Biden’s CIA Director Met With Jeffrey Epstein Multiple Times After Child Sex Crimes Conviction, Docs Show
According to newly released documents, CIA Director William Burns, who was appointed by President Biden, met with the now-deceased financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein on multiple occasions after Epstein's conviction of sex crimes in Florida, The Wall Street Journal reports. The private calendar and emails reveal that Epstein scheduled three meetings with Burns in 2014 when Burns was deputy secretary of state under President Obama. Their first meeting was set for August in the Washington, DC office of law firm Steptoe & Johnson, and the other two were scheduled at Epstein's Manhattan, New York townhouse. Epstein had planned to have Burns taken back to the airport after one of the meetings.
According to a CIA spokesperson, Burns met with Epstein as he was preparing to leave the government, and he did not know anything about Epstein. The spokesperson, Tammy Kupperman Thorp, said, "The director did not know anything about him, other than that he was introduced as an expert in the financial services sector and offered general advice on the transition to the private sector. They had no relationship." Burns recalled meeting Epstein once in New York after being introduced by a mutual friend, but he did not recall any further contact.
Burns left government in 2014 to become president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a prominent foreign policy think tank based in Washington, DC. He was appointed CIA Director by President Biden in 2021, and prior to this, he served as ambassador to Russia from 2005-08. Epstein was accused of sexual abuse in 2005 by multiple underage girls, with the youngest being 14 years old. The accusations led to an investigation by Palm Beach, Florida police, who were ready to charge Epstein with multiple counts of unlawful sex with a minor, according to the Associated Press. However, State Attorney Barry Krischer intervened, and Epstein was eventually charged with a single count of soliciting prostitution.
Epstein was convicted by Florida prosecutors in June 2008 for procuring a minor for prostitution and felony solicitation of prostitution in 2008. He was sentenced to 18 months in jail and required to register as a sex offender. The conviction came after his lawyers arranged a plea bargain with the U.S. Attorney in Miami, Alexander Acosta, to avoid federal prosecution. Acosta later served as Secretary of Labor under President Trump. Epstein spent most of his jail sentence under a work-release program and left jail in July 2009, while federal prosecutors secretly agreed not to prosecute Epstein for federal crimes.
Epstein was later charged in July 2019 by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York for allegedly sex trafficking minors. However, he was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell in August 2019 under mysterious circumstances. His partner and co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June 2022 for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors.
The documents' release raises concerns about Burns' judgment and decision-making, particularly given Epstein's status as a known sex offender. Epstein's criminal activities were widely known by this point, and Burns should have been more cautious about associating with someone with such a reputation. Additionally, it is concerning that Burns did not recall all of his interactions with Epstein, particularly given Epstein's notoriety. It is imperative that individuals in positions of power exercise better judgment in the company they keep, particularly those in positions related to national security. The American people deserve to know that their leaders are not associating with individuals who could pose a threat to national security. The fact that Burns met with Epstein at all raises serious questions about his judgment and fitness to serve in his current position.
