Bard College President Leon Botstein Resigns After Epstein Ties Exposed

Bard College President Leon Botstein, who led the private liberal arts school for over 50 years, has resigned amid a scandal involving his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. The announcement came in a campus-wide email Friday, with Botstein framing his departure as a planned retirement to focus on teaching and music. But the timing could not be more telling: it follows a searing investigation by law firm WilmerHale into Botstein’s relationship with Epstein.

The probe uncovered troubling details. Botstein visited Epstein’s New York townhouse 25 times and even traveled to Epstein’s private island. Meanwhile, Epstein made two visits to Bard College, attending concerts and recitals accompanied by multiple women later identified as victims of Epstein’s trafficking network.

Despite these revelations, Botstein defended his association with Epstein as purely fundraising-related. The report quotes Botstein as insisting he never saw the young women around Epstein as victims, citing his busy schedule as a reason for his blindness or indifference. This defense rings hollow given the scale of Epstein’s abuse and the repeated presence of victims at Bard events.

The Bard Board of Trustees, while praising Botstein’s transformative leadership, expressed confidence in the college’s future without him. Still, this episode exposes a glaring failure of oversight and moral judgment at an institution that should have been vigilant against such abuses.

Botstein’s resignation amid this scandal adds to mounting evidence of how Epstein’s network infiltrated elite institutions, shielded by powerful enablers who ignored or dismissed the suffering of survivors. Bard College now faces the urgent task of reckoning with its complicity and ensuring transparency and accountability going forward.

This case is another stark reminder that institutional prestige and fundraising ambitions cannot come at the cost of ignoring exploitation and abuse. The survivors deserve justice, and the public deserves truth.