Deceased financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein met with prominent linguist and socialist intellectual Noam Chomsky on several occasions, documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reportedly show.
Epstein arranged meetings with Chomsky in 2015 and 2016 when he was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the documents reportedly show. One alleged meeting took place with Chomsky and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to discuss geopolitics and Israel-Palestine relations. Chomsky is a stanch critic of the Israeli government and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. (RELATED: REPORT: Biden’s CIA Director Met With Jeffrey Epstein Multiple Times After Child Sex Crimes Conviction, Docs Show)
Noam Chomsky told the WSJ of his longtime relationship with Jeffrey Epstein: “First response is that it is none of your business. Or anyone’s. Second is that I knew him and we met occasionally.”
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Epstein met with Chomsky, Harvard professor Martin Nowak and other academics at Nowak’s research institute in March 2015 to discuss neuroscience and other subjects, the documents allegedly reveal. Epstein scheduled a flight with Chomsky and his wife to have dinner alongside filmmaker Woody Allen and his wife in May 2015, according to the documents.
WSJ reached out to Chomsky about his relationship with Epstein and he said “it is none of your business.” Chomsky told the outlet, “I knew him and we met occasionally.” (RELATED: Bill Gates Says He ‘Shouldn’t Have Had Dinners’ With Jeffrey Epstein)
“If there was a flight, which I doubt, it would have been from Boston to New York, 30 minutes,” Chomsky said. “I’m unaware of the principle that requires that I inform you about an evening spent with a great artist.”
Epstein was convicted in 2008 for procuring and soliciting a minor for prostitution after girls as young as 14 accused him of sexual abuse in 2005. He spent 13 months in a work-release program and was required to register as a sex offender.
Chomsky was aware of Epstein’s conviction for sex crimes in Florida prior to their meetings. He told WSJ that “what was known about Jeffrey Epstein was that he had been convicted of a crime and had served his sentence. According to U.S. laws and norms, that yields a clean slate.”
MIT told WSJ that lawyers for the school investigating the university’s ties to Epstein did not find evidence Chomsky met with Epstein on campus or received funding from Epstein. The school received at least $850,000 from Epstein between 2002 and 2017 and Epstein visited campus on multiple occasions, MIT disclosed in January 2020. MIT donated the $850,000 to victims of sexual abuse and apologized for taking Epstein’s donations.
Harvard disclosed in May 2020 over $9.1 million it received from Epstein from 1998-2008 and shut down Nowak’s research center that Epstein funded.
Epstein was charged for alleged sex trafficking by federal prosecutors in July 2019 after reporting by the Miami Herald brought fresh scrutiny to Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking operation. He was found dead in his New York jail cell in August 2019 in what was ruled a suicide. His partner and co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June 2022 for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors.