With Jeffrey Epstein’s reputation in tatters following a 2018 Miami Herald investigation into his sex crimes — and how he evaded serious consequences — the financier hit on a plan: He would produce a documentary to present himself in a favorable light.

He had several ideas about who could appear on it and provide favorable testimonies, emails and phone messages show.

And one of the first friends to allegedly give Epstein the thumbs up was famed left-wing academic Noam Chomsky.

“Spoke to Chomsky, he’s all in,” Epstein wrote in a text message to an undisclosed associate.

The messages are part of a trove of more than 20,000 files released last week by the U.S. House Oversight Committee investigating Epstein’s crimes.

Epstein donated millions of dollars to elite academic institutions such as Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and cultivated relationships with star scientists and researchers in a number of fields over the years.

Chomsky, a former linguistics professor at MIT, is currently affiliated with the University of Arizona. He gained fame in the late-1960s as an outspoken critic of the war in Vietnam. Since then, he has written more than 150 books and has become a prominent left-wing critic of U.S. foreign policy.

Chomsky’s ongoing relationship with Epstein even after the disgraced financier’s sex crimes became publicly known was reported by The Wall Street Journal two years ago.

But the Herald’s findings reveal that Chomsky continued to correspond with him at least until the summer of 2019, even after the Herald’s series led to widespread outcry and the Justice Department publicly announced a fresh probe.

Epstein claimed in his messages that he was flying to meet Chomsky on May 12, 2019 ⁠— less than two months before federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York brought new sex charges against him. It isn’t clear if they actually met then.

While Chomsky identifies with the left, Epstein showed no loyalty to either political side. The Herald reported last week that he was advising Steve Bannon on helping to develop a populist right-wing movement in Europe.

The Herald sent detailed questions to Chomsky and his wife, Valeria, about their relationship with Epstein, but did not receive any response.

Documentary deliberations

Epstein contemplated numerous options to try to rehabilitate his image after the Herald published its "Perversion of Justice" series on the “sweetheart” deal Epstein struck with federal prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida that allowed him to plead guilty to two state prostitution charges to answer for allegations that he had sexually abused numerous teenage girls.

“What do you think about me hiring former judges, FBI, to do a thorough investigation so as to separate truth from fiction,” Epstein wrote in a series of text messages to an undisclosed associate.

Other options Epstein considered: An op-ed piece by famed attorneys Alan Dershowitz or Ken Starr — both of whom helped Epstein negotiate his deal — and an inquiry and a law review article into how his punishment for his 2008 crimes was, in his words, the “harshest ever meted out.”

The other person had a better idea: Could Epstein get some of his friends and financial beneficiaries to be on film? Would “the girls” agree to be on film?

“The institutes. Scientists definitely. The girls can be forced to testify on video,” Epstein replied, adding more ominously, “I’ll explain face to face. If they need encouragement.”

The other person wanted to increase the scope of the film and add motifs gaining currency in the populist right-wing movement: Global capital, geopolitics since the 1980s, the scientific drives toward immortality and the “depravity of elite society and the decline of the west.” The film would address all of these themes with Epstein as the connecting thread, he said.

Epstein approved.

Chomsky wasn’t the only academic Epstein proposed for the movie. He also suggested filming the recently deceased Nobel Prize-winning scientist James Watson, who is credited with discovering the double helix structure of DNA, Norwegian diplomat Terje Rød-Larsen and pediatrician Gloria Minsky, wife of Marvin Minsky, widely considered to be the father of artificial intelligence, were also on the list.

Three days after the U.S. Justice Department announced a fresh probe on Feb. 6, 2019, into how it had handled Epstein’s first indictment, the other person told Epstein that he would be in Tucson and requested that Epstein ask Chomsky if they could meet the next day.

“Yes, he’d like that ... he is an iconic figure and you shouldn’t pass up the chance to talk history and politics,” Epstein replied a few hours later.

The content of the messages suggests that the other person identified with the political right but Epstein assured him that he and Chomsky had “more in common” than he thought.

The messages suggest that Chomsky and Epstein’s associate did meet the next afternoon, with the undisclosed person messaging Epstein about how Chomsky was a “great gentleman” and “brilliant but short on some basic facts.”

Epstein’s associate and Chomsky had some form of communication again in late-June 2019, according to the messages. But he could not film the aging academic.

“Noam in no shape to film — clearly in some sort of pain and has grown a beard,” the other person wrote Epstein on June 29, 2019. “We need to get him scheduled as soon as practicable.”

Federal agents arrested Epstein a little more than a week later.

It is not clear from the released files whether Chomsky ever took part in the film, or whether anyone else did.

A long-standing friendship

Other correspondence between Epstein, Chomsky and Chomsky’s translator wife, Valeria, date back to 2015. The messages show them discussing a broad range of topics: politics in the Middle East, linguistics, behavioral sciences and President Barack Obama’s foreign policy.

In one message from early-August, 2015, Epstein asked Chomsky if he had written about Obama’s deal with Iran to curb the country’s nuclear weapons development program. Chomsky replied with a few paragraphs, calling the deal “farcical.”

In that same email thread, Epstein told Chomsky that he was welcome to use his Manhattan penthouse or visit him in his vast, secluded New Mexico ranch whenever he wished.

Epstein arranged several meetings with Chomsky around this time, The Wall Street Journal reported in 2023.

Among the released files is also a glowing testimonial letter attributed to Chomsky that describes how Epstein taught Chomsky a “great deal” about global financial markets and the economy and how the two frequently have “very rewarding discussions.”

“The impact of Jeffrey’s limitless curiosity, extensive knowledge, penetrating insights, and thoughtful appraisals is only heightened by his easy informality, without a trace of pretentiousness,” the letter states. “He quickly became a highly valued friend and regular source of intellectual exchange and stimulation.”

The letter is not dated. It lists Chomsky’s name and professional title but does not bear a signature. Whether it was written by Chomsky or drafted by Epstein or one of his staff with the hope of getting Chomsky to sign it is unclear.

Chomsky’s wife, Valeria, belatedly wished Epstein on his birthday in January 2017. In the email she apologized for missing any celebration and said she and her husband hoped to see him soon and raise a toast to him.

Another email exchange five days after the 2016 U.S. elections, suggests that Valeria and Epstein had discussed President Donald Trump’s candidacy, with her predicting Trump would win.

“Now I want my position as political analyst (preferably in the White House),” she joked.

She also suggested in the exchange that Trump would benefit from listening to her husband and asked if Epstein could “arrange it.”

It is not clear whether she sent that message in jest.

_____

©2025 Miami Herald. Visit miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.