The Epstein story? Count him in.
In November, in the wake of the release of tens of thousands of new documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, New York Times columnist David Brooks announced his intention to sit this one out.
In a column titled “The Epstein Story? Count Me Out,” Brooks, a mainstay of the anti-Trump center-right, dismissed the furor over Epstein as an extension of QAnon, the far-right conspiracy cult that emerged during the first Trump administration and centered around increasingly deranged myths around a pedophile cabal that supposedly ran the world. The case was like catnip to QAnon types, Brooks argued, because it revealed that a powerful, well-connected financier really was engaged in sex-trafficking.
Brooks didn’t mention that he had not only met Epstein in the past, but also attended a dinner alongside the infamous sex trafficker in 2011.
The connection was only revealed Thursday when photos of Brooks at an event with Epstein emerged as part of a release of a new tranche of documents by the Democratic members of the House Committee on Oversight, which has been investigating the Epstein saga and has access to reams of documents handed over by the estate of the late pedophile.
It was not immediately clear when or where the event took place, but a spokesperson for the Times told The Intercept that it was a “widely-attended dinner” in 2011 that Brooks attended in the normal course of his journalistic duties. Brooks did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“As a journalist, David Brooks regularly attends events to speak with noted and important business leaders to inform his columns, which is exactly what happened at this 2011 event,” Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha wrote. “Mr. Brooks had no contact with him before or after this single attendance at a widely-attended dinner.”
Photo: House Oversight Committee
Brooks is not the first Timesman to appear prominently in the recent disclosures around Epstein. In November, when the GOP-controlled Oversight Committee dumped thousands of documents gleaned from an email inbox belonging to Epstein, it revealed new depths to the relationship between Epstein and Landon Thomas Jr., a former Times reporter who was fired in 2018 after it emerged that he’d solicited a donation to a charity from Epstein. Thomas, a business reporter, appeared in numerous emails with Epstein in which Epstein teased information he said he had regarding Donald Trump. Those tips were not made public, and neither Thomas nor the Times have commented on why he did not appear to have reported them out.
Thursday’s release of documents also included a number of photos of prominent thinkers and political operatives known to be in Epstein’s orbit in later years, including the leftist intellectual Noam Chomsky and the right-wing provocateur and erstwhile Trump confidant Steven K. Bannon.
The photos came out just a day ahead of the deadline for the release of the so-called Epstein Files by the Department of Justice, which is mandated by congressional Epstein Files Act to drop documents related to its investigations into Epstein on Friday.
“The Epstein case is precious to the QAnon types because here, in fact, was a part of the American elite that really was running a sex abuse ring,” Brooks wrote in his November column. “So, of course, they leap to the conclusion that Epstein was a typical member of the American establishment, not an outlier. It’s grooming and sex trafficking all the way down.”
A spokesperson for the Democratic members of the Oversight Committee did not immediately respond to a request for clarification about the details of the photos, but according to Politico, the Epstein estate provided the images without context after a subpoena.
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We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
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