Jeffrey Epstein set up several meetings with people close to former President Donald Trump in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, including billionaire PayPal and Palantir cofounder Peter Thiel—raising speculation that Epstein sought to penetrate Trump’s orbit as his political prospects were on the rise.

KEY FACTS

Epstein scheduled separate sit-downs with Trump ally Thomas Barrack, Thiel and Russia’s then United Nations Ambassador Vitaly Churkin between 2015 and Churkin’s death in 2017, according to emails and schedules reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, though it’s unclear how many of the meetings manifested or what they entailed.

Thiel acknowledged at least one meeting with Epstein and Churkin in 2016, telling the Journal it was “nothing memorable,” while expressing regret for associating with the convicted sex offender: “I was rather naive . . . and I didn’t think enough about what Epstein’s agenda might have been,” he said.

The New York Times reported in May that emails from Epstein’s assistant show he planned to meet with Thiel at least three times in 2014, but the paper did not confirm whether the meetings occurred and Thiel declined to comment at the time.

In 2016, Epstein scheduled a lunch with Churkin, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Barrack—who at the time, was an informal advisor and fundraiser for Trump and would later lead his inauguration committee—and invited Barrack to an open house at his Manhattan home in September that year, along with filmmaker Woody Allen (Barrack declined to comment to the Journal).

The scheduling records reportedly show Epstein also set up several meetings with a third Trump associate, Nicholas Ribis—the CEO of Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts in the 1990s, who backed his 2016 presidential campaign—in September 2016, one of several planned sit-downs between the pair between 2011 and 2017 (a Ribis spokesperson told the Journal he and Epstein were merely acquaintances).

The Wall Street Journal’s Wednesday report marks the first revelation of Epstein’s relationship with Churkin, who had at least eight meetings scheduled with Epstein between 2015 and 2017.

CRUCIAL QUOTE

In an email to Thiel days after Churkin’s death, Epstein wrote “as you read my russian [sic] ambassador friend died. life is short, start with dessert,” according to the Journal. Trump issued a White House statement following Churkin’s death that called him an “accomplished diplomat” who “played a crucial role in working with the United States.”

KEY BACKGROUND

Thiel, Ribis and Barak join a number of powerful political and business figures whose ties to Epstein were revealed in the wake of his death. The Journal also reported in May that Epstein attempted to blackmail Bill Gates into maintaining a relationship with him by threatening to reveal his alleged affair with a Russian bridge player both men were associated with if Gates did not reimburse Epstein for the cost of a software programming bootcamp Epstein paid for the woman to attend. Epstein, who pleaded guilty to child prostitution charges in 2008, died by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial in a separate sex trafficking case charging him with abusing underage girls. The federal government continues to investigate Epstein’s finances and network of associates as it pursues several civil cases involving Epstein, including one against JPMorgan Chase in the Virgin Islands alleging it profited from and facilitated Epstein’s sex trafficking ring.

TANGENT

Epstein developed a relationship with Churkin as Russia began meddling in the 2016 presidential election in order to boost Trump’s chances of winning. A Senate investigation and former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe did not find any evidence that Trump campaign officials knowingly participated in the scheme, however, and Churkin is not mentioned in either report, the Journal noted.