Newly released documents revealed Biden-appointed CIA Director William Burns met with deceased financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein on multiple occasions after he was convicted of sex crimes in Florida, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports.
The private calendar and emails show Epstein scheduled three meetings with Burns in 2014 when Burns was deputy secretary of state under President Obama, according to WSJ. Their first meeting was planned for August in the Washington, DC office of law firm Steptoe & Johnson and the next two were booked for Epstein’s Manhattan, New York townhouse, the documents show. Epstein planned on having Burns taken back to the airport after one of the scheduled meetings. (RELATED: Why Hasn’t Anyone From Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘Little Black Book’ Been Arrested Yet?)
A CIA spokesperson told WSJ Burns met with Epstein as he was preparing to leave the government and did not know anything about him. “The director did not know anything about him, other than that he was introduced as an expert in the financial services sector and offered general advice on transition to the private sector,” CIA spokesperson Tammy Kupperman Thorp told the outlet. “They had no relationship.”
Burns recalled meeting Epstein once in New York after they were introduced by a mutual friend, Thorp told WSJ. “The director does not recall any further contact, including receiving a ride to the airport.”
Burns left government in October 2014 to become president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a prominent foreign policy think tank based in Washington, DC. He was appointed CIA Director by President Biden in 2021. A career diplomat, he previously served as ambassador to Russia from 2005-08. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: CIA Director’s Former Think Tank Hired Experts From Nonprofits Controlled By Chinese Spy Agencies)
Epstein was accused of sexual abuse in 2005 by multiple underage girls, the youngest being 14 years old. The accusations led to an investigation by Palm Beach, Florida police who were prepared to charge Epstein with multiple counts of unlawful sex with a minor, according to the Associated Press (AP). State Attorney Barry Krischer intervened and Epstein ended up being arrested following an indictment for a single count of soliciting prostitution.
Epstein was convicted by Florida prosecutors in June 2008 for procuring a minor of prostitution and felony solicitation of prosecution in 2008. He was sentenced to 18 months in jail and required to register as a sex offender. The conviction came after his lawyers arranged a plea bargain with the U.S. Attorney in Miami, Alexander Acosta, to avoid federal prosecution, per the AP. Acosta went on to serve as Secretary of Labor under President Trump.
Epstein spent the majority of his jail sentence under a work-release program and left jail in July 2009, while federal prosecutors secretly agreed not to prosecute Epstein for federal crimes.
He was later charged in July 2019 by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York for allegedly sex trafficking minors. Epstein was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell in August 2019 under mysterious circumstances. His partner and co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June 2022 for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors.
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