In Friday’s tranche of documents, which built upon earlier disclosures of their close social ties, there is no specific indication that the famed academic and linguist was referring to his friend’s private Caribbean island where children were sexually abused. But the personal familiarity between the two men in that exchange is palpable, as it is in numerous other emails between Chomsky and Epstein aimed at planning more mundane social gatherings.
There additionally was an exchange in which Chomsky wrote to Steve Bannon, the rightwing chief White House strategist during Donald Trump’s first presidency, requesting an introductory meeting. “Lots to talk about,” Chomsky wrote, adding that he had been provided Bannon’s contact information by Epstein, a former friend of Trump.
Former Epstein girlfriend Karyna Shuliak at one point emailed a third party whose identity was redacted that she and her boyfriend wanted to send Chomsky and his wife two genetic testing kits.
Perhaps most strikingly, in late February 2019, Epstein represented to an associate that he had gotten advice from Chomsky over how to navigate “the horrible way you are being treated in the press and public”. That was 11 years after Epstein had pleaded guilty to soliciting an underage girl for prostitution – and months before he would reportedly die by suicide while in federal custody awaiting sex-trafficking charges.
“The best way to proceed is to ignore it,” Chomsky wrote, according to text signed under his first name that Epstein sent to a lawyer and publicist. “That’s particularly true now with the hysteria that has developed about abuse of women, which has reached the point that even questioning a charge is a crime worse than murder.”
Neither Chomsky nor his second wife and spokesperson, Valeria Chomsky, immediately responded to inquiries about the Epstein-related emails in question – including whether they disputed the authenticity of the 2019 advice attributed to the scholar.
‘Fantasizing about the Caribbean’
Nonetheless, collectively, the latest communications – published in connection with a congressional transparency law – continued undermining earlier suggestions by Chomsky that he primarily had financial dealings with Epstein, who was regularly photographed alongside some of the most significant figures from the last century.
They also added significant contours to documents that US House Democrats released in November, which partially contained comments attributed to Chomsky calling it “a most valuable experience” to have maintained “regular contact” with Epstein.
To be sure, that regular contact did involve finances, including Chomsky communicating with Epstein for advice throughout a complex fight pitting him against his children from his first marriage that revolved around money and the purchase of an apartment.
Chomsky’s estate attorney at one point suggested sending a pointed email to a financial adviser over discrepancies surrounding a $187,000 payment. The attorney had a draft ready to go. But Chomsky – one of the world’s brightest intellectuals – made sure to get Epstein’s thoughts on whether it was a good idea for her to send the missive.
“You should OK her sending but admonish [her] for being unwilling to ask tough questions,” Epstein wrote, in part. “NONSENSE.”
Valeria Chomsky arranged for an associate of Epstein to mail a $20,000 check meant to help “administering the Chomsky challenge in linguistics” at another juncture.
Beyond that, Chomsky’s affiliation with Epstein netted him invitations to vacation together and recognizable names to his orbit.
For instance, after the emails showed him and the Chomskys making plans to meet up in 2016, Epstein wrote to Noam, “Enjoyed … [as] always. Come to New York or Caribbean? Enjoy the food.”
“We did too, very much,” Chomsky replied. “Valeria’s always keen on New York. I’m really fantasizing about the Caribbean island.”
At another point that same year, Epstein – a Brooklyn native – discussed being “free anytime” to meet up with Chomsky in New York City because “everyone in the city besides us will be gone. Separate from Woody. Maybe we can do it again.”
Chomsky replied that it would be “great” to grab dinner with Epstein and the “Allens”. The emails didn’t specify whether they were alluding to film director Woody Allen and his wife, Soon-Yi Previn. But there is reason to believe it was the director, who has been ostracized by much of the industry because of allegations by his daughter Dylan Farrow that he sexually assaulted her in 1992 – which Allen has repeatedly denied.
That is because later in 2016 Epstein was notified by email that genetic testing kits from the company 23 and Me would “be delivered to Woody and Soon Yi”. Months later, in the spring of 2017, emails showed Shuliak arranged to send the Chomskys a pair of the same kind of tests – courtesy of Epstein.
About a year later, Chomsky reached out to Bannon and expressed his and Valeria’s disappointment for “having missed you the other night”.
“Jeffrey … gave me your address,” Chomsky wrote. “Hope that we can arrange something else before too long. Lots to talk about.”
Bannon had been out of Trump’s first administration for about a year at that point. “Agree. Would love to connect,” he wrote back, before saying his brother lived in Tucson, Arizona, where Chomsky had started working as a university professor.
‘Pay no attention’
One unrelated exchange hinted at the playful tone Chomsky and Epstein could adopt. Epstein at one point wrote that he thought of Noam and Valeria Chomsky as if they were “Pluto and its moon”. Chomsky responded by asking, “Who’s Pluto?” – and Epstein sent a picture of the Disney character with an ear sticking up.
After Chomsky said the anthropomorphic dog indeed looked like him, Epstein shot back a phallic joke, writing, “At your age, if anything sticks up, be proud.”
“Ouch,” Chomsky wrote, prompting Epstein to reply: “Good, it still has feelings as well.”
The public image management advice that Epstein said he got from Chomsky in 2019 came after a key court ruling concerning the former. A federal judge found that US justice department prosecutors broke federal law when they signed a plea agreement with Epstein and then concealed it from more than 30 of his underage victims.
Epstein’s deal allowed him to plead guilty in Florida state court in 2008 to charges of procuring a person under 18 for prostitution and solicitation of prostitution and serve just 13 months in a local jail. That was the case even though US district court judge Kenneth Marra said the evidence he reviewed showed Epstein had operated a sex operation for which he and his associates recruited underage girls internationally in violation of federal law, as Miami Herald journalist Julie K Brown reported.
Within two days, Epstein had sent an email with the subject line “Thoughts from Chomsky” to an attorney and publicist. The ensuing text was signed “Noam” and read: “I’ve watched the horrible way you are being treated in the press and public. It’s painful to say but I think the best way to proceed is to ignore it.”
The text attributed to Chomsky said he had grappled with “tons of hysterical accusations of all sorts”. “I pay no attention, unless I’m approached for a comment on a specific matter. It’s a nuisance, but it’s the best way.”
Citing “a hysteria that has developed about abuse of women”, the text continued, “It’s best I think not to react unless directly questioned, particularly in the current mood – which, I presume, will fade away, even if not in time to prevent much torture and distress.”
It did not, in fact, fade away. Federal prosecutors in New York charged Epstein with sex trafficking in July 2019 in a case that would eventually land his associate Ghislaine Maxwell a 20-year prison sentence. Authorities said Epstein, 66, died by suicide at a federal lockup in August 2019.
Interest in how the federal government handled the case surged in recent months after Trump promised to release a full list of Epstein’s clients while successfully running for a second presidency in 2024. However, after he took office early 2025, Trump’s justice department declared no such list existed.
The president faced immense bipartisan political pressure to be transparent, and he ultimately signed a congressional bill directing his justice department to disclose more of the Epstein files, to which Friday’s records release and others before it were related.
Chomsky, who turned 97 in December, is a professor emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Since October 2023, he has been on unpaid medical leave from his role as a laureate linguistics professor at the University of Arizona, a school spokesperson said on Monday.
