The physician and longevity influencer Peter Attia is facing criticism after correspondence between him and the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was released on Friday as part of a large tranche of files related to Mr. Epstein.
Dr. Attia’s name appears in more than 1,700 documents, some of which include direct correspondence in the mid-2010s between him and Mr. Epstein, a disgraced financier who had at that point already pleaded guilty to prostitution charges. Mr. Epstein would later be charged with trafficking underage girls for sex.
Dr. Attia, who is in his early 50s, said in a lengthy statement posted on X on Monday that he “never witnessed illegal behavior and never saw anyone who appeared underage” in Mr. Epstein’s presence. He added that he “was never on his plane, never on his island, and never present at any sex parties.”
Some of the emails, though, show the two men speaking crudely about women, and Dr. Attia said Monday that he was embarrassed and ashamed of himself. “Whatever growth I’ve had over the past decade does not erase the emails I wrote then,” he said.
In one email on Feb. 19, 2016, titled “confirmed,” Dr. Attia wrote to Mr. Epstein: “Pussy is, indeed, low carb. Still awaiting results on gluten content, though.” A couple of days earlier, he had offered his medical services to Mr. Epstein and asked, “Have you decided if you’re interested in living longer (solely for the ladies, of course)?”
Dr. Attia has become highly influential in recent years among people seeking to improve their health. He hosts a popular podcast, wrote a best-selling book and runs a health practice that charges more than $100,000 for personalized exercise, nutrition and preventive testing programs; he is also a prominent backer of David protein bars. Just last month, CBS News hired him as a contributor.
CBS and David did not respond to requests for comment on Monday about the documents or the future of Dr. Attia’s relationships with those companies. However, sometime between Jan. 29 and Monday, David updated its website to remove a reference to Dr. Attia as its chief science officer. (Dr. Attia was interviewed at The New York Times’s Well Festival last May.)
Some of the messages that have drawn the most attention are vague. Among the 1,700-plus documents is an email exchange dated June 24, 2015. Dr. Attia initiated it with an email to Mr. Epstein under the subject line “got a fresh shipment”; it is not clear what he was referring to. Mr. Epstein replied, “me too,” with a photo that is redacted in the released document. Dr. Attia responded, “Please tell you found that picture on line…bastard,” to which Mr. Epstein said, “fraid not.”
Dr. Attia then wrote: “You the biggest problem with becoming friends with you? The life you lead is so outrageous, and yet I can’t tell a soul…”
In his statement, Dr. Attia said that the shipment he had been referring to was the medication metformin — a diabetes treatment that some people use to try to slow the effects of aging — and that Mr. Epstein’s photo had been “of an adult woman.”
“Reading that exchange now is very embarrassing, and I will not defend it,” Dr. Attia wrote in his statement. “I’m ashamed of myself for everything about this. At the time, I understood this exchange as juvenile, not a reference to anything dark or harmful.” He added that his reference to being unable to tell anyone about Mr. Epstein’s “outrageous” life was about “the discretion commanded by those social and professional circles–the idea that you don’t talk about who you meet, the dinners you attend and the power and influence of the people in those settings.”
Other documents show Dr. Attia saying that he goes “into JE withdrawal when I don’t see him” and suggesting that he wants to visit Mr. Epstein’s island. The documents do not indicate that he actually did visit.
And in an email on Dec. 4, 2018, Dr. Attia asked Mr. Epstein what the “fallout” was from a “recent story.” A few days earlier, an article in The Miami Herald had reported that Mr. Epstein had received a secret plea deal years earlier that minimized his sentence and effectively shut down an investigation into potential co-conspirators.
In his statement on Monday, Dr. Attia said that he had been horrified by The Herald’s report and that he had told Mr. Epstein that “he needed to accept responsibility.”
In hindsight, he added, “even attempting to facilitate accountability was a mistake and once again reflected just how naïve I was at the time. Once the full scope of his actions was clear, disengagement should have been the only appropriate response.”
Dana G. Smith contributed reporting.
Maggie Astor covers the intersection of health and politics for The Times.
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