Leon Botstein, the former president of Bard College who had come under scrutiny for his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, resigned from all of his positions affiliated with the college on Wednesday.
The announcement came the same day that the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Bard leaders saying that while Dr. Botstein was president, he “likely enabled and possibly even participated in” Mr. Epstein’s abuse. The letter also raised concerns about how Bard under Dr. Botstein handled sexual-misconduct complaints on campus.
Dr. Botstein announced he would retire in the spring from the presidency, a position he had held for half a century, but had stayed on in a variety of roles at the college until Wednesday.
The letter, from Representative Jamie Raskin, ranking member of the committee, pointed to an email from May 2014 in which a person writing from the Bard president’s email address had asked whether a woman Mr. Epstein may have been trafficking was “for me, or are you keeping her for yourself.”
“It is hard to construct any kind of innocent explanation for Botstein’s question and the surrounding events,” Mr. Raskin wrote, adding that the question was asked to “the most famous sexual predator of our time.”
In a statement, Dr. Botstein called the allegations in the letter untrue and said he did not write the message in question.
“Any assertion that I knew of or was involved in Epstein’s criminal behavior is wrong,” Dr. Botstein said. “I am confident that any fair review would confirm these facts. But I do not want to see even false allegations about me put the institution I have served for more than half a century put at any risk.”
He said he submitted his resignation to Bard’s board “to protect Bard from any distraction and ensure the college’s entire focus is on the future.”
The public redacted version of the email only lists the sender as “President,” but members of Congress have access to unredacted versions of the email. The letter from Mr. Raskin says the email was sent from “[email protected].”
In a statement, Brandon Weber, the chair of Bard College’s board of trustees, said that Dr. Botstein informed Bard on Wednesday that he was resigning immediately from all of his Bard positions, including his professorship and roles with the school’s music programs. The board unanimously accepted his resignation.
“Bard College is undertaking a full review of the allegations made in the House Judiciary Committee’s letter and cooperating with the committee’s investigation, as we have done from the outset,” Mr. Weber wrote.
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