CIA head named in Epstein's calendar

CIA Director William Burns. Linguistics professor Noam Chomsky. Goldman Sachs lawyer Kathryn Ruemmler. Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak. Filmmaker Woody Allen.

Those and other prominent figures from politics, finance, academia and the arts had meetings scheduled with financier Jeffrey Epstein several times after he had registered as a sex offender and served time in jail for abusing a 14-year-old girl in 2008, according to documents that show his schedules, The Wall Street Journal has reported.

The newspaper said the documents include thousands of pages of emails and schedules from 2013 to 2017 and haven't been previously reported.

The newspaper said in an article on Sunday that it couldn't verify that all the meetings reportedly in Epstein's schedules had taken place, and the purpose of most of the meetings wasn't listed. Epstein was found dead in a New York City jail cell of an alleged suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex-trafficking charges.

In 2014, when Burns was deputy secretary of state, he was reported scheduled to meet with Epstein three times. He was listed to first meet Epstein at the latter's Manhattan town house.

Personal life

CIA spokesperson Tammy Kupperman Thorp denied that Burns, 67, had any knowledge of Epstein's personal life at the time they met.

After one meeting at the town house, Epstein apparently planned for his driver to take Burns to the airport. Though Burns recalled meeting Epstein briefly via a mutual friend in Washington, he denied the other meetings in the calendar.

When asked whether he met with Epstein, Chomsky, an American linguist and political activist, told the Journal in a statement: "First response is that it is none of your business. Or anyone's. Second is that I knew him and we met occasionally."

Chomsky, the article said, met with Epstein on a number of occasions throughout 2015 and 2016. He told the newspaper that he met with him to discuss politics and academia. One meeting was with Epstein and then Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, whom the report said met with Epstein several times.

As part of another meeting, Epstein scheduled a flight for Chomsky, 94, to have dinner with filmmaker Woody Allen and his wife, Soon-Yi Previn.

Between 2002 and 2017, Epstein reportedly donated at least $850,000 to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Chomsky was a professor. The MIT later claimed to have since donated the funds to charities that support victims of sexual abuse.

aiheping@chinadailyusa.com