Microsoft Director Reid Hoffman Connected Jeffrey Epstein to Silicon Valley Elite

Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn co-founder and Microsoft board member, introduced convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein to some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley. He often used prestigious connections to whitewash his reputation after he pled guilty to Florida prostitution charges and registering as a sex offender in 2008. One of these connections was Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal.

Thiel initially ignored several messages proposing meetings with Epstein, but reconsidered when Hoffman offered an introduction. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Hoffman wrote that Epstein was ‘mostly fun, very interesting guy, you may find him perverse, but very smart on biology, computation, macro econ.'” Hoffman claims his sole motivation for meeting Epstein was to solicit donations for the MIT Media Lab, where Hoffman was a member of the advisory board. From the WSJ report:

Hoffman said he regrets all his interactions with Epstein and that he made the introduction to help fundraise for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Epstein indicated he would be more likely to donate to MIT in collaboration with other tech leaders,” he said in an email. “In the intro, I used the claims Epstein asked me to do, including how he characterized himself. I trusted MIT’s vetting and did not do my own.”

However, Thiel maintains that MIT was never discussed during his meetings with Hoffman and Epstein.

Thiel said he doesn’t remember MIT ever coming up in interactions with Epstein and Hoffman, and that it is a “preposterous notion” that he would help fundraise for a university given that he created a fellowship in 2010 that pays students to skip or drop out of college.

 

Thiel said Epstein lured him into further interactions mostly by offering introductions to other people. “He was a crazed networker and low on substance in one-on-one conversations,” he said. “It was all smoke and mirrors.”

Thiel’s claim that MIT was never discussed with Hoffman and Epstein begs the question: What was the real nature of Hoffman’s relationship with Epstein?