The latest emails to be released from the Epstein files have revealed an abundance of illuminating connections, and one that's grabbed the attention of some involves a 'wild' dinner between the convicted child sex offender and Mark Zuckerberg, alongside several other key figures in the tech world.
Jeffrey Epstein has connections with many of the world's most powerful and influential individuals, with names like Donald Trump, Prince Andrew, and Bill Gates among the biggest.
This predictably meant that he was introduced to other key figures by nature of sharing the same social circles, and that's seemingly how he ended up at an extravagant dinner in Palo Alto, California among some of the biggest names in the tech world.
Revealed first in a report by Vanity Fair in 2019, the dinner presumably occurred roughly around 2015, which was notably several years after Epstein was registered as a sex offender.
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The dinner itself was reportedly hosted by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman for MIT neuroscientist Ed Boyden, but names such as Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Mark Zuckerberg were allegedly present.
Following the release of thousands more files from the Epstein case, one email sent by the disgraced financier to billionaire Tom Pritzker on August 20, 2015, references this very dinner, noting it to be 'wild' in retrospect.
When asked by Pritzker whether he'd be in New York later that same month, Epstein replied: "not sure yet. i had dinner with zuckerberg, mu=k, thiel hoffman, wild."
It's unclear what exactly made this dinner notably 'wild', nor if anything came from it after the fact, but Ben LaBolt – a spokesperson for Zuckerberg – claimed in the original Vanity Fair report that the Facebook co-founder had been introduced to Epstein by Elon Musk, remarking:
"Mark met Epstein in passing one time at a dinner honoring scientists that was not organized by Epstein. Mark did not communicate with Epstein again following the dinner."
Musk himself denied doing so though, declaring in an email to Vanity Fair: "I don't recall introducing Epstein to anyone, as I don't know the guy well enough to do so, Epstein is obviously a creep and Zuckerberg is not a friend of mine."
Intriguingly, he also claimed in 2019 that he had been at Epstein's house for '30 minutes' several years prior on the behest of his then-wife Talulah Riley for a novel that she was writing.
"We did not see anything inappropriate at all, apart from weird art," Musk claimed, adding that Epstein "tried repeatedly to get me to visit his island. I declined."
We know now following the same release of emails that Musk requested on several occasions to visit Little Saint James, Epstein's private island, although it does appear that this never ended up happening due to the schedules of both not lining up.