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President Joe Biden on Monday attended a campaign fundraiser that was hosted by a billionaire donor who reportedly made at least one trip to an island owned by disgraced convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, according to records.
Fox News reported that LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, who held the fundraiser on behalf of Biden’s re-election campaign and in support of the Biden Victory Fund at the private residence of Shannon Hunt-Scott and Kevin Scott in Los Gatos, Calif., reportedly made the trip in 2014.
The Wall Street Journal reported in May that Hoffman visited the Caribbean island called Little St. James, which is part of the U.S. Virgin Islands. “The island is where Epstein and fellow convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell allegedly abused underage girls,” Fox News reported, adding: “Microsoft chief technology officer Kevin Scott was also listed as a host for the event.”
Fox News noted as well:
A fellow attendee on the occasion Hoffman traveled to Epstein’s island was then-MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito, who confirmed Hoffman’s trip to The Journal, and said Reid attended at his request in order to raise funds for MIT.
The Journal’s report included an apology from Ito for having ever traveled to the island, but Hoffman has not publicly done the same. Hoffman did, however, tell The Journal that it “gnaws” him that his association with Epstein “helped his reputation, and thus delayed justice for his survivors.”
The report said the two were planning to return to the island in November 2014, and then travel with Epstein to Boston. It’s unclear what the intent was for those planned trips, however the report also revealed Hoffman was planning to stay at Epstein’s luxury Manhattan townhouse in Dec. 2014 after a late arrival in New York City.
Hoffman told the WSJ that the last time he interacted with Epstein was in 2015, when the late financier invited him to a dinner in Silicon Valley with leaders in the tech industry.
In September of that year, Hoffman went to a state dinner held at the White House, hosted by then-Vice President Biden and featuring Chinese President Xi Jinping. Ito resigned from his position at MIT after Epstein’s arrest in 2019.
Earlier this month, an attorney who claimed that the FBI “utterly failed” to properly investigate the late billionaire financier and convicted underage sex trafficker asked the Justice Department to find out why.
A letter from the attorney, Jennifer Freeman, who is representing several women, was sent to FBI Director Christopher Wray, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, stating that the FBI was aware of allegations against Epstein back in the 1990s but failed to take any significant action, the Daily Wire reported.
“As counsel to many survivors of the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking conspiracy, we write regarding the failure of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to properly, adequately, or timely investigate the sex trafficking of hundreds of girls and young women,” says the letter.
“The FBI utterly failed to investigate serious allegations involving Epstein’s, and perhaps others’, child sex abuse materials (CSAM), significant additional criminality which, until recently, has been disregarded, disrespected, and essentially denied,” it added.
“[I]n August of 1996 one of our clients, Maria Farmer, reported to the FBI that Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell had sexually abused her and that the two of them, together with others, were committing multiple, serious, sexual abuse crimes, including hands-on sexual abuse, against minors and vulnerable young women,” the letter continues.
“In addition, she reported to the FBI that Epstein, and perhaps others, appeared to be engaged in the production, possession, and distribution of sexually suggestive or exploitative images of children that could constitute CSAM,” it added.
“In 2005, child erotica was found in Epstein’s Palm Beach home. In approximately 2008, law enforcement “prematurely” truncated their investigation of Epstein’s computer hard drives, which had been suspiciously removed from his Palm Beach estate immediately before a police raid,” the letter continued, adding: “In 2019, more child erotica was found displayed in Epstein’s properties, with additional images located in his home safe.”
The women are seeking an explanation as to why it took so long for legal action to be taken against Epstein and have requested that the DOJ investigate the FBI’s handling of the case.
