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The president of Bard College invited Jeffrey Epstein to visit its prestigious New York City high schools and sent him chummy messages about the author of the novel “Lolita” — after the notorious pedophile donated $125,000, newly released emails show.
Leon Botstein’s flattering of the infamous sex perv came years after Epstein pleaded guilty to prostitution charges involving underage girls and spent 13 months in a Florida jail.
“I greatly cherish this new friendship and I have real admiration for how you go about doing things,” Botstein, whose name appears 2,500 times in the files, gushed to Epstein in a March 2013 email thread.
He even seemed to show no concern that Epstein was a registered sex offender when he asked the infamous perv to visit a high school filled with teenagers, who were the same age as many of his victims.
“Do you want instead to pop down to the Bard High School this afternoon?” Leon Botstein wrote in a Feb.28, 2013 exchange with Epstein.
Botstein, 79, appeared to be referencing the Bard High School Early College campus on East Houston St. in the East Village, according to files made public by the Justice Department this month.
Botstein’s assistant, Catherine Luiggi, separately invited Epstein to visit Bard High School’s Queens campus in 2012, the emails reveal.
“I wanted to ask if Mr. Epstein wouldn’t mind coming to BHSEC Queens for the meeting, which is right over the 59th St. Bridge,” Luiggi wrote to Epstein’s executive assistant Leslie Groff.
Despite the multiple invitations, Botstein claims that Epstein never actually showed up at the schools, according to a letter he sent to the Bard community this week that was published by WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
The infamous sexual predator — who died in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 after being arrested on charges of sex trafficking minors — did visit Botstein several times at Bard College in the Hudson Valley, 90 miles north of New York City, the president wrote in the letter.
Botstein was so cozy with Epstein, he felt comfortable referencing in a March 2013 email thread the Russian author Vladimir Nabokov, whose most famous work is the acclaimed 1955 novel “Lolita,” about a middle-aged professor who is sexually obsessed with a 12-year-old girl.
“Think of Nabokov, whose favorite Russian poets were often obscure figures derided by all the other critics. He stood alone,” Botstein wrote to Epstein, later adding the “controversy rarely leads to praise in this business. Nabokov became famous and admired only at the end.”
While the novel “Lolita” was never mentioned, Epstein was known for keeping a first-edition copy of the book in his lavish Manhattan townhouse.
Epstein also references the Bard president in a Sept. 30, 2013 email where he asks an aide to take a woman, whose name is redacted, shopping to “let her try on some things so that she is appropriately dressed for Bottstein. [sic]”
In his letter to the Bard community, Botstein insisted that the “warm tone” of his messages to the sexual predator was a “common fundraising practice.”
“My interactions with Epstein were always and only for the sole purpose of soliciting donations for the College,” Botstein wrote. “Mr. Epstein was not my friend; he was a prospective donor.”
“Mr. Epstein represented himself as a billionaire philanthropist who was generous to charities, with a particular interest in the arts and music, programs typically starved for financial resources,” Botstein added.
“I pursued this development prospect over a span of approximately six years, at a time of economic stress following the financial crisis, in a manner consistent with my practice of sustained communication with donors and potential donors to the College.”
Epstein was connected to Bard and Botstein in 2011 by Anthony Barrett, a longtime associate whose daughters attended Bard High School, the files show.
“Jeffrey, I just want to thank you once again for the most generous donation….you basically added 30% to the endowment,” Barrett gushed to Epstein in a Feb. 2, 2011 email.
The initial 2011 donation was for $75,000, Botstein wrote in his letter this week. Epstein later cut a $50,000 check to Bard High School Early College programs and donated computers, Botstein spokesman David Wade told The Post on Thursday.
The DOJ files include a mention of Epstein visiting Bard College in February 2013.
“Alert – we need details for JE to visit Botstein at Bard College on the 21st-JE to take Heli,” read one Feb. 13, 2013 email.
Bard High School Early College schools are among the most selective high schools in the city. They allow students to earn an associate of arts degree as well as a high school diploma in four years — a model that earned the school network plaudits from President Obama in a 2009 speech.
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