Newly released files shed new light on Chomsky and Epstein relationship | Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky’s ongoing close friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, including accounts of Chomsky “fantasizing about a Caribbean island,” continued to be extensively detailed among millions of investigation records of the recently convicted sex offender recently released by the US justice department.
In Friday’s installment of the so-called Epstein files, which relied on earlier revelations of his close social ties, there is no indication that the famed academic and linguist was referring to his friend’s private Caribbean island where children were sexually abused. But the personal closeness between the two men is evident in this conversation, as in many other emails between Chomsky and Epstein aimed at scheduling more casual social gatherings.
There was also a letter written by Chomsky to Steve Bannon, the right-wing chief strategist of the White House during Donald Trump’s first presidency, requesting an introductory meeting. “There is a lot to talk about,” Chomsky wrote, adding that Bannon’s contact information was given to him by Epstein, a former friend of Trump.
At one point, Epstein’s ex-girlfriend, Karyna Shuliak, sent an email to an identified third party stating that she and her boyfriend wanted to send two genetic testing kits to Chomsky and his wife.
Perhaps most strikingly, in late February 2019, Epstein told a colleague that he had received advice from Chomsky on how to handle “the appalling treatment you were subjected to in the press and the public.” This was 11 years after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution and months before he was reported to have died by suicide in federal custody while awaiting sex trafficking charges.
“The best way to move on is to ignore this,” Chomsky wrote, according to a text signed with his name that Epstein sent to a lawyer and journalist. “This is especially true now of the hysteria around harassment against women that has reached the point where even questioning an accusation is a crime worse than murder.”
Neither Chomsky nor his second wife and spokeswoman, Valeria Chomsky, immediately responded to questions about the Epstein-related emails in question, including whether they dispute the authenticity of the 2019 recommendation attributed to the scientist.
‘I fantasize about the Caribbean’
Collectively, however, the latest cables, released in connection with congressional transparency legislation, continued to undermine earlier suggestions that Chomsky had primarily financial dealings with Epstein, who was regularly photographed alongside some of the last century’s most prominent figures.
They also included key lines in documents released by U.S. House Democrats in November, which included comments in part in which Chomsky described maintaining “regular contact” with Epstein as “an invaluable experience.”
Of course, this regular contact also involved financial matters, including Chomsky contacting Epstein for advice throughout a complex fight that revolved around money and the purchase of an apartment, pitting him against his children from his first marriage.
At one point, Chomsky’s estate lawyer suggested sending a pointed email to a financial advisor over inconsistencies regarding a $187,000 payment. The lawyer had a draft ready. But Chomsky, one of the world’s brightest intellectuals, made sure to get Epstein’s thoughts on whether sending the letter was a good idea for him.
“You should let him ship but you should warn him [her] Because he’s unwilling to ask tough questions,” Epstein wrote in part. “BULLSHIT.”
At another point, Valeria Chomsky arranged for an employee of Epstein to send her a check for $20,000 to help “manage the Chomsky problem in linguistics.”
Beyond that, Chomsky’s relationship with Epstein brought him invitations to vacation together and recognizable names in his orbit.
For example, following emails showing he and the Chomskys making plans to meet in 2016, Epstein wrote to Noam: “I am very pleased… [as] Always. Are you in New York or the Caribbean? Enjoy your meal.”
“We’ve done that in spades,” Chomsky replied. “Valeria is always into New York. I really fantasize about the Caribbean island.”
At another point that same year, Epstein, a Brooklyn native, discussed being “always free” to meet Chomsky in New York City because “everyone else in the city will be gone except us. Apart from Woody. Maybe we can do this again.”
Chomsky said it would be “wonderful” to have dinner with Epstein and the “Allens”. It was not stated whether the emails mentioned film director Woody Allen and his wife, Soon-Yi Previn. But there is reason to believe that it is the director who has been ostracized by much of the industry over allegations from his daughter Dylan Farrow that he sexually assaulted her in 1992 – something Allen has repeatedly denied.
That’s because in late 2016, Epstein was informed by email that 23 and Me’s genetic testing kits would be “delivered to Woody and Soon Yi.” Months later, in the spring of 2017, emails emerged in which Shuliak arranged to send the Chomskys a pair of the same type of tests with Epstein’s permission.
About a year later, Chomsky reached out to Bannon and expressed disappointment that both he and Valeria “kidnapped you the other night.”
“Jeffrey…gave me his address,” Chomsky wrote. “Hopefully we can arrange something else soon. There’s a lot to talk about.”
Bannon had been out of Trump’s first administration for nearly a year at that point. “I agree. I’d like to connect,” he replied, before saying that his brother lived in Tucson, Arizona, where Chomsky started working as a college professor.
‘Don’t pay attention’
An unrelated conversation hinted at the playful tone Chomsky and Epstein might adopt. At one point, Epstein wrote that he thought of Noam and Valeria Chomsky as if they were “Pluto and its moon.” Chomsky, “Who is Pluto?” he replied by asking. – and Epstein sent a picture of the Disney character with his ear sewn up.
After Chomsky said the anthropomorphic dog did indeed look like him, Epstein responded with a phallic joke and wrote: “At your age, if something goes well, be proud.”
“Oh,” Chomsky wrote, prompting Epstein to respond: “Good, he still has feelings.”
The public image management advice that Epstein said he received from Chomsky in 2019 followed a landmark court ruling on the former. A federal judge found that U.S. justice department prosecutors broke federal law when they signed a plea deal with Epstein and then concealed it from more than 30 of his underage victims.
Epstein’s deal allowed him to plead guilty to prostitution charges in Florida state court in 2008 and serve only 13 months in a local jail. That was despite the fact that U.S. district court judge Kenneth Marra said the evidence he reviewed showed that Epstein ran a sex operation in which he and his associates recruited underage girls internationally, in violation of federal law, as Miami Herald journalist Julie K Brown noted. reported.
Within two days, Epstein sent an email to a lawyer and the publisher with the subject line “Thoughts from Chomsky.” The text that followed was signed “Noam” and read: “I have seen how horribly you have been treated in the press and the public. It hurts to say this, but I think the best way to move forward is to ignore it.”
The text attributed to Chomsky says he was plagued with “tons of hysterical accusations of all kinds.” “Unless I’m approached to comment on a particular issue, I don’t pay attention to it. It’s annoying, but it’s the best way.”
Referring to “a developing hysteria about the abuse of women,” the text continued: “Especially in our current mood, I think it is best not to react unless directly questioned – a mood that will, I think, fade away, if not in time to prevent further torture and distress.”
Actually it didn’t disappear. Federal prosecutors in New York charged Epstein with sex trafficking in July 2019, in a case that would see his partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, sentenced to 20 years in prison. Epstein, 66, died by suicide in federal prison in August 2019, authorities said.
Interest in how the federal government is handling the case has increased in recent months after Trump vowed to release a full list of Epstein’s clients as he runs successfully for a second presidency in 2024. However, after taking office in early 2025, Trump’s justice department announced that such a list did not exist.
The president faced intense bipartisan political pressure to be transparent and eventually signed a congressional bill directing the justice department to disclose more of the Epstein files, where Friday’s recordings and those before it were released.
Chomsky, who turns 97 in December, is professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has been on unpaid medical leave since October 2023 from his position as an award-winning professor of linguistics at the University of Arizona, a school spokesman said Monday.
