ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. — Leon Botstein, who has served as president of Bard College for five decades, revealed his plans to step down at the end of June following months of investigation into his connections with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The 79-year-old administrator shared his retirement decision in an email distributed to The Associated Press through the college. While Botstein avoided directly addressing the Epstein controversy in his message, he noted that he delayed making his departure public until an external investigation into his relationship with the disgraced financier was completed.
Following his departure from the presidency, Botstein plans to continue his association with the small liberal arts institution as both an educator and musician on the faculty.
While no allegations surfaced suggesting Botstein participated in Epstein’s criminal activities involving the exploitation of young women and girls, he joined numerous other high-profile individuals who maintained social connections with Epstein despite his criminal history.
Federal documents made public this year revealed extensive contact between the two men, including instances where Epstein traveled to the campus via helicopter. Correspondence showed Botstein extending an invitation for Epstein to attend the college’s 2013 commencement ceremony and proposing they attend an opera together.
Additional communications demonstrated that Botstein contacted Epstein following The Miami Herald’s 2018 reporting on new developments in Epstein’s legal troubles, writing “I want you to know that I hope you are holding up as well as can be expected.” In separate correspondence, Botstein characterized their connection as a “friendship.”
Financial records indicate Epstein provided $150,000 to Botstein in 2016, money the president stated he transferred to the college. Botstein had previously maintained that his interactions with Epstein were purely professional, focused on securing donations for the institution rather than personal friendship.
The college’s board of trustees commissioned the law firm WilmerHale to examine all correspondence between the two men. Their investigation concluded that while Botstein committed no crimes, he “made decisions in the course of that relationship that reflect on his leadership of Bard.”
“In his public statements and his statements to the Bard community, President Botstein minimized and was not fully accurate in describing his relationship with Epstein,” investigators determined.
The review revealed that Botstein disagreed with a senior faculty member who opposed the college’s engagement with Epstein. The president argued that someone “convicted of crimes involving sex with a minor—’an ordinary sex offender’, in his words—could be presumed to be rehabilitated in the same way that any other convicted person should, in his view, be given that presumption.”
“President Botstein forcefully argues that Bard’s need for funds was paramount. His view was, ‘I would take money from Satan if it permitted me to do God’s work,’” the investigation found.
In a statement from Bard’s Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees, officials expressed appreciation for Botstein’s lengthy tenure while acknowledging that the “concerns raised in recent months have been serious and deeply felt.”
The trustees announced that any money connected to Epstein would be donated to organizations supporting survivors of sexual violence.
The college’s media relations department issued a statement describing Botstein as “a transformative leader with the vision and unwavering commitment that has shaped Bard into the world-class educational institution it is today.”
