Convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein had a cozy relationship with a New York Times finance journalist, with the two discussing news coverage of the disgraced financier as well as the 2016 presidential election, emails released by a congressional panel Wednesday show.
Landon Thomas Jr. in several emails commiserated about Donald Trump potentially defeating Hillary Clinton, with the journalist venting in a Feb. 10, 2016, exchange: “Its [sic] getting scary. The stories you could tell…”
“Actually I don’t think he/voters would care. Being effectively shameless is a pretty powerful weapon for a presidential candidate,” Epstein responded.
As Trump climbed in the polls, Thomas appeared to grow more frantic, asking in a June 1, 2016, email, “does he win?”
“I am getting worried. Is he ever going to implode?” the scribe inquired on Sept. 16, 2016.
“too late,” Epstein responded. “ask again 30th.”
“If you knew Trump was going to win, how would you position your portfolio?” Thomas also asked Epstein in the September exchange.
Thomas had an unusually close relationship with Epstein and even solicited a $30,000 donation from him to a Harlem cultural center. After discovering the violation of the paper’s source policy, the Times benched him from any professional contact with Epstein, NPR reported in 2019.
“Landon Thomas Jr. has not worked at The Times since early 2019 after editors discovered his failure to abide by our ethical standards,” Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha told the Post.
Attempts to contact Thomas were unsuccessful Wednesday.
Epstein died at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide, but Congress and Epstein victims have sought files on the criminal case that have exposed the disgraced financier’s connections to powerful men.
In its latest document dump, the House Oversight Committee released 20,000 pages of emails on Wednesday received from Epstein’s estate, most of which were sent in the 2010s.
They show Epstein frequently communicated with highly influential politicians, publicists, media figures, lawyers and other financiers.
The now-discredited writer Michael Wolff urged Epstein to be the “bullet” ending Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, given their past associations in the 1990s and 2000s.
“[B]ecoming an anti-Trump voice gives you a certain political cover which you decidedly don’t have now. Still, this necessary [sic] involves you going public,” he told his pal in a March 2016 email.
Epstein was banned from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort for trying to “use the spa to try to procure girls,” according to an October 2007 Page Six report.
Trump himself confirmed the account to reporters in July of this year.
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