The British scientist Richard Dawkins met Jeffrey Epstein and was photographed with the sex offender despite knowing of his 2008 conviction, The Times understands.
Emails indicate Dawkins, a former Oxford professor known for his atheist views, was aware Epstein had been jailed but dined with him at a gala dinner at a conference in Arizona in April 2014. Dawkins also wrote to his agent that he had heard “his case is not as black as painted”, and spoke of a “nasty young woman who seems to be running some kind of a witch-hunt” against a physicist who defended Epstein.
Photos from the night, published in the latest Epstein files release, appear to show Dawkins in conversation with Epstein on a table for the financier’s non-profit foundation, which is understood to have donated $25,000 to the event.
Earlier that day Epstein had emailed an associate saying he was “in Arizona” with Dawkins and two other scientists. Another email written by Epstein suggests he was in touch with Dawkins in May 2015, by which time Virginia Giuffre had gone public with her claim to have been trafficked by Epstein aged 17. In response to an email asking what he was up to, Epstein wrote that he was “arguing religion with dawkins” and “krause”, understood to refer to Dawkins’s collaborator, the physicist Lawrence Krauss. “Im on the pro religion side,” he added. Dawkins, 84, told The Times he “did not have a relationship” with Epstein or seek any association with him and could not remember either interaction. He said he had no memory of the gala dinner and did not know the event was sponsored by Epstein, but that seating at such events was often pre-assigned. Richard Dawkins RHODES MEDIA “I go to many conferences, they all have unmemorable dinners and I certainly have no memory of that particular one,” he said. He said he could not remember ever “arguing religion” with Epstein in 2015, adding: “I do not believe any such conversation took place.” The dinner in Arizona in 2014 was part of a gathering of scientists arranged by Krauss — a friend of Epstein and collaborator of Dawkins — to celebrate five years of Krauss’s Origins project at Arizona State University, which is reported to have received $250,000 from Epstein between 2010 and 2017. Emails indicate Epstein attended the event with “two girls”, stayed in a suite at a nearby luxury resort and had explicitly asked Krauss about meeting Dawkins while there. Dawkins and Epstein had previously met twice, before Epstein’s conviction. Dawkins confirmed to The Times that he and his wife went to a dinner hosted by Epstein in New York in the 1990s and that he flew on his private plane on a trip to a conference in California with a group of other scientists. Dawkins said Epstein spent the whole journey elsewhere on the aircraft and did not participate in the group’s conversation. “I met him, as far as I can now recall, on only three occasions, and I do not recall ever corresponding with him directly,” he said. There is no suggestion that Dawkins was aware of the extent of Epstein’s alleged offending or that he engaged in or witnessed any inappropriate behaviour. Being named in the Epstein files is not in itself indicative of wrongdoing. The newly released records do indicate that Dawkins agreed to be photographed with Epstein in 2014 despite being aware of his sex offence conviction — and may have been sympathetic to others who had been criticised for their association with him. In 2011, Dawkins emailed a link to an article about Epstein to his literary agent, which detailed how Epstein had been jailed in 2008 but only served 13 months thanks to a plea deal. The article said the deal was being challenged by lawyers for two girls, who were allegedly aged 13 and 14 when they were paid for sex. Krauss, a Canadian-American physicist, was criticised in the article for his apparent defence of Epstein, including comments that he had only seen Epstein with women aged over 19 and was minded to believe he was innocent because “as a scientist” he based his view on empirical evidence. Sharing the article with his agent, Dawkins warned that people were considering boycotting an event involving Krauss and appeared open to suggestions that Epstein’s conviction was not black and white. “There is a rather nasty young woman who seems to be running some kind of a witch-hunt against Lawrence Krauss because of his defence of Jeffrey Epstein,” Dawkins wrote. “I remember that you told me something of the circumstances of Jeffrey’s arrest, and that his case is not as black as painted. Might you possibly remind of it.” The email appears to have been forwarded to Epstein by John Brockman, an agent who said he would “take care” of Dawkins. Dawkins accepted he would have known about Epstein’s conviction at the time of the 2014 dinner but did not believe he would have given it much thought. “My recollection is that I knew Epstein had served a prison sentence, but I did not know the details and I did not follow the case closely. If I gave it any thought at all, I probably assumed the matter had been dealt with by the courts,” he said. “With what is now known, I regard his crimes as abhorrent.” Asked about the “very nasty woman” email he said he “would not use that phrasing today” and did not know why it had been forwarded to Epstein. Dawkins is among several prominent academics, scientists and philosophers who Epstein attempted to court. Epstein often bragged to contacts about his relationships with high-profile, reputable people and is reported to have donated millions of dollars to major scientific projects. Emails indicate Epstein sought a closer relationship with Dawkins, inviting him and other scientists to his private island in 2010 and seeking to meet him in the UK the same year. Dawkins said he never visited Epstein’s island, did not meet him in the UK and never accepted funding from him. Dawkins, who wrote The God Delusion, is one of the world’s best known commentators on atheism and critical thinking. In 2014 he attracted controversy for his comments on rape when he tweeted: “Date rape is bad. Stranger rape at knifepoint is worse.” He made clear this was not an endorsement of date rape. He has also spoken about the notion of “mild paedophilia”, saying notorious cases involving rape and even murder should not be bracketed with “just mild touching up” of the sort he said he experienced at boarding school. He said he condemned Epstein’s crimes “unequivocally”. Krauss, who had a friendship with Epstein and stayed in touch until 2018, said he was aware of Epstein’s 2008 conviction but believed in restorative justice and had been told by Epstein that “his time in jail had convinced him that he wanted to spend the rest of his time supporting science”. He said he was “as shocked as the rest of the world” when he was arrested in 2019 and that his crimes were “horrendous”. 
