Noam Chomsky and Bard College president linked to Jeffrey Epstein

Jeffrey Epstein helped move $270,000 for renowned linguist Noam Chomsky and also paid $150,000 to Bard College president Leon Botstein, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

According to the newspaper, and also confirmed by Chomsky and Botstein, the late sex offender and financier had financial dealings with the two academics and had met with them multiple times.

Chomsky, a linguist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and political activist, told the Journal that he met Epstein occasionally to discuss political and academic topics. In 2018, Chomsky asked Epstein for help with a “technical matter” regarding the disbursement of common funds relating to his first marriage, the Journal reported.

He went on to confirm that in March 2018, he received a transfer of approximately $270,000 from an account linked to Epstein, telling the Journal that it was “restricted to rearrangement of my own funds, and did not involve one penny from Epstein”.

In response to further questions from the Guardian, Chomsky responded: “My late wife Carol and I were married for 60 years. We never bothered with financial details. She had a long debilitating illness when we paid no attention at all to such matters. Several years after her death, I had to sort some things out. I asked Epstein for advice. There were no financial transactions except from one account of mine to another.”

“These are all personal matters of no one’s concern,” Chomsky said.

Meanwhile, in 2016, Botstein received checks from an account linked to Epstein that amounted to approximately $150,000, the Swiss American conductor and Bard College president told the Journal.

Botstein told the Journal that Epstein had designated him as a consultant on the payments and made them appear as if they were fees for consulting work, which Botstein said he did not do for Epstein.

“I have no idea why he concocted this scheme … He didn’t want to write a check to Bard. He took pity on me, and he said, ‘I’m gonna give you money and you do whatever you want with it,’” Botstein told the Journal.

Botstein added that he included Epstein’s payments to him as part of a larger donation he made to the college in 2016.

Moreover, in 2011, Epstein gave Bard College $75,000 in unsolicited donations and Botstein had met with Epstein over a dozen times but was unsuccessful in raising additional funds, the president told the Journal.

In a statement to the Guardian, a spokesperson for the university confirmed the donations from Epstein.