A year before convicted felon Jeffrey Epstein died in a prison cell under mysterious circumstances, a friend who was teaching at Arizona State University worried about accusations of sexual harassment and asked for help, which led Epstein to suggest he turn to Donald Trump’s White House. According to Politico’s Bianca Quilantan, the texts and emails show Epstein believed Trump’s efforts to weaken protections for sexual misconduct accusers could provide physicist Lawrence Krauss, who was teaching at ASU, an escape route from disciplinary proceedings. “My friends in the White House HATE the title ix c—-,” Epstein wrote to Krauss in April 2018, using a crude sexist slur to describe his contempt for women protected by Title IX enforcement. “Ironic but he might be your out,” Epstein added without clarifying who he was specifically discussing, Politico is reporting. Krauss, a noted Trump critic, was willing to give it a shot, replying,: “Ironic indeed! But I will take it.” According to Quilantan, the text and email exchanges also illuminate Trump’s Title IX agenda and attitude toward women. Advocates for sexual assault survivors say the Epstein emails prove what they’ve long argued: the Trump rollback was designed to shield accused men from accountability, not to protect fairness.
“This Epstein email and essentially his blessing and support of the Trump 2020 rule, it just really affirms what we’ve been saying all along,” Shiwali Patel, senior director of Education Justice at the National Women’s Law Center told Politico. “It’s meant to be an anti-survivor rule. I don’t know if it could be made any more clear after the Epstein files revealed his role in support of it.”
Trump has claimed he and Epstein, once a frequent Mar-a-Lago guest, had a falling out years before Epstein’s 2019 prison death. But the newly released correspondence demonstrates that Epstein believed he retained White House connections during Trump’s first term — and was actively using them to help accused harassers escape consequences. The White House declined to comment. Krauss did not respond to requests for comment, Politico reported.
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