A House committee is requesting that NYU turn over all records and payments relating to Jeffrey Epstein, claiming the convicted sex offender lured some victims by promising them acceptances into NYU and covering their tuition to “ensure their silence” on his misconduct. The university said it will cooperate with the investigation.
In a Jan. 14 letter to President Linda Mills, Jamie Raskin, a congressman leading efforts to investigate the Epstein case, said Epstein and his co-conspirators “continued to sexually assault and rape” the victims after they were admitted to NYU. He cited one case in which a survivor graduated from the university despite missing many classes — because Epstein was grooming her — leading her to believe he or an associate addressed the absences with administrators.
“We are fully committed to cooperating with this inquiry,” NYU spokesperson Joseph Tirella wrote in a statement to WSN. “We also support efforts to bring transparency to Epstein’s horrific conduct.”
Raskin asked Mills to provide all correspondence and financial transactions between the university and Epstein, his lawyer, his accountant, his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell and his associated companies, along with records of their attendance of NYU events, by Jan. 28. Columbia University received a similar letter from Raskin, who said Epstein also used relationships with Harvard University, Hunter College and several other academic institutions to continue his sex-trafficking activities.
Between 1993 and 2004, Epstein offered an NYU education to at least six girls, including one high schooler. Several rejected the offer, but one survivor, who was abused by Epstein between 2002 and 2005, said she was admitted to the university with a scholarship Epstein helped arrange. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the letters, survivor and prominent advocate Lisa Phillips said that she took some NYU drama classes paid for by Epstein.
“I write to you today to request that NYU do whatever it can to assist the Committee’s important investigation,” Raskin wrote.
Jeffrey Epstein Philanthropy reported donations to NYU and its medical school from 2010 to 2012. Hedge fund manager John Paulson — a Stern board member and one of NYU’s most prominent donors and namesakes — has been listed in Epstein’s contact lists twice. Around a week after Epstein, who dropped out of the Courant Institute of Mathematics in 1974, was publicly accused of forcing a female minor to have repeated sexual relations with the former Prince Andrew and other men, Stern adjunct professor James Rosenwald congratulated Epstein on his “wonderful financial successes” in a friendly email exchange with the convicted sex offender.
Contact Amanda Chen at [email protected].