Featured Image Credit: Jeff Bottari / Contributor / Getty
Some know him as the man who is trying to live forever, but long before Bryan Johnson was working on his 'anti-aging' Project Blueprint, he was already a big deal in the tech world. Founding Braintree in 2007, Johnson is also remembered for Kernel, which he injected $100 million of his own money into, a company that creates devices to monitor brain activity.
These days, you might know Johnson for his controversial attempts to wind back the clock on his own life, grabbing headlines for sensationalist stories about discussing his penis age, injecting his son's plasma, and taking an 'epic' dose of magic mushrooms on a livestream.
Johnson has rubbed shoulders with celebrities like the Kardashians through his "Don't Die Dinners”, as well as communicating with fellow 'broligarchs' like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. Now, Johnson's apparent interaction with Jeffrey Epstein has been called into question after the biohacker's name appeared in the latest release of the Epstein files.
While it's important to note that communicating or being pictured with Epstein isn't an indication of guilt, everyone from Diana Ross to Michael Jackson has been linked to him in some way.
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President Donald Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing despite his well-documented relationship with the shamed financier, Elon Musk has spoken out, and the office of former President Bill Clinton responded after he was heavily featured in a December release.
Just after President Trump's threat to sue Trevor Noah for joking about Epstein at the Grammys, Johnson has spoken out about his own potential ties to the late child sex offender, serial rapist, and human trafficker.
Taking to X, Johnson admitted that he met Epstein via Zoom in 2017. He claims a mutual contact put them in touch due to Epstein's supposed neuroscience work at MIT and Johnson building Kernel.
Johnson maintains that he phoned the mutual contact immediately after a 10-minute call, referring to Epstein as a "very dark person."
Distancing himself from Epstein, Johnson added: "I felt sick to my stomach. I also told him I that never wanted to speak to him again. I remember this so clearly because I knew nothing about him but weirdly, intuitively, something was deeply wrong."
Saying that being in Epstein's proximity felt 'dangerous', Johnson reiterated he had nothing to go off other than a feeling, but concluded: "I never interacted with him again and came to find out years later that he'd had a f**ked up past."
Many took to X to respond to Johnson's defense, sharing an email exchange that was part of the Epstein files. When someone claimed that Johnson suggested they meet in person, the latter replied: "This was pre-call…I was offering in person because I was traveling through NY. It ended up being a call (first and last time I interacted w him) I am with you friends...terrifying in hindsight."
Johnson's email appeared in a deluge of documents, with the latest release spanning three million pages, 180,000 images, and 2,000 videos.
As well as discussions of an Epstein documentary with Steve Bannon, there are claims about Bill Gates that a spokesperson has dismissed as "absolutely absurd and completely false," and an email where Elon Musk appears to ask: "What day/night will be the wildest party on your island?"
Like Musk has defended himself, Johnson is adamant that he only had a brief conversation with Epstein.
