Harvard and Bard face fresh questions from lawmakers over ties to Epstein

Leon Botstein, the outgoing Bard president who officials said would retain a role at the college. Photograph: Philip Kamrass/AP View image in fullscreen Leon Botstein, the outgoing Bard president who officials said would retain a role at the college. Photograph: Philip Kamrass/AP Harvard and Bard face fresh questions from lawmakers over ties to Epstein Democrat Jamie Raskin seeks ‘comprehensive accounting’ and requests interview with outgoing Bard president Harvard University and Bard College are facing new questions about the institutions’ relationship with Jeffrey Epstein amid allegations that the convicted child sex trafficker leveraged his ties to the universities and their faculty to traffic women, while also burnishing his reputation to avoid detection. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House judiciary committee, said in a statement that Harvard and Bard had both previously attempted to investigate the role their universities and leadership played in facilitating Epstein’s abuse, but that those attempts either failed or fell short of a full accounting of what occurred. Among other demands for information, Raskin has asked Bard to make Leon Botstein , its outgoing president whom Bard has said will retain a role at the college, available for a transcribed interview. Raskin also requested records related to Epstein’s donations, communications, admissions, interactions and institutional decision-making, as well as the full results of an internal review by the college. Raskin is also seeking extensive records from Harvard, including all records, financial documents and communications relating to Epstein’s funding of research and his personal relationships with faculty members. Raskin said Harvard’s previous investigations into the university’s ties to Epstein – conducted in 2008 and 2019 – were at best incomplete and at worst misleading. Raskin said the internal investigations failed to uncover a series of donations Epstein made after Harvard had instituted a ban against such donations in 2008, as well as the full extent of his relationship with Harvard faculty members, including Harvard’s former president, Larry Summers , and the depth of his personal involvement with student admissions and faculty research. “It is time for Harvard, like the rest of America, to come clean and engage in the comprehensive accounting that will allow us to learn from this nightmare, take appropriate legislative action, and make sure nothing like it ever happens again,” Raskin said in a letter to Harvard president Alan Garber. Harvard announced in February that Summers was resigning from teaching at the end of the academic year. The announcement followed the justice department’s release of the Epstein files, which revealed more details about Summers and Epstein’s relationship. The emails showed Summers and Epstein communicated frequently, on topics ranging from politics to women, including Summers pursuing a relationship with a person who saw him as an “economic