Botstein Investigation Finds He ‘Minimized’ Ties to Epstein

Leon Botstein, who has served as president of Bard College in New York since 1975, will retire at the end of June, he announced Friday in a letter to students, faculty and staff. The announcement follows a two-month investigation into Botstein’s connections to the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein which found that the president “minimized and was not fully accurate in describing his relationship with Epstein” to the Bard community.

“Nothing that President Botstein did in connection with his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein was illegal, but President Botstein made decisions in the course of that relationship that reflect on his leadership of Bard,” lawyers with the firm WilmerHale wrote in an April 30 brief to the Bard Board of Trustees.

When pursuing Epstein as a potential donor to Bard in 2012, Botstein “was presented with information regarding Epstein’s crimes” and “did not try to further understand what Epstein had done or learn what it meant that Epstein was found in 2011 to be a New York State Level 3 Sex Offender,” the lawyers wrote. “A quick internet search would have revealed not only the nature of Epstein’s past crimes but also his lifelong status as a registered Level Three Sex Offender who a court had found presented a high risk of re-offending.”

According to the brief, Botstein asked a senior Bard faculty member for help with a proposal for Epstein and acted against the faculty member’s view that Bard shouldn’t engage with Epstein.

“President Botstein relied on his view that a person convicted of crimes involving sex with a minor—‘an ordinary sex offender,’ in his words—could be presumed to be rehabilitated in the same way that any other convicted person should, in his view, be given that presumption,” the lawyers wrote. “President Botstein forcefully argues that Bard’s need for funds was paramount. His view was, ‘I would take money from Satan if it permitted me to do God’s work.’”

In his Friday letter, Botstein said he had told the board about his plans to retire this summer but waited to announce it until after the investigation was complete and after a $1 billion fundraising campaign wrapped up.

“I am proud to have marshalled, during my tenure, nearly 3 billion dollars of philanthropy from numerous sources on account of the College’s unique and vital purpose. I am deeply grateful to all the institutions and individuals who have stepped up to support Bard and the people it serves,” Botstein wrote. “In an age in which liberal arts education is under immense stress, the distinctive mission of the College must endure.”