Harvard Gave Epstein What He Wanted, Kept Giving After He Left Jail: Report

Jeffrey Epstein was not a Harvard man and was not definitely somebody who finished his undergraduate degree. But for over two decades he engineered a relationship with the university that gave him something more durable than a diploma, which is proximity to intellectual power and the credibility that came with it.

Newly released US Justice Department documents reviewed by The New York Times showed how professors at one of the world's most prestigious institutions continued to nurture that relationship by visiting him, endorsing him and listing him in acknowledgements even after he was registered as a sex offender.

The day Epstein came out of Palm Beach County jail in July 2009 after serving 13 months for solicitation and prostitution with a minor, he wrote to Stephen Kosslyn, then a Harvard psychology professor, that he was "home and free." Kosslyn then replied with exclamation marks.

Three weeks later, Epstein told an associate to contact Lawrence Summers, then a senior figure in the Obama administration, with the same news. "Give him the home number and email address," Epstein wrote.

While reports about Epstein's pursuit of Harvard's social currency are not new, the newly released files revealed for the first time the extent to which the Harvard faculty knowingly and warmly served as instruments of that craving, the NYT report said.

Epstein donated $9.2 million to Harvard across 22 gifts, after which he got a visiting fellowship reportedly secured by Kosslyn despite lacking the qualifications for it. He secured a named room inside a university programme called "Jeffrey's office", decorated with his own rug and photographs, and visited it some 40 times between 2010 and 2018. When a publicist told mathematician Martin Nowak that a Harvard URL would help Epstein's Google results, Nowak obliged.

Harvard opened an internal review after Epstein's 2019 death and interviewed some 40 people, reviewed 2.5 lakh pages and ultimately sanctioned Nowak while treating Summers, whose name appeared once, in passing as peripheral to the story. Investigators noted that faculty had visited Epstein in jail, flown on his planes, and stayed at his island. They did not follow up.

Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard Law professor who criticised the 2020 review publicly, told NYT, "They wanted to minimise the embarrassment."

Harvard is now conducting a second review of millions of newly released government files. Summers has since resigned and Nowak has been placed on leave. A Harvard spokesman said the university would "continue to evaluate what additional actions may be warranted."

Among students, Rosie Couture, a Harvard senior who faced a disciplinary inquiry after sharing a video of Summers discussing Epstein in class, told NYT that it had been painful to watch revelations emerge slowly. "It's horrifying and sad, especially for young women," she said.

The 2020 review's terms of reference excluded conduct that did not violate Harvard policy, and much of what Epstein built at Harvard did not.