‘I very much regret it’: Reid Hoffman admits to meeting Jeffrey Epstein multiple times after 2015

LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman on Tuesday acknowledged that he continued to meet convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein well beyond 2015, reversing an earlier claim made in a 2019 interview. Hoffman now says he met Epstein at least six times after that year, including several in-person meetings.

In 2019, Hoffman told Axios that his final interaction with Epstein occurred in 2015. However, in a post shared on social media platform X on Tuesday, Hoffman said a review of his calendar records showed that the statement was inaccurate.

According to Hoffman, at least five of the meetings took place between April and July 2016, while the last occurred on March 24, 2018, just a year before Epstein died in prison in 2019. Epstein died while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges, with authorities ruling his death a suicide.

Hoffman said all of his interactions with Epstein were linked to fundraising efforts for the MIT Media Lab and were coordinated by Joi Ito, the lab’s former director. He stressed that he had no personal relationship with Epstein beyond those engagements.

Reid Hoffman's clarification

“I only knew Jeffrey Epstein because of a fundraising relationship with MIT, which I very much regret,” Hoffman wrote, adding that he had checked his calendar entries multiple times to ensure accuracy. He said he would disclose any additional meetings if further records came to light.

The tech entrepreneur expressed his regret over any role he may have played in helping Epstein restore his public image following his 2008 conviction. In his 2019 statement, Hoffman had said he was informed that Epstein had passed MIT’s vetting process, a claim that later came under scrutiny amid investigations into the institution’s ties with the financier.

In his latest statement, Hoffman again expressed sympathy for Epstein’s victims and called for greater transparency. “The victims of Epstein’s abhorrent and vile actions deserve all the information they are seeking,” he said, urging authorities to release relevant records.

Moreover, he said in response to a user that he regrets associating with the disgraced financier even after the latter's conviction in a case related to soliciting a minor for sexual purposes. The user said that although he believes that Reid Hoffman was not involved in anything "nefarious", he obviously made a mistake by being associated with Epstein like many other important people did. 

Reid Hoffman's response to the user

The admission comes amid renewed attention on Epstein’s network of high-profile associates following recent document releases, prompting several public figures to clarify or revisit earlier statements about their interactions with him.