EPSTEIN FILES: Noam Chomsky Dines with Jeffrey Epstein, Woody Allen at Epstein’s NYC Townhouse
The latest trove of Epstein files have already yielded plenty of new revelations about the rich and powerful, and researchers and journalists are continuing to pour over the millions of documents.
One of the notable photos we came across: Noam Chomsky sitting at a dining table with Jeffrey Epstein and Woody Allen:
This appears to be at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse.
There are two women in the photo as well, but their faces have been censored by the Department of Justice (DOJ).
The woman next to Chomsky looks like she could be Ghislaine Maxwell or his second wife Valeria Wasserman (who he married in 2014).
The one next to Allen may be his wife Soon-Yi Previn.
Here’s a closer look:
We found this in EFTA01644670, a PDF file released by the DOJ under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. It’s on p. 92 and labeled EFTA01644761.
Many of the other pages of the file contain censored photos of nude or partially nude females.
A photo published by New York Magazine’s Intelligencer in 2019 showed Epstein in the same room. It was taken by photographer Christopher Anderson, and the caption reads, “Epstein in his townhouse in 2015”:
Anderson published several more photos from the same shoot on his Instagram recently and discussed his experience meeting Epstein:
Here’s yet another pic of Epstein in the same room, taken from a Telegraph article. Note the animal print chairs and unique wall design, matching the previous photos, including the one with Chomsky:
It’s been reported for several years now that Chomsky had met and dined with Epstein, Allen, and Previn.
Canada’s Global News wrote in 2023, for instance (bold added):
Chomsky, an American linguist and political activist, met with Epstein on a number of occasions throughout 2015 and 2016. He told the WSJ he and Epstein met to discuss politics and academia.
One such meeting was allegedly with Chomsky, Epstein and former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak.
As part of another meeting, Epstein scheduled a flight for Chomsky, 94, to have dinner with director Woody Allen and his wife, Soon-Yi Previn.
Chomsky’s answer to a [Wall Street Journal] inquiry about whether or not he met with Epstein was simple. He wrote: “First response is that it is none of your business. Or anyone’s. Second is that I knew him and we met occasionally.”
In response to meeting specifically with Epstein and Allen, Chomsky told the WSJ, “I’m unaware of the principle that requires that I inform you about an evening spent with a great artist.”
Chomsky added that “what was known about Jeffrey Epstein was that he had been convicted of a crime and had served his sentence. According to U.S. laws and norms, that yields a clean slate.”
Associated Press (bolded added):
Ruemmler and Allen were among a long list of notable people who maintained friendships with Epstein for years, even though he was a registered sex offender who had been accused of abusing children, and whose legal problems had been widely covered in newspapers.
Some of the guests who accompanied Allen and Previn to dinners with Epstein included talk show host Dick Cavett, linguist Noam Chomsky and the late comedian David Brenner. Epstein also attended screenings of Allen’s movies and, according to emails, would visit with Allen so he could watch him edit his latest film.
Chomsky’s relationship with Epstein has been coming into clearer focus thanks to the Epstein files.
The Guardian characterizes it as a “close friendship” and says that their “personal familiarity” is “palpable” in some exchanges.
UPDATE: Chomsky’s wife Valeria has now put out a statement in which she says that she and her husband “attended dinners” (plural) at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse and “stayed a few times in an apartment he offered when we visited New York City.”
She attempts to portray their relationship as Epstein taking advantage of Chomsky’s “overly trusting nature” and says they were “careless in not thoroughly researching his background.”
Read her full statement here, and this analysis by Chris Hedges, who says that it’s “filled with the fatuous excuses used by all those who have been outed in the Epstein emails and documents,” also writing in part:
Her letter regurgitates the formula of everyone outed in the Epstein files. I know and have long admired Noam. He is, arguably, our greatest and most principled intellectual. I can assure you he is not as passive or gullible as his wife claims. He knew about Epstein’s abuse of children. They all knew. And like others in the Epstein orbit, he did not care. . . He was not fooled by Epstein. He was seduced.
Meanwhile, journalist Alan MacLeod has uncovered a series of correspondences between Valeria and Epstein over the course of several years where she gushes about how Epstein — who treated them to a $1400/night suite in a Manhattan hotel and a luxurious stay in Paris — is a “hero” and “very dear friend.”
“Dear Jeffrey,” she wrote to Epstein on July 1, 2017. “We count you as our best friend. I mean ‘the’ one. It is always great to see you.”
“You are our best friend, we love you,” she wrote in another email in October 2018.
On Februrary 8, 2018, Chomsky himself thanked Jeffrey Epstein for “the gift of friendship over these years.”
“Valeria and I just want to tell you that it’s one of the greatest experiences of our life to have you as a friend, and to remain so and cherish this permanent relationship,” he said in an email ten months later.
“Thx means alot,” Epstein replied.
