Yale issues statement after professor talked about student in email to Epstein
He said he was 'glad' he'd written to the shamed financier
There are more revelations from the Epstein files, and with the Department of Justice continuing to release millions of pages, photographs, and emails relating to the late financier and his expanded network of famous names, there are continued questions about whether anyone knew what was really going on.
After Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to solicitation of prostitution and solicitation of a minor for prostitution in 2008, the convicted sex offender was sentenced to 18 months before being arrested in 2019 on further charges of sex trafficking during the years 2002 to 2005.
Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his cell at New York's Metropolitan Correctional Center in 2019, and as conspiracy theories swirl about his apparent suicide, the infamous 'Epstein Island', and what happened to accuser Virginia Giuffre, the continued release of the Epstein files has only thrown fuel onto the fire.
Following the notable inclusion of former President Bill Clinton in a December 2025 release, 2026 has seen the likes of Elon Musk respond to claims he corresponded with Epstein, Bill Gates speak out on allegations he caught an STD, and lawmakers saying President Donald Trump is mentioned 'more than a million times' in unredacted files.
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Everyone from LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman to PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel had email correspondence, and now, Yale University has spoken out after an exchange between Epstein and computer science professor David Gelernter has surfaced.
As reported by Yale Daily News, Professor Gelernter is no longer teaching his class after a 2011 email describing an undergraduate's appearance was unearthed in the files.
Epstein and Gelernter had an extensive exchange of messages between 2009 and 2015, with discussions involving art, business, and women. The email in question includes Gelernter referring to the student as a "v small goodlooking blonde."
He has defended the email in a message to Jeffrey Brock, the dean of Yale’s School of Engineering & Applied Science, also copying in Computer Science department chair Holly Rushmeier.
Here, Gelernter referred to Epstein as he said he kept "the potential boss’s habits in mind."
University spokesperson Karen Peart confirmed Gelernter is facing a review, telling the outlet: "The university does not condone the action taken by the professor or his described manner of providing recommendations for his students.
"The professor’s conduct is under review. Until the review is completed, the professor will not teach his class."
As Gelernter's students arrived at his class, Rushmeier apparently informed them of the news and announced she would be taking over teaching for the rest of the term.
Student Johann Ortiz explained: "All she said was that Gelernter is suspended from interacting with students. He’s not teaching. That’s all that she said."
Rushmeier maintains that she's not had any contact with anyone in the University administration about the ongoing review into Gelernter’s conduct.
In a post on Yale’s online course management systemannouncing that he'd been 'relieved', Gelernter wrote: "If someone handed you a stack of other people’s private correspondence, would you dive in and read them? Of course not. Gentlemen and ladies don’t read each other’s mail."
Elsewhere, Newsweek says that Gelernter has continued to defend himself, with the school newspaper reporting that he wrote: "So long as I said nothing that dishonored her in any conceivable way, I’d have told him more or less what he wanted."
After describing her as "smart, charming & gorgeous," he added: "I’m very glad I wrote the note."
Gelernter said that the student had become a 'family friend' and stayed at his and his wife's house "at least twice." As for Epstein, he concluded that she knew who he was, but "not that he was a felon & sex criminal!"