UPDATE Feb. 4, 2026, 11:30 a.m. ET: After the Washington Free Beacon identified several dates in which Reid Hoffman met or communicated with Jeffrey Epstein (scroll down in this post for details), after Hoffman had told Axios in 2019 that he had no contact with the sex offender after 2015, Hoffman acknowledged in an X post Tuesday night that the meetings took place:
…I was mistaken, as according to calendar entries I have become aware there were additional fundraising meetings in 2016 and 2018. These meetings were all coordinated by Joi Ito, then director of the MIT Media Lab…
I have done multiple calendar searches, and if I find any other meetings, I will continue to share them.
Considering Hoffman only confirmed the meetings that the Free Beacon pointed out from the Justice Department’s weekend release of Epstein emails, don’t count on him “sharing” anything else that might be buried in his own emails or calendars, unless new external evidence proves he was lying again. After all, the late OJ Simpson also vowed to find the real killer of his ex-wife Nicole Brown after he was acquitted of her murder, with no results.
It’s also noteworthy that Hoffman’s overnight clarification did not acknowledge the September 2017 email from Hoffman to Epstein expressing concern for his personal well-being (“You good?”) after a hurricane struck the Virgin Islands, as reported by the Free Beacon. There is no sign of Joi Ito in that correspondence.
Hoffman’s blame-shifting on to Ito follows a pattern of his to refuse to take personal accountability when caught in embarrassing and/or unethical misconduct, or to at least excuse his culpability by implicating his co-conspirators or others who are innocent. For example, when he said at an Idaho confab of rich elitists that he wished he had made Donald Trump an “actual martyr,” he blamed his audience for bringing up the idea, and said that he only “echoed it.”
Reid Hoffman in Tokyo in 2007/PHOTO: Joi Ito (CC)
That Hoffman is also shunting off the blame for his Epstein association on his (presumably former) friend Ito is also undermined by the evidence revealed by an internal MIT investigation, which showed Hoffman to be a close confidant of Ito’s and advisor for the Media Lab, not to mention that Ito — in photos dating back to the 2000s — traveled the world where he spent time with Hoffman. The implication is that Ito and Hoffman appeared to operate together both personally and in support of MIT as likeminded friends and allies, rather than Hoffman showing up for business meetings at Ito’s beck and call, as “the fatty at LinkedIn” would like everyone to believe.
ORIGINAL POST, Feb. 3, 2026: For three consecutive years NLPC — a longtime shareholder in Microsoft — has called for the removal of billionaire leftwing political activist Reid Hoffman (pictured above) from the company’s board of directors, partly because of the known ties he had with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The last few years the LinkedIn co-founder has said he “regretted” his association with Epstein, while at the same time downplaying the relationship by stating it was only in the context of helping his friend Joi Ito fundraise for the MIT Media Lab, and stating that he did not have any contact with Epstein after 2015.
We recently expressed skepticism about Hoffman’s claims, believing he was soft-playing a more significant involvement with Epstein considering the evidence (including from MIT’s own internal investigation), and also regarding his alleged naivete’ about the abuser’s background, which he said could have been revealed had he “Google[d] before going” to Epstein’s private island.
As most Americans now know, another three million files related to Epstein were released on Friday by the U.S. Department of Justice. Unsurprisingly, some of the contents include new revelations about Hoffman’s connections to Epstein, and even less unsurprisingly, the documents show Hoffman has been less than truthful about his dealings with him.
The New York Post has been sifting through the emails and found a number that either refer to or include Hoffman as a correspondent. One referred to a 2015 meeting among Big Tech entrepreneurs:
Jeffrey Epstein once boasted about meeting Mark Zuckerberg, Reid Hoffman, Elon Musk and Peter Thiel at what he described as a “wild” dinner,” an email released by the Justice Department showed.
The late financier and sex offender referenced the dinner in an Aug. 20, 2015 email to billionaire Tom Pritzker, who had asked him if he was planning to travel to New York later that month.
Epstein replied: “not sure yet. i had dinner with zuckerburg, mu=k, thiel hoffman, wild.”
The convicted pedophile did not relate what happened at the dinner, which was first reported by Vanity Fair in 2019. The outlet said Hoffman, the cofounder of LinkedIn, had hosted the meal in Palo Alta (sic), Calif., for the MIT neuroscientist Ed Boyden.
The Post also highlighted earlier communications from 2014 that cited Hoffman:
Newly released Jeffrey Epstein emails reveal LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman discussing visits to Epstein’s infamous private island, his New Mexico ranch, and his New York apartment.
“Reid will spend the night at 71st,” according to one email from Hoffman’s team included in the latest Justice Department dump of Epstein files, in reference to his Upper East Side townhouse.
An apparent 2014 scheduling memo lists a variety of dinners and parties, as well as the line: “Jeffrey will have Joi Ito and Reid Hoffman will go to the ranch for the weekend (JE did not give exact dates).”…
An email Epstein penned to his assistant Saida Sapieva under the heading “Trip to the Island” states: “Reid will take a Virgin America Flight from SFO to Fort Lauderdale, departing at 8:20 am, landing at 4:40 pm.”
The revelations about the emails have sparked another round of finger-pointing between adversaries Hoffman and Tesla CEO Elon Musk over which of them visited — or wanted to visit — Epstein’s Island for allegedly predatory (or at least recreational) purposes. And while focus about time spent with Epstein by rich elites has emphasized his tropical residence in the U.S. Virgin Islands, he socialized globally (hence his private “Lolita Express” jet), and met with others accompanied regularly by young women. This included, apparently, meet-ups made between the two in Vancouver in March 2014.
That Hoffman was scheduled to stay at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse was previously reported by the Wall Street Journal in 2023, but in our awareness, no mention has been made of the tech entrepreneur’s potential or real visit to the New Mexico ranch.
Bill Gates & Reid Hoffman/PHOTO: Masters of Scale
Late in 2014, Hoffman also emailed Epstein to notify him he was sending gifts to his New York City address: “ice cream” for him to “try” if he’s interested; if not, then for “the girls.” He also wrote that he sent Epstein “something that may strike your funny bone for the island.” He added, “hope you’re having fun as usual,” and informed him he was “seeing Bill again 1/10 with Satya.” This is presumably Microsoft founder Bill Gates and CEO Satya Nadella.
Epstein and Hoffman apparently also spent time together sometime in 2016 — contrary to Hoffman’s claim that he ceased communication with him in 2015 — according to another email referenced by the Post:
In one bizarre 2016 email, Hoffman, a top Democratic fundraiser, sounded thrilled to recover an important personal item that somehow got buried in swag.
“Saida, please tell reid that i have his passport. Found in the gift bag they had given me,” Epstein wrote.
“Larry and me and your passport,” Epstein later wrote Hoffman dryly about an event, in a likely reference to former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.
“Excellent!’ exclaimed Hoffman.
Hoffman turns up in yet another email, this one a 2014 message to Epstein from SpaceX founder Elon Musk.
“Spoke to reid hoffman yesterday, are you planning to do st barth again for xmas?” Epstein asked him.
“Don’t know,” was Musk’s terse reply.
An early 2016 exchange between Epstein and Hoffman cited an apparent missed connection between the two. “Sorry I was really looking forget (sic) to seeing you and spending time … come visit,” Epstein wrote. “Likewise! I brought a gift that will wait for the next opportunity…,” Hoffman replied.
Beyond those mentioned above, the Washington Free Beacon uncovered a series of documents showing communications and connections between Epstein and Hoffman:
New records show they interacted in 2016, 2017, 2018, and perhaps 2019, the year Epstein was charged with trafficking dozens of girls for sex.
Hoffman and Epstein convened for a one-on-one Skype call on March 24, 2018, according to emails released by the Department of Justice on Friday. Hoffman emailed Epstein on Sept. 30, 2017, after a hurricane hit the Virgin Islands, where Epstein lived, writing, “You good?”
Hoffman and Epstein had a “phone date” on June 25, 2016, according to emails. They had reservations for dinner at a Palo Alto sushi restaurant on April 8, 2016, an appointment to meet on April 29, 2016, at MIT, a Skype call on June 20, 2016, and a meeting in Bedford, N.Y., on July 24, 2016, the records show.
And Epstein and Hoffman may have interacted as recently as March 16, 2019, when Epstein received a Google notification that mentions a meeting that morning with Hoffman.
The records contradict Hoffman’s claims over the years that he only had a “few interactions” with Epstein.
The Free Beacon also pointed out that Epstein advised Hoffman about the purchase of a private plane in August 2015. “I will hold your hand all along the way,” said Epstein.
Following the release of the latest tranche of documents by the Justice Department, Hoffman posted on X over the weekend:
Yes, interacting with Epstein post-conviction is something I deeply regret. I promise to continue calling for the full release of the Epstein files – the victims deserve justice, and those responsible should be held accountable.
Prior to Friday’s release of the additional Epstein file documents, Hoffman had reignited his political activism after being relatively quiet during President Trump’s first full year in office last year. He took the opportunity of the Soros – (and possibly Hoffman?-) funded agitation against Immigration and Customs Enforcement activities across the country, particularly in Minneapolis in recent weeks.
Hoffman wrote in a full-length opinion piece for the leftwing San Francisco Standard:
In the year since President Donald Trump took office, too many Silicon Valley leaders have divested themselves of the responsibility to speak out against the administration’s excesses. They’ve spent the last year telling themselves, “We need to work with whoever’s in power” or, “Getting political risks alienating people.”
January’s tragic events in Minneapolis should end that posture. We leaders in tech and business have power — economic, social, platform power — and sitting on that power right now is not good business. It’s also not neutrality. It’s a choice…
I’ve been encouraged in recent days that more Silicon Valley leaders have spoken out to condemn the Minneapolis killings and the policy choices that led to them. It’s a good start to something America needs much more of right now.
The America we love will survive the current authoritarian push (not to say putsch) only if enough of us — especially those of us fortunate enough to be in positions of leadership and influence — choose to condemn it, and loudly.
We in Silicon Valley can’t bend the knee to Trump. We can’t shrink away and just hope the crisis will fade. We know now that hope without action is not a strategy — it’s an invitation for Trump to trample whatever he can see, including our own business and security interests.
Thus Hoffman is calling for yet another round of executives and boards throughout Corporate America to weigh in on political issues that only serve to alienate customers, clients and shareholders — the very types of business leadership behavior that has been repudiated the last couple of years, which in part led to the election of…Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, the biographical information at the end of Hoffman’s commentary showed several of his affiliations: as “the cofounder of LinkedIn, Inflection AI, and Manas AI and a partner at Greylock.”
But Hoffman omitted his high-profile directorship at Microsoft. Why? Is he trying to avoid causing more headaches at the company, which has billions of dollars in contracts with the U.S. government? Or did the company require him to not mention his ties while opining on political issues?
Either way — when will Hoffman have finally gone too far for Microsoft to cut its ties with him?
