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Bard College’s board of trustees has retained the outside law firm of WilmerHale to conduct an independent investigation into communications between Jeffrey Epstein and the college’s longtime president Leon Botstein.
WilmerHale’s will conduct an “independent review” of the “full scope of these communications”, financial contributions connected to Epstein, and any related matters, the board said in an announcement on Thursday evening.
Once complete, the board said the law firm would also make recommendations to the board regarding policies and practices on donor vetting, fundraising, codes of conduct, and conflicts of interest.
The announcement follows new revelations about Botstein’s dealings with Epstein, which have emerged in emails and other communications released by the Department of Justice, including a trip the college president took to Epstein’s island in 2012.
The hiring of a major US law firm to investigate claims around Epstein suggests trustees have come under pressure to respond to the new revelations.
Botstein had defended his relationship with the sexual predator, who pleaded guilty to state charges of solicitation of prostitution and of solicitation of prostitution with a minor in 2008.
Botstein, who has been at Bard since 1975, has said he first came into contact with Epstein came in 2011 – years after it was known that Epstein was a sex offender – after he received what was called an unsolicited gift of $75,000 from Epstein to Bard High School Early College. Botstein said he pursued the relationship “in fulfillment of my responsibilities as the chief fundraiser of the college”.
He has also said in a letter to the campus community that Epstein was “not my friend”, according to reporting by WAMC News.
Botstein has also alleged that he was ill and stayed by himself during a dinner that he attended on Epstein’s island in 2012, and that he went solely to attend a fundraiser there with the billionaire investor Leon Black.
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