Newly released documents show ties between Bard’s president and Jeffrey Epstein

On January 30, 2026 the U.S. Justice Department released about 3 million pages of records from its Epstein files. The documents have been examined by reporters and they have named Leon Botstein thousands of times. While Botstein has been president of Bard College since 1975, these files show he met with Jeffrey Epstein after Epstein’s 2008 conviction. An email from December 2012 arranged for Botstein to be taken to Jeffrey's island, and the files record contact between the two men until January 2018.

Epstein gave Bard a $75,000 gift in 2011 and in 2015 he donated 66 laptops to the school. In 2016 Botstein received $150,000 from the foundation Gratitude America; he has said the payment was then given to Bard as part of a larger personal gift. Although Botstein has defended his meetings as fundraising efforts, critics have questioned the judgment of accepting money from a registered sex offender. Therefore many institutions have been reviewing past donations and the topic has been raised in public conversations about transparency and donor vetting. Furthermore, the newly available materials include emails, schedules and internal notes that reporters are still examining.