The ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee is calling on Bard College's Board of Trustees for help as the committee expands its investigation into the Hudson Valley school's ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The Bard College Board of Trustees was notified about the expansion via a letter from Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin. It was addressed to former board chair James Cox Chambers. Raskin alleges that a previous investigation by law firm WilmerHale into the connections between Epstein and former Bard president Dr. Leon Botstein was too narrow. The Board in February commissioned WilmerHale after Botstein’s name appeared thousands of times in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Epstein Library.
WilmerHale found that Botstein was not sufficiently transparent about cultivating a financial relationship between Epstein and the college. But their report also stated that “nothing that President Botstein did in connection with his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein was illegal.”
After the report was published, Botstein released a statement announcing that he would step down from the presidency of Bard, without mentioning Epstein. His term ends June 30.
Raskin's letter raises questions about WilmerHale's assertion that "nothing" illegal took place. He calls WilmerHale's investigation "too narrow," and concludes that there are numerous questions WilmerHale failed to answer.
One of the most significant lines in Raskin's letter is this one: “Bard...seemingly materially assisted Mr. Epstein’s scheme to traffic his victims to the United States.” This is a reference to a dual-enrollment program Bard has in Russia with Smolny College. Raskin is suggesting, based on some email exchanges in the Epstein files, that Epstein coordinated directly with Botstein to get two foreign-born women — who were later revealed to be abuse victims — into Smolny College, which ostensibly would have facilitated Epstein's ability to get them visas to come to the United States.
In one of these cases, the letter quotes an email exchange between Epstein and Botstein, where Epstein (whose emails frequently included typos) writes: “the russains name is [redacted] i would appreciate her going to see an advisor that co=ld heopher decide on smolny.”
In a reply to that email, Botstein writes: “[redacted] should get in touch directly with me....I will then send her inquiry to [a Bard employee], who will handle it from there.”
This, Raskin writes, along with a second similar incident related to Smolny College, amounts to Epstein “utilizing connections to Bard leadership to traffic women across international borders.”
The letter makes two specific asks of Bard's Board of Trustees. The first is for the Board to make Botstein available for a transcribed interview with the Judiciary Committee. The second is a very extensive records request — in particular, the Judiciary Committee wants to see the full documentation of the WilmerHale investigation, not just the three-page summary that was widely released. They’re also requesting “all communications between Jeffrey Epstein or his associates and staff of Bard College and Smolny College.” They’ve given the Board a deadline of 5 p.m. on July 1 to provide all this.
WAMC requested comment from everybody involved, including Raskin, Botstein, as well as Bard College and its Board of Trustees. A Bard College spokesman said, “We have received the letter and are reviewing it.”
When Botstein announced that he was stepping down, he noted that he would still be a part of the Bard community — living on campus and playing a significant role in music programs.
Rising Bard senior Jasper Lavin, who is active in a campaign to highlight an alleged culture of sexual misconduct at the college, said that if these allegations were true, Botstein would “pose a threat to the safety of the school,” and he should remove himself from the campus. But he also said that there are a lot of issues beyond just Botstein that the whole situation should make people pay attention to — specifically, sexual assault cases being, as he put it, “swept under the rug,” and giving students more access to the governing institutions of the college.
But, Lavin said, while it’s good to have the conversation about what Botstein knew, and how much he was involved, the answers to those questions won’t resolve the deeper issues he sees as plaguing the college.
