‘Note to self, Google before you go’

• Reid Hoffman said he once spent a night on Epstein’s Island in connection with an MIT fundraising effort.

• The LinkedIn cofounder told the Newcomer podcast that he thought the visit would increase the likelihood of donating to Epstein.

• Hoffman previously publicly apologized for his conversations with Epstein.

LinkedIn cofounder Reed Hoffman said he wanted to learn a little more before agreeing to spend a night on Jeffrey Epstein’s island.

On the December 1 episode of Eric Newcomer’s podcast, Hoffman said that he had visited the island as part of a fundraising effort for the MIT Foundation and that the visit would increase Epstein’s chances of donating to MIT.

“Note to self: Google before you go,” Hoffman said on the podcast. He said he stayed on the island one night, and there was a pool, “a bunch of guest rooms” and a patio.

Hoffman said he only communicated with Epstein, whose 2019 death pending trial on sex-trafficking charges was ruled a suicide, through his fundraising work for the MIT Media Lab. On the “New Arrivals” podcast, he called Epstein a “skilled networker” and recalled a 2015 dinner for an MIT researcher in Palo Alto, California.

Hoffman said former MIT Media Lab director Joey Ito asked him if Epstein could attend the dinner, which was also attended by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Like his visit to the island, Hoffman said he was later told that the financier said he was more likely to donate if he attended the dinner..

“He’s kind of going through the network, trying to meet people and so on,” Hoffman said on the podcast. Hoffman also repeated his previous apology for his involvement with Epstein.

In 2019, a spokesperson for Zuckerberg confirmed the dinner to Business Insider and said it was the only time the Facebook cofounder met Epstein. Musk’s spokesperson also confirmed the Tesla CEO’s presence.

In a 2019 email to Axios, Hoffman acknowledged multiple interactions with Epstein, which he said were strictly for fundraising purposes, and said he was told MIT had vetted and approved the convicted sex offender’s participation. He said in an email that he “deeply regrets” the involvement.

“I went and kind of apologized publicly, because it was like, OK, I realized this and I had already cut ties with him, OK, any meeting and all the rest of the stuff, in any context,” Hoffman said on the podcast. “And I think he’ll still email me every now and then and say, ‘Hey, can we get on the phone?’ I say, ‘Oh, maybe sometimes,’ which, you know, is code for sometimes, right?”

Hoffman said justice is important to the victims of the late pedophile, and urged the government to release, unreservedly, “every single piece of intel they have about Epstein.”

In November, President Donald Trump signed a bill releasing Justice Department files on Epstein after months of pressure from Congress, including some fellow Republicans. The department has given time till Saturday, December 19 to comply with the said order.

Trump has also ordered the DOJ to investigate Hoffman’s ties to Epstein, along with others he views as political enemies, including former President Bill Clinton and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.

Hoffman, a billionaire and major Democratic donor, previously said he had to hire security after Musk fueled conspiracy theories about his relationship with Epstein.

Read the original article on Business Insider