Audit questions authenticity of Botstein emails

College president's office desk. — College president’s office desk.

Democratic lawmakers have called for a federal probe into whether Leon Botstein, the former president of Bard College, participated in Jeffery Epstein’s abuse and exploitation of victims. An independent audit commissioned by Bard College cast doubt on the authenticity of a 2014 email exchange between Botstein and Epstein.

Democratic lawmakers have pointed to the conversation — published as PDFs in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Epstein files — as evidence Botstein may have directly participated in Epstein’s abuse. Botstein has denied writing the email and the legislators’ allegations. But a cybersecurity forensics report from firm FTI Consulting last week found the emails to be “highly suspicious” and said there’s “a strong substantive basis” for questioning their origin and authenticity.

The FTI Consulting report found that the 2014 email exchange was not on Bard’s servers as far back as 2017. FTI Consulting also highlighted inconsistent formatting and timestamps in the conversation as it appears in the DOJ’s files and noted that the responses attributed to Botstein only appeared as in-text threaded messages, rather than as independent emails.

An independent investigation from law firm WilmerHale earlier this year found that Botstein and Epstein were in frequent contact, both remotely and in person, from 2012 to 2019. During that period, Botstein made a trip to Epstein’s private island and visited his townhome more than two dozen times.

Epstein made donations to the college, the details of which Botstein obfuscated from the board, and visited Bard twice, according to WilmerHale. He also paid Botstein under a consulting agreement. The WilmerHale investigation found that Botstein did nothing illegal, and its summary did not address the emails central to Raskin’s Oct. 7 letter.

According to auditors, Botstein said he “did not see a risk to Bard’s reputation in pursuing Epstein or the potential risk to Bard students of exposure to Epstein, nor did he consider that his actions could validate and legitimize Epstein to potential victims or their parents.”

Bard College has announced that it is undertaking a full review of the lawmakers’ allegations. The college’s board chair, Brandon Weber, said that the college’s leaders would continue to cooperate with the committee’s investigation. Botstein, who had still held a professorship at Bard and positions within the college’s music programs, stepped down from those roles effective immediately.

The college’s response to the allegations has been ongoing, with a statement saying that “our review of the other claims in Representative Raskin’s letter remains ongoing, and we are committed to establishing the facts.” The college has also said that it will continue its work to provide a secure and respectful learning environment for everyone at Bard.

Botstein resigned as president of Bard College this summer amid intense scrutiny over his association with Epstein.