Democratic megadonor Reid Hoffman, the cofounder of LinkedIn, has claimed that his “last interaction” with Jeffrey Epstein was in 2015. New records show they interacted in 2016, 2017, 2018, and perhaps 2019, the year Epstein was charged with trafficking dozens of girls for sex.
Hoffman and Epstein convened for a one-on-one Skype call on March 24, 2018, according to emails released by the Department of Justice on Friday. Hoffman emailed Epstein on Sept. 30, 2017, after a hurricane hit the Virgin Islands, where Epstein lived, writing, “You good?”
Hoffman and Epstein had a “phone date” on June 25, 2016, according to emails. They had reservations for dinner at a Palo Alto sushi restaurant on April 8, 2016, an appointment to meet on April 29, 2016, at MIT, a Skype call on June 20, 2016, and a meeting in Bedford, N.Y., on July 24, 2016, the records show.
And Epstein and Hoffman may have interacted as recently as March 16, 2019, when Epstein received a Google notification that mentions a meeting that morning with Hoffman.
The records contradict Hoffman’s claims over the years that he only had a “few interactions” with Epstein.
“My last interaction with Epstein was in 2015,” Hoffman told Axios in September 2019, a month after Epstein killed himself in jail after his arrest on charges that he trafficked dozens of girls for sex.
Hoffman, who contributed $17 million to help elect Kamala Harris in 2024, has not been accused of any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein’s sex crimes. But the tech titan, worth an estimated $2.6 billion, has apologized for helping Epstein repair his reputation amid highly public revelations about his sex crimes against children.
“By agreeing to participate in any fundraising activity where Epstein was present, I helped to repair his reputation and perpetuate injustice,” Hoffman said in his September 2019 mea culpa. “For this, I am deeply regretful.”
But Hoffman, who visited Epstein’s Virgin Islands getaway in 2014, has grown defiant over Epstein in recent months, after President Donald Trump, who was friends with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s, called out the Democratic megadonor’s more recent links to the deceased pedophile.
“Simply release all the files, and expose the people who had both deep and ongoing relationships with Epstein,” Hoffman said on November 14. “I will do everything in my power going forward to advocate for the release of the files.”
Hoffman did not respond to requests for comment about his more recent interactions with Epstein.
The pair formed a fast friendship in the early 2010s over their mutual interest in technology development and the MIT Media Lab. Joi Ito, the former director of the MIT Media Lab, was a mutual friend in that endeavor. Hoffman claimed in 2019 that his “few interactions” with Epstein “came at the request of Joi Ito” for the purposes of raising money for the MIT Media Lab.
“Prior to these interactions, I was told by Joi that Epstein had cleared the MIT vetting process, which was the basis for my participation,” Hoffman said. Some emails, however, show Epstein and Hoffman discussing issues other than the MIT Media Lab.
In an Aug. 4, 2015, email, Epstein advised Hoffman on the purchase of a private airplane.
“I will hold your hand all along the way,” said Epstein, who gave Hoffman a summary of the steps to purchase, refurbish, and staff a private plane. “Determine your flight patterns and mission though,very [sic] likely to change after you own one and decide to travel more often.”
Democrats have seized on the files in hopes that they will turn up derogatory information about Trump. But that has backfired so far, with many of the files showing Epstein’s close relationships with Democrats.
Epstein purchased a $9,400 Hermès handbag in 2016 for Kathryn Ruemmler, a Goldman Sachs general counsel and former White House counsel for Barack Obama, the Washington Free Beacon reported. And Epstein maintained friendly relations with Virgin Islands congresswoman Stacey Plaskett (D.). Plaskett claimed in November that she was never friends with Epstein. But she sent Epstein a text message in September 2018 in which she asked Epstein if she could “consider you a friend.”
“Privileged to be called friend,” Epstein told Plaskett.
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