a virologist at Stanford University in California, proposed that Epstein fund a sexual-behaviour study of undergraduate students to test “our horny virus hypothesis” — that certain vaginal and penile microorganisms might drive increased sexual activity,” Nature reports.
And amongst the scientists and medical practitioners currying favour with the sex offender was high-profile US-based media contributor Dr Peter Attia who told Epstein’s assistant in a 2016 email: “I go into JE withdrawal when I don’t see him.”
Attia also emailed Epstein in 2015 saying “You [know] the biggest problem with becoming friends with you?” – “The life you lead is so outrageous, and yet I can’t tell a soul … ”
There have been calls to drop Attia from the CBS News Network after another email showed he wrote to the disgraced financier in 2016: “Pussy is, indeed, low carb. Still awaiting results on gluten content, though.”
TRANSGENDER RESEARCH
The files also show that Epstein was closely involved with a leading advocate for transgender surgery – and pushed a high-profile researcher towards transgender issues.
Robert Trivers is an American evolutionary biologist who was regularly in touch with Epstein in the decade after his 2008 conviction. In fact, he publicly defended the sex offender in 2015, telling Reuters: “Did he get an easy deal? Did he buy himself a light sentence? Well, yes, probably, compared to what you or I would get, but he did get locked up”.
Trivers received substantial funding from Epstein in the decade before the sex offender’s death. In fact, the financier boasted to Noam Chomsky in 2015 that he was the scientist’s “major funder” — while Trivers later described their relationship as one of “7 years of continuous support”.
In a February 5, 2016 email, Trivers wrote to Epstein saying he was “stunned and extremely happy to receive the extra money and appointment as an advisor to your Foundation”. He also indicated that he was now going to focus “entirely toward the theoretical work you have urged upon me”.
Epstein’s response was a one-liner: “you are unique .. i want to see you piece on transgender in the bio world. this is for you. not me.”
In March of the same year Trivers reported to Epstein that he was “getting to the end of ‘transsexuality” – with the graphic addition that he had “a lot of fun with the attraction of the new morph(s) – have your cake and eat it too—a woman with a dick—i.e. if you as a heterosexual male and have a minor desire to suck a dick then what better organism to do it with than a transsexual? ‘she’ will smell like a woman, be softer and more hairless like a woman and may, to some degree, actually resemble one morphologically — leaving the dick for you to enjoy in a feminine setting.”
He also thanked Epstein saying he was “generous to a fault and i [sic] am most grateful—your recent gift sits untouched in my Foundation”.
A 2018 email unearthed in the file dump is shared below and repeated some of the sordid observations made earlier but added: “so many transsexual women are very attractive and easily make money which in turn they assert promotes their prostitution since they have to pay hefty fees for injections every week but they are sexually happy.”
And he added: “BTW we are now pushing the intervention earlier — so you notice your 3-year old son has trans tendencies, so now you intervene with hormones — i would be frightened to do that but who knows?”
But by 2019, Trivers was complaining that Epstein was “flipping” on him, complaining that he would like to have money after rent for “a modest social life and an occasional psychosexual experience”.
In response, Epstein – whose emails are littered with spelling errors – wrote: “I thought that you might want to focus on transgender biology. people would be interestsesd and i would fund. I am a true beileiver in your talents”.
MOUNT SINAI’ S FUNDING – AND A TRANS SURGERY CENTRE
Epstein’s funding of the prestigious Mount Sinai hospital in New York was revealed by the 2026 file dump to be at least $250,000 in the years after his 2008 conviction – well over 10 times what has previously been reported, according to Politico.
He seems, from email correspondence, to have been especially close to a Mount Sinai plastic surgeon, Jess Ting, who received a $50,000 grant for breast cancer research from Epstein – and who later “jumped into the world of transgender surgery”.
Ting and his family were invited to the island in March 2013 on a day when Epstein was apparently away. “Jeffrey would like you to enjoy a day on his island during your vacation! We can have you and your family picked up from St. John on what ever day is convenient for you, brought to Jeffrey’s island to play with his ‘toys’ and have some lunch,” the financier’s assistant emailed to Ting – with a follow up email asking if Ting “had a nice visit”.
In 2016, Ting became the founding Surgical Director of the Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery at the Mount Sinai Health System where he became a media darling as a leading plastic surgeon ‘specializing in gender-affirming surgeries’.
In a 2018 email Ting was telling Epstein: “I wanted to share with you some changes in my career that you may find of interest. I have switched specialties from plastic surgery to gender-affirmation surgery (AKA transgender surgery).”
He sent a link to “a documentary about the creation of the new center at Mount Sinai: Transformation-film.com” – urging Epstein to “check it out” and describing transgender surgery as “the most amazing thing I’ve ever been involved with”.
The documentary, Born to Be, was the subject of lavish media praise and was nominated tor two Emmys. Dr Ting had also “established a pipeline” for other transgender surgeons through a fellowship, the first of its kind.
There is no evidence that Ting or any of the other scientist above were involved with any of Epstein’s criminal activities, but as a more complete picture emerges from the document dump, it’s evident that too many were perfectly comfortable taking advice and research direction and money from a convicted sex offender.
And as reports also continue to focus on Epstein’s interests in the ghastly fields of eugenics and transhumanism, expect more attention on why a sex trafficker seemed to have so much influence on science and scientists.