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Back in 2018, Time’s Up was the toast of the town, feared and lauded across the industry. The influential anti-sexual harassment group made its splashy debut at the 2018 Golden Globes, in the wake of Harvey Weinstein’s downfall, raising $26 million off the backs of his accusers. There were a few missteps early on — a tone-deaf Vogue photo shoot — but overall, Time’s Up organizers deftly consolidated money and power.
And while its mission was to provide victims of sexual assault with financial and legal assistance, the organization seemed to spend more time advocating for A-listers like Reese Witherspoon and Emma Stone to get bigger paydays. (Mark Wahlberg gave a $1.5 million donation in Michelle Williams’ name following revelations of a massive pay gap for the reshoots of the film “All the Money in the World.”) What started out as righteousness ended in scandal, and Time’s Up was forced to cease operating in 2023 after it was revealed that the organization had advised former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo how to counter sexual harassment allegations against him.
But the power grab appears to have been even more craven than previously known. Documents in the Epstein Files suggest that Time’s Up leaders may have been actively engaging with Jeffrey Epstein’s inner circle in a bid to launder his disgraced image. The scandalous ploy involved LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, former director of the MIT Media Lab Joichi “Joi” Ito, Steve Bannon and (perhaps most notably to the town) CAA board member and chief innovation officer Michelle Kydd Lee – who now goes by Michelle Kydd.
The whole sordid affair spans the period between 2014 and 2018, long after Epstein’s high-profile 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from girls as young as 14.
In a March 26, 2018, exchange, Bannon texted a person whose name has been redacted in the files, but who appears to be a Washington-based political operative living in a compound behind the Supreme Court. Bannon wrote: “joi will organize a meeting with the powers behind times up. (they prefer academic setting for cover ) already in the works.” That same day, Ito texted a person with a redacted name, perhaps the same person Bannon was texting. “I already started talking to TimesUp.” The anonymous figure wrote: “I’m glad. Now you can convince Reid.” Ito responded: “I’ll convince Reid. I’ve already started [convincing] timesup people. I talked to the secret top dog on the phone already. … It may have to be a secret pact but I think we can get them to join.”
Reid, a billionaire champion of progressive causes, recently claimed in an X post that he only talked with Epstein about fundraising for MIT in a Skype call, which took place two days before those text messages were sent. But that contradicts a separate document in the Department of Justice’s recent data dump that lays out Epstein’s schedule around the same time. According to the itinerary, Epstein was hosting Ito and Hoffman at his New Mexico ranch around the same time Ito texted about Time’s Up’s preference to engage in an academic setting “for cover.” After all, cover would be needed given that Epstein was a Level 4e registered sex offender at the time who had spent time in prison for soliciting a minor. On April 2 of that year, Epstein emailed Ito: “fund? plants? times up/ reid= Ted.”
It’s impossible to get a full picture of what transpired, nor is it clear who was the Time’s Up “secret top dog” Ito referred to, and what — if anything — the person did behind the scenes. But Kydd, who was a founding member of Time’s Up, and is now CAA’s chief innovation officer, did engage with Epstein in 2016, according to the Department of Justice’s data dump.
Starting around 2014, her name started to circulate within Epstein’s inner circle as a potential advisor, emails show. The tether between Kydd and Epstein was Ito, the former head of MIT Media Labs who had deep ties to the entertainment industry, but was forced to step down from the research organization in 2019 when his personal and financial ties to Epstein were revealed.
Kydd — who co-founded the CAA Foundation, which supports philanthropic and social impact initiatives often with the support of CAA clients — circulated in the same professional world as Ito. She was also a member of the MIT Media Labs Advisory Board. “You probably have good advisors on this, but one person I go to these days is one of my best friends Michelle Kydd Lee. She’s the founder and head of the CAA Foundation and sort of the ‘mother’ of Hollywood,” Ito wrote to Epstein in an email dated June 10, 2014. “She’s the one everyone goes to when famous people under the protection of CAA go to when they get in trouble. I’ve talked to her about you and I’m sure she would probably have pretty good advice on this.”
There is a two-year gap in the correspondence, but on April 30, 2016, Kydd, who currently sits on CAA’s board, wrote directly to Epstein: “Here are two people that are based in N= that come HIGHLY recommended. I have not us=d them personally but others have and think they are best in class. &=bsp; Hope this is helpful.” The email (which like all the Epstein data has some glitchy typos) includes links to the online profiles of two individuals who worked in crisis public relations.
But in 2018, Epstein appears to have been looking for image rehab right at the same time Time’s Up became part of the zeitgeist. From the beginning, Time’s Up and CAA were deeply entwined. CAA made a $2 million founding contribution, which sparked backlash in the survivor community because of the agency’s decades-long association with Weinstein. “It was blood money,” one top female exec told us. In June 2018, Time’s Up also held one of its first retreats simultaneously with the CAA Foundation offsite at the Ojai Valley Inn. Among the topics covered, sources say, was making inroads with the tech community for funding. According to the CAA Foundation’s 2018 990 filing, it launched the Amplify Initiative to connect “artists and leaders from the worlds of entertainment, sports, medical, technology and social justice.”
CAA declined to comment.
The following year, Epstein was arrested for sex trafficking of minors. Authorities say he killed himself while incarcerated at the MCC in Manhattan.
Other than that single 2016 email, it is unclear if Kydd provided any further advice to Epstein. Since the release of the latest tranche of Epstein files, the entertainment industry has been in a frenzy over who may be mentioned in the files and in what context.
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