The recent release of thousands of emails that late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein exchanged with associates has renewed interest in the disgraced financier’s connection to star Harvard University professor and best-selling author Steven Pinker.
A search of the email database showed a number of references to Pinker and his academic work. However, no direct written correspondence between Pinker and Epstein could immediately be found.
“Thanks to Steven Pinker for suggesting this year’s EDGE Question [book series] and to Daniel Kahneman for advice on its presentation,” wrote literary agent John Brockman to Epstein on Dec. 31, 2010, according to one missive in the huge tranche of emails that Congress released.
Congress just passed a bill to force the release of all the files the Justice Department has on Epstein, and President Trump, a former friend of Epstein who says they had a falling-out, is expected to sign the measure.
Pinker has never been accused of wrongdoing in connection with the Epstein saga. But he’s been linked to him after BuzzFeed reported in 2019 that the professor had offered Alan Dershowitz, his friend and a former attorney for Epstein, an opinion on the wording of a statute at issue in Epstein’s Florida solicitation case in the mid-2000s.
In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution and soliciting a minor for prostitution. He received an 18-month sentence with generous work release provisions.
Epstein died in custody in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal child sex trafficking charges.
Before Epstein’s death, Pinker had addressed his link to Epstein when he released a statement to his friend Jerry Coyne’s blog. The statement appeared around the same time as the BuzzFeed report.
“Over the past few days I’ve had the disagreeable experience of seeing my name in some web articles about Jeffrey Epstein,” Pinker said in July 2019 via X. “Jerry Coyne asked me about the connection and offered to publish my answer on his blog @evolutionistrue. Here it is:
Pinker then offered a link to a blog post containing his full statement.
Regarding the advice he gave Dershowitz when the lawyer represented Epstein in the Florida case, Pinker said Dershowitz “often asks me questions about syntax and semantics of laws,” and that while representing Epstein “asked me about the natural interpretation of one, of the relevant laws, and I offered my opinion; this was cited in a court document. I did it as a favor to a friend and colleague, not as a paid expert witness, but I now regret that I did so. And needless to say I find Epstein’s behavior reprehensible.”
Pinker, who could not immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday afternoon, also said he held Epstein in low regard.
“The annoying irony is that I could never stand the guy, never took research funding from him, and always tried to keep my distance,” Pinker said. “Friends and colleagues described him to me as a quantitative genius and a scientific sophisticate, and they invited me to salons and coffee klatches at which he held court. But I found him to be a kibitzer and a dilettante — he would abruptly change the subject ADD style, dismiss an observation with an adolescent wisecrack, and privilege his own intuitions over systematic data. I think the dislike was mutual—according to a friend, he ‘voted me off the island,’ presumably because he was sick of me trying to keep the conversation on track and correcting him when he shot off his mouth on topics he knew nothing about."
Yet he found himself in proximity to Epstein owing to their shared connections, Pinker said.
“Epstein had insinuated himself with so many people I intersected with (Alan Dershowitz, Martin Nowak, John Brockman, Steve Kosslyn, Lawrence Krauss) and so many institutions he helped fund (Harvard’s Program in Evolutionary Dynamics, ASU’s Origins Project, even Harvard Hillel) that I often ended up at the same place with him,” Pinker said, nodding to the fact that he and Epstein were photographed together.
Pinker said most “of these gatherings were prior to the revelation of his sex crimes, such as the 2002 plane trip to TED with Dawkins, Dennett, the Brockmans, and others, but Krauss’s Origins Project Meeting came after he served his sentence.”
Pinker said his fame doomed him during such encounters.
“Since I was often the most recognizable person in the room, someone would snap a picture; some of them resurfaced this past week, circulated by people who disagree with me on various topics and apparently believe that the photos are effective arguments,” Pinker said at the time.
He’s not the only towering Harvard academic swept up in the scandal.
Former Harvard president Larry Summers said Monday that he would step back from public commitments amid criticism of his ties to Epstein. On Wednesday, Summers said he would step down from the board of OpenAI, which is currently laying the groundwork for a $1 trillion IPO.
In one email chain on March 16, 2019, Summers complained to Epstein about a woman he was interested in who was apparently seeing someone else.
“Tone was not of good feeling,” Summers wrote. “I dint [sic] want to be in a gift giving competition while being the friend without benefits.”
“Shes smart,” Epstein replied. “Making you pay for past errors. ignore the daddy im going to go out with the motorcycle guy, you reacted well.. annoyed shows caring., no whining showed strentgh [sic].”
Epstein would be dead less than five months later.
Material from Globe wires and from previous Globe stories was used in this report.
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com.