Latest / The Vault: The Epstein Files / Harvard and Bard Face New Questions Over Jeffrey Epstein (6/19/26)

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Harvard and Bard Face New Questions Over Jeffrey Epstein (6/19/26) · The Vault: The Epstein Files

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Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the
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Epstein Chronicles. There's no story that includes Jeffrey Epstein that
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can avoid the fact that he was embedded in academia.
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And after all these years, the bill is finally coming due,
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and people like Larry Summers and Leon Botstein are finally
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being called upon to answer for their relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
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And as you can imagine, their answers have not been great.
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And of course it's led to Larry Summers being shit
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canned at Harvard. And now Botstein is stepping down from
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his president's position. Now, of course he's not leaving Bard entirely,
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but he's stepping down from that position. And now we
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have Jamie Raskin, who is looking for a comprehensive accounting
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and he wants to have an interview with mister Botstein.
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And look, just be clear, I'm not saying that mister
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Botstein was taking part in any kind of abuse. I
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don't know that, but I do know that he enabled
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Jeffrey Epstein. I know that he helped refurbish Jeffrey Epstein's image,
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and I know that led to other people being abused.
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And if this was a Rico case well might be
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a different conversation. But considering that's just a hope and
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a dream, we have to deal with the reality before us.
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And when it comes to people like Botstein, people like Summers.
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The most we can hope for probably his embarrassment, and honestly,
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that's a drop in the pill compared to the suffering
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of Jeffrey Epstein's victims and survivors. So look, I get
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it right, nobody wants to demean somebody. I'm not going
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to sit here and call somebody a diddler if we
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have no proof of it. But at the same time,
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you have to answer for your relationships. You're a grown
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ass man. You can't have relationships with people like Jeffrey
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Epstein when he's a known child abuser and then think
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that it's going to be okay, that nobody's going to
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have anything to say about it, Because I assure you
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people have some shit to say, so do why. Today's
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article is from The Guardian and the headline Harvard and
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Bard face fresh questions from lawmakers overties to Epstein. This
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article was authored by Stephanie Kirch Gasner. Harvard University and
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Bard College are facing new questions about the institution's relationship
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with Jeffrey Epstein amid allegations at the convicted child sex
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trafficker leveraged his ties to the universities and their faculty
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to traffic women while also burnishing his reputation to avoid detection.
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That's exactly what happened. That's not an allegation, that's not
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a maybe. That's what happened. And for all these years
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they've denied it, they've made excuses, and they've acted like
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it's been overblown. But the truth is they've been covering
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it up. And not to veer too far off course,
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but it looks like a serious trafficking ring has been
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covered up over in the UK as well. Rupert Lowe
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has a new report out about grooming gangs, and we're
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going to get into that too, because I think it
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dovetails with what we talk about now. Of course, there's
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people who say that the numbers inside of that inquiry
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are overblown, but my response to that is even one
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girl is enough. If one girl suffered that kind of
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fate at the hands of some kind of grooming gang
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and it was covered up, that needs to be investigated.
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And I think it goes directly to the heart of
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what we're dealing with when it comes to Epstein. A
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lot of it has to do with institutional embarrassment. I
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need you guys to understand that, and these governments will
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go to great lengths to try and make sure that
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that doesn't occur, even if that means covering up something
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like Jeffrey Epstein or the grooming gangs. Over in the UK,
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Jamie Raskin, top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said
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in a statement that Harvard and Bard had both previously
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attempted to investigate the role their universities and leadership played
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in facilitating Epstein's abuse, but that those attempts either failed
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or fell short of a full accounting of what occurred. Well,
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hold on one second, you mean internal investigations don't work.
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Come on, you should be able to investigate yourself, right
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if you commit a crime, he don't worry about it.
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I'm taking a look at myself. I just looked at
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my books and everything's okay here. Meanwhile, you're stealing money
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hand over fist. The whole entire internal investigation is some
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of the biggest bs in the history of big bs.
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Among other demands for information, Raskin has asked Bard to
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make Leon Botstein, its outgoing president, whom Bard has said
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will retain a role at the college, available for a
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transcribed interview. Raskin also requested records related to Ebstein's donations, communications,
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admission interactions, and institutional decision making, as well as the
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full results of an internal review by the college. Raskin
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is also seeking extensive records from Harvard, including all records,
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financial documents, and communications relating to Ebstein's funding of research
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and his personal relationship with faculty members. I mean, that's good,
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and we should be getting all of that, but I
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doubt he will. Remember a lot of this stuff was clandestine,
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A lot of this stuff was done on the down low,
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and Epstein knew not to have a paper trail. He
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knew better. So the whole entire internal review has always
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been a bunch of nonsense to me. Raskin is also
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seeking extensive records from Harvard, including all records, financial documents,
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and communications relating to Ebstein's funding of research and his
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personal relationships with faculty members. Raskin said Harvard's previous investigation
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into the university's ties to Epstein, conducted in two thousand
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and eight in twenty nineteen, we're at best incomplete and
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at worst misleading. Man, Am I really agreeing with Jamie
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Raskin right now? Not exactly, somebody I agree with all
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the time, but he's not wrong here, and there needs
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to be a full accounting. Any of these universities that
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receives one single dollar in public money should be on
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the hook to explain away their relationship with someone like
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Jeffrey Epstein, and up until this point Harvard has not done. So.
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Every single excuse they give, every reason they give, is
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worse than the last. I mean, if the president of
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your university is palaling around with Jeffrey Epstein, and Jeffrey
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Epstein has an office on the campus of Harvard, I'd
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say that that's a problem that starts at the top,
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right the president of the university. We're not talking about
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some rebel ass professor who decided to do this after
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the university told him no. The universe encouraged it. They
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might not have said it, but their behavior encouraged this
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kind of shit, and with their internal reports, the idea
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was to whitewash that, to make it like the university
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had no idea and that it was just a couple
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of professors and a couple of people on campus who
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thought it would be a good idea to have a
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relationship with Epstein. That's what they tried to frame it as,
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but that was never the truth, and now Jamie Raskin
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is calling them out. Raskin said the internal investigation failed
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to uncover a series of donations Epstein made after Harvard
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had instituted a ban against such donations in two thousand
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and eight, as well as the full extent of his
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relationship with Harvard faculty members, including Harvard's former president Larry Summers,
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and the depth of his personal involvement with student admissions
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and faculty research. Yeah, how many people got in there
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because of Epstein? How many times did Epstein reach out
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and get somebody into the school? I'm sure if you remember.
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At the heart of it, that's what Jeffrey Epstein was
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a fixer, and he knew if he could get some
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vulnerable girls into Harvard, then he'd be able to abuse
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them and not just actually, but in general, have them
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do whatever he wants them to do, whenever he wants
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them to do it, because if they don't, well, they'll
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lose their spot at Harvard, and they'll lose their immigration
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visa and they'll have to go back to whatever country
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they're from. And that was the guillotine hanging over the
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head over these girls. It's time for Harvard, like the
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rest of America, to come clean and engage in the
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comprehensive accounting that will allow us to learn from this nightmare,
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take appropriate legislative action, and make sure nothing like it
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ever happens again. Raskin sent in a letter to Harvard
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President Alan Garber, and look, I doubt we're going to
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stop it from ever happening again, but hopefully we're more
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vigilant this time, and hopefully people recognize the signs and
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they do something about it, they step up. Harvard announced
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in February that Summers was resigning from teaching at the
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end of the academic year. The announcement followed the Justice
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Department's release of the Epstein files, which revealed more details
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about Summer's and Epstein's relationship. The email showed Summers and
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Epstein communicated frequently on topics ranging from politics to women,
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including Summers pursuing a relationship with a person who saw
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them as an economic mentor like I never understood the
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whole thing about teachers try and hook up with their
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students even in college. What are you doing? Why would
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you cause yourself that kind of headache, that kind of drama.
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Go to the local pub, find yourself somebody else, a
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different girl. Whenever there is that power imbalance, you're setting
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yourself up for a disaster. And when you walk into
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it willingly, well, you get what you deserve. Summer served
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as Harvard's president from two thousand and one to two
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thousand and six. Epstein donated more than nine million to
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Harvard and its affiliated program from ninety eight to two
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thousand and eight, which overlapped with Summer's tenure. Somers has
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previously said, I am deeply ashamed of my actions and
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recognize the pain they have caused. I take full responsibility
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for my misguided decision to continue communicating with mister Epstein. Yeah,
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after you got called out, after the whole country knew
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you were a scumbag, how come you didn't do it previously?
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In a separate letter addressed to Bar chair James Cox Chambers,
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whom The Guardian previously reported has recently stepped down from
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that role, Raskin said he was seeking to understand how
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Epstein exploited and leveraged multifarious ties in higher education from
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Bard to Columbia University, Harvard and NYU. Raskin pointed out
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in the letter that Botstein was resigning from his position
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as president, a role that he held for more than
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fifty years, following Obard initiated investigation that concluded his tenure
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was marked by substantial lapses in leadership and candor not
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exactly legacy building. Huh, imagine they do this report and
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that's what they come back with. Now can you imagine
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what an external report would find? There was evidence. Raskin
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said that Epstein's relationship to Botstein and barred leaders helped
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them maintain and expand his illegal activities, including potentially trafficking
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women in New York and the Russian Federation. And that's
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a big story the Russian Federation. I doubt it's ever
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going to get legs, but boy, there were a lot
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of women and girls abused from the Russian Federation one
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hundred percent. And that's because Epstein knew that he had
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friends in FSB that would press these women, make sure
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they didn't talk. I mean, look at the emails that
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he sent about Ganijeva and the response from his Russian contact,
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how they're gonna press her, How she's not protected by
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anybody in Russia, so it should be easy. And that
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should give you a little bit of a look at
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how these people operated. And when we're talking about people
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from the Russian Federation, what are they going to do?
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Go to the local police chief who's in the pocket
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of insert oligarch here. The Guardian reported last month that
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Bard's Board of trustees voted to end Botstein's fifty one
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year tenure after board members were presented with the results
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of an independent review of his relationship with Epstein. Botstein
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friened his departure as a long plan retirement in a
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statement on May first. Oh yeah, retirement, forced retirement. You
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mean these people shouldn't be able to save face with
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those kinds of statements. An Epstein victim who had previous
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interactions with Botstein, said she believed the Bard College president
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was part of a group of influential and accomplished men
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whose proximity to Epstein helped to rehabilitate his reputation one
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million percent. And that's the part that a lot of
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people leave out. A lot of people are like well,
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so and so didn't take heart in any abuse, So
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what's the big deal? They enabled, They helped rehabilitate this
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piece of shits reputation, and that of course led to
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countless girls being abused. And there was certainly levels to it,
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and there were certainly levels that reached criminality. And if
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we ever had a real investigation, well we would have
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seen that. A summary of an internal investigation conducted by
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the Wilmer Hell Law Firm, which was initiated by Bard's
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Board of trustees and was released publicly on May first,
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found that nothing Botstein did in connection to his relationship
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with Epstein was illegal. It also found that the Bard
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president was not fully accurate in describing his relationship with
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Epstein publicly or to the Bard community, and stated that
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Botstein did not fully see a risk to Bard's reputation
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when he pursued Epstein as a donor for the college,
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or the potential risk his contacts with Epstein posed to
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Bard's students. I mean, you know, a guy that's already
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been to prison for abusing a girl who was under age.
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No risk here, guys, squeaky clean, He's the fucking pope.
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The law firm noted that Botstein had not disclosed fees
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he accepted under a consulting agreement with epstein entity. Botstein
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previously denied being friends with Epstein, and has also said
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he never witnessed anything inappropriate nor had any visibility in
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Ebstein's monstrous crimes. He's never been charged with any wrongdoing
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related to Ebstein. We have received the letter and are
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reviewing it, a Bard College spokesperson told The Guardian. Harvard
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did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Raskin
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is seeking information from both universities by July. First. Look,
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this story is just beginning when it comes to higher
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education academia, and places like Harvard and Bard and like usual,
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will be here every step of the way as a
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story unfolds. As for this one, well that's going to
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do it. All the information that goes with this episode
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can be found in the description box.