**How Epstein Used the Ivy League to Launder His Reputation**

Jeffrey Epstein's name is synonymous with scandal and corruption. But what's less well-known is how he used his connections to the Ivy League to whitewash his reputation and hide his crimes from the public eye.

New documents released by the House Oversight Committee have shed light on Epstein's elaborate effort to scrub Google of negative headlines about his 2008 conviction for pedophilia. The records show that Epstein enlisted the help of several powerful figures, including Harvard economist Larry Summers, LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, and MIT Media Lab Director Joi Ito.

**The Campaign to Rebrand Epstein**

According to emails released by the House Oversight Committee, Epstein's campaign to rebrand himself as a philanthropist began in 2010 with two bespoke blogs. Al Seckel, a leader of the "freethought" atheist movement and author of books about optical illusions, helped create the websites portraying Epstein as a benefactor of an exclusive circle of luminaries at science's frontier.

The websites, though now defunct, are available through the Internet Archive: www.jeffreyepsteinscience.com and www.jeffreyepstein.org. A third website, www.edge.org, documented the gatherings of researchers, science writers, and Silicon Valley executives organized by John Brockman and underwritten by the Epstein-funded Edge Foundation.

**The Web of Connections**

Many of the scientists with connections to Epstein also have connections to the Edge Group, a defunct, invite-only club for scientific lectures "at the edge of the world's knowledge." The group grew out of The Reality Club, a group of scientific realists who met in the 1980s and 1990s, sometimes at the New York Academy of Sciences.

Attendees included former MIT Media Lab Director Joi Ito, who resigned after his solicitations of grants from Epstein for the Media Lab became public; MIT artificial intelligence scientist Marvin Minsky, whom Epstein funded with a $100,000 grant to MIT; Santa Fe Institute theoretical physicist Murray Gell-Mann, whose research Epstein funded; and MIT quantum information scientist Seth Lloyd, whose research Epstein supported with a $225,000 grant to MIT.

**The Academic Establishment's Ties to Epstein**

Harvard economist Larry Summers has admitted to continuing to communicate with Epstein after his conviction, despite knowing about the allegations of pedophilia. "I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein," he said in a statement on November 17.

MIT spokesperson Kimberly Allen said that MIT has nothing to add to the 2020 report it commissioned on Epstein's ties to the university. The report found that several professors had accepted donations from Epstein, including Seth Lloyd, who acknowledged in a public apology letter that the donations were "professional as well as moral failings."

**The Reputational Management Effort**

According to emails released by the House Oversight Committee, Seckel helped Epstein organize a conference he dubbed the "Mindshift Conference" on Little Saint James featuring several eminent scientists. The archived website shows that the conference was highlighted on Epstein's website.

Seckel also described "hacking on" Epstein's Wikipedia page in order to highlight his philanthropic work and downplay his pedophilia with "careful editing and wording." The emails indicate that Seckel may have been paid anywhere from $25,000 to $40,000 for his work.

**The Continuing Campaign**

Epstein continued to direct funds to Harvard and MIT even after his 2019 arrest. In 2017, he positioned himself as a counterforce to Trump in science funding. Another publicist placed an opinion piece in the Huffington Post with the headline "Private Donor Helps Fund Scientists After Trump's Proposed 'Anti-Science' Budget Cuts" featuring Epstein's support of Nowak, Lloyd, Minsky and others.

The new documents show that Ito raised funds for the MIT Media Lab from Epstein in May 2019, just weeks before his July 2019 arrest.