FEMALE PHOTOS: Bard College President Leon Botstein speaks during a panel on “Changing Landscapes: From the Digital Classroom to the Global Campus” during the TIME Higher Education Conference on Oct. 18, 2012 in New York City.
Jemal Countess Getty Images
Bard College President Leon Botstein announced Friday that he will retire at the end of June after 51 years at the helm of New York’s prestigious liberal arts school, a day after a law firm retained by its Board of Trustees released a scathing report on his relationship with notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“Nothing President Botstein did regarding his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein was illegal,” WilmerHale attorney Jamie Gorelick wrote in a brief to those trustees, obtained by CNBC.
“But President Botstein made decisions during that relationship that reflected Bard’s leadership,” wrote Gorelick, who served as deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration.
Bard trustees retained WilmerHale in February to review the 79-year-old president’s relationship with Epstein after details of their communications were made public by the Justice Department’s release of documents, which made it clear they were more extensive than previously thought.
The 79-year-old Botstein, a well-known instrumentalist, said he is cultivating Epstein as a contributor to the Bard, located in Annandale-on-Hudson. His pursuit of Epstein comes a few years after the shady money manager pleaded guilty in Florida state court to soliciting a child for prostitution and served a 13-month prison sentence.
“President Botstein strongly asserted that Bard’s financial need was critical,” Gorelick wrote in his summary of his report to Bard’s trustees.
“His idea was, ‘I’ll take money from Satan if he lets me do God’s work,'” Gorelick noted.
“President Botstein said he saw no harm to Bard’s reputation by pursuing Epstein either
The potential risk to Bard’s students of exposure to Epstein, and he did not consider that his actions would validate and legitimize Epstein to potential victims or their parents,” the attorney wrote.
“In his public statements and in his statements to the Bard community, President Botstein denigrated and was not entirely accurate in describing his relationship with Epstein.”
Epstein, in addition to Botstein, has been friends with many high-profile people, including President Donald Trump, former Harvard President Larry Summers, and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, brother of Britain’s King Charles III. Epstein died in 2019 by suicide in a Manhattan prison, just weeks after being arrested on child trafficking charges.
A woman who answered the phone at Botstein’s home Friday referred questions to the college’s news department.
Bard College, in a statement, said, “Over five decades, President Botstein has been a transformative leader whose vision and unwavering commitment have made Bard the world-class educational institution it is today.”
“We are confident in the future of Bard and are committed to ensuring that this institution that we all love continues to grow, expand and lead the way in the model,” the college said.
Botstein’s retirement statement
Botstein did not mention Epstein by name in his retirement announcement, which outlined his role in Bard’s $1 billion endowment campaign, which was completed in January. That campaign was launched in 2021 with a $500 million challenge grant from the Open Society Foundations, a philanthropic network founded by billionaire hedge fund investor George Soros.
But Botstein referred to WilmerHale’s investigation in explaining the timing of his retirement announcement.
“I believe it was prudent and in Bard’s best interest to wait until the Wilmer Hale review was completed to make this announcement,” Botstein wrote.
He said in an email to Bard students and faculty that he had told the Board of Trustees of his intention to retire, “and focus my energies as a faculty member, teacher and artist.”
He also said, “I will continue with the Bard Music Festival, SummerScape, and the Bard Conservatory and I will live in the Finberg House,” he wrote.
WilmerHale’s findings about Bard’s presidency
Gorelick, in his summary, wrote that Botstein, in deciding to pursue donations from Epstein in 2012, did not try to understand the details of Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor girl for prostitution, and that he “did not agree with the opinion expressed by a senior faculty member, who should have asked Epstein to help him. Epstein.”
“President Botstein relied on his opinion that a person convicted of crimes involving sexual intercourse with another person.
a minor — a ‘common offender’, in his words — can be assumed to be rehabilitated in the same way as any other convicted person who should, in his opinion, be given that consideration,” Gorelick wrote.
He said Botstein did not discuss with the board whether to accept donations from Epstein or “could reasonably accept payments from Epstein.
“President Botstein did not disclose or flag to the Board, when approving donations made by an organization called Advanced Education in 2011 and 2012, that these funds were coming from Epstein.” Gorelick wrote.
And when billionaire Leon Black made a donation to Bard in 2014, “President Botstein understood that it was made at the behest of Epstein, it was disclosed only as funds from blacks,” Gorelick wrote.
“In 2016, President Botstein accepted funds under a consulting agreement with the Epstein Foundation,” Gorelick wrote. “He did not disclose the agreement to the Board on the grounds that he intended to donate those funds to Bard.”
The attorney said Botstein explained that the funds “were donated to Bard through his and/or his wife’s donations over the years and were not separately identified as coming from Epstein.”
“For this reason, the documents cannot confirm the Board’s contribution of those payments to Bard.” Gorelick wrote.
Owen Denker, a Bard alumnus who is a spokesperson for the group “Take Back Bard,” which sought to oust Botstein after his relationship with Epstein was revealed, said in a statement to CNBC, “While we are pleased with Leon Botstein’s decision to step back, we are not going far enough.”
“He needs to stop teaching and teaching immediately,” Denker said.
“Furthermore, we need to see a systematic culture of sexual harassment addressed, as well as joint management involving faculty, staff, and students to ensure that similar negligence does not occur,” Denker said.
The executive committee of Bard’s Board of Trustees, in a statement obtained by CNBC, said the board “thanks President Botstein for his five decades of service to Bard College, his many accomplishments and the lasting impact of his leadership.”
But the committee also said, “The concerns expressed in recent months have been serious and deeply felt.”
The committee said Bard is “committed to strengthening policies regarding donor screening, fundraising, and conflicts of interest.”
“External lawyers are reviewing existing policies and will present their findings and specific recommendations, including donor screening procedures, to the Board and the development office,” the committee said. “Funds related to Jeffrey Epstein will be directed to organizations that support survivors of sexual assault.”
