‘It is time for Harvard…to come clean’: Leading Democrat seeks information on school’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein

The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Harvard University on Wednesday seeking information about the Ivy League school’s ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

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In a statement, committee Democrats said Congressman Jamie Raskin, the party’s ranking member on the panel, sent letters to Harvard and Bard College seeking the information in connection with the committee’s ongoing review of how Epstein “used his relationships with prominent universities to expand his sex trafficking operation.”

Evidence indicates Epstein “leveraged his relationships with universities and their faculty to traffic vulnerable young women and continually burnish his reputation and public image to avoid detection,” the statement said.

Raskin, a Maryland Democrat who graduated from both Harvard College and Harvard Law School, had previously sent similar letters to NYU and Columbia, the statement said.

“As you surely know, Jeffrey Epstein repeatedly cultivated and exploited his close connections to Harvard and various faculty networks both to lure victims into his vast sex trafficking operation and then to try to salvage and polish up his damaged reputation,” Raskin wrote in the eight-page letter to Harvard President Alan M. Garber.

Raskin noted that Harvard “investigated its links to Mr. Epstein twice, first in 2008 and then again in 2019. Both efforts were widely considered failures.”

Now it’s time to do better, he said.

“It is time for Harvard, like the rest of America, to come clean and engage in the comprehensive accounting that will allow us to learn from this nightmare, take appropriate legislative action, and make sure nothing like it ever happens again,” Raskin wrote.

He said the committee wants a slew of documentation dating back to 1998 by July 1.

The information being sought, Raskin wrote, includes all records, financial documents, and communications related to Epstein’s funding of research at Harvard and his personal relationships with faculty members; all records of donations made to Harvard faculty and programs involving Epstein; records relating to Epstein’s influence in the admissions office or recommendations made to faculty about admitting certain applicants; and all records involving Epstein and his donations to Harvard.

In November, Harvard said the school was “conducting a review of information concerning individuals at Harvard included in the newly released Jeffrey Epstein documents to evaluate what actions may be warranted.”

That followed the damaging release of emails between Epstein and former Harvard president Lawrence H. Summers, as well as others affiliated with the university.

In 2020, Harvard released a report on Epstein’s two-decade-long relationship with the university and his role in delivering millions of dollars to faculty and programs.

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That report found that Epstein had a personal office among university researchers, a dedicated phone line, an unusual visiting fellowship position, and the backing of several high-level faculty who urged administrators to take the financier’s money despite his record as a registered sex offender.

A Harvard spokesperson on Wednesday confirmed receipt of Raskin’s letter, and referred a reporter to two previous statements on its ongoing Epstein review and the 2020 report.

“Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes were abhorrent and reprehensible, and the University is committed to reviewing the documents expeditiously to determine what actions may be warranted, in line with Harvard’s policies and standards of conduct,” the school said earlier this year regarding its ongoing review.

It’s not clear when that review will be completed.

Harvard has said that its 2020 report was based on a review of Epstein’s donations to Harvard, his appointment as a visiting fellow, and his relationship with the program on Evolutionary Dynamics.

“That 2020 review included information available to the University at that time and offered key recommendations that were acted on, including updates to the University’s gift policy,” the university has said.

In his letter Wednesday, Raskin said the full scope of Epstein’s crimes and duplicity has yet to be uncovered.

“Mr. Epstein set out to renovate his own battered reputation, and perpetuate his cycles of sexual victimization, at the expense of not only the women and girls victimized, but Harvard and other leading academic institutions,” Raskin wrote. “We hope to discover the truth of these sordid events to help establish accountability and to help American higher education rebuild and restore the reputations of so many fine universities.”

Epstein pleaded guilty to state prostitution charges involving a minor in Florida in 2008, avoiding a more serious federal indictment under terms of a controversial plea deal.

He received an 18-month jail term with generous work release provisions.

The mysterious investor remained a fixture in high society after his release, hobnobbing with politicians, Hollywood celebrities, titans of industry, and stars of academia until his July 2019 arrest on federal child sex trafficking charges.

He died in custody the following month while awaiting trial.

Material from previous Globe coverage and Globe wire services was used in this report.

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