--- alias: - Bard - St. Stephen's College category: Private Organization created: 2026-09-25 location: Annandale-on-Hudson, New York relations: - end: 2026-04-30 fn: 4 reverse: true role: review of President Botstein's relationship with Epstein, retained by the board of trustees start: 2026-02 type: investigated with: '[[WilmerHale]]' - fn: 1 reverse: true role: co-founder of St. Stephen's College, with Margaret Johnston Bard start: 1860 type: founded with: '[[John Bard]]' start: 1860 summary: Liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, founded in 1860, whose president Leon Botstein cultivated Jeffrey Epstein as a donor after his conviction and retired in 2026 after a WilmerHale review. tags: - Organization - BardCollege - HigherEducation - LeonBotstein - JeffreyEpstein - GratitudeAmerica - SmolnyCollege - WilmerHale updated: 2026-09-25 --- Bard College is a private liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, founded in 1860 as St. Stephen's College. [Leon Botstein](/people/leon-botstein/), its president from 1975 until June 30, 2026, built it into a network of affiliated institutes, early colleges and programs. From 2011, three years after [Jeffrey Epstein](/people/jeffrey-epstein/)'s Florida guilty plea, Botstein pursued Epstein as a donor; Epstein gave the college money and laptops, visited the campus by helicopter, and in 2016 his charity [Gratitude America](/organizations/gratitude-america/) paid Botstein 150,000 dollars. A review by WilmerHale for the trustees found in April 2026 that Botstein had "minimized and was not fully accurate in describing his relationship with Epstein," and his retirement was announced the next day.[^1][^2][^3][^4] ### History St. Stephen's College was established by John Bard and Margaret Johnston Bard "in association with leaders of the Episcopal Church in [New York City](/places/new-york-city/)," on part of their riverside estate, Annandale, and for its first sixty years prepared young men for the seminary. The college states that both founders' inherited wealth was "implicated in slavery": John Bard's grandfather Samuel Bard owned slaves, his father William Bard was the first president of the New York Life Insurance Company, "which insured enslaved people as property," and Margaret Bard's fortune derived from her father's firm Boorman and Johnston, which traded in goods "produced by enslaved labor." In 1928 St. Stephen's became an undergraduate school of Columbia University; it took the name Bard in 1934 and ended the Columbia association when it admitted women in 1944. From the mid-1930s the college served as a refuge for émigré scholars and artists, among them Hannah Arendt and her husband Heinrich Blücher, and in 1956 it took in 325 Hungarian student refugees.[^1] Botstein became Bard's fourteenth president in 1975. The Bard Center, established in 1978, runs a Distinguished Scientist Lecture Series and the Bard Music Festival, which began in 1990. Bard acquired Simon's Rock, an early college in Massachusetts, in 1979, and opened the first Bard High School Early College in Manhattan in 2001, followed by campuses in Queens, Newark, [New Orleans](/places/new-orleans/), Cleveland, Baltimore, Washington and elsewhere. The Bard Prison Initiative brings degree programs into New York State prisons.[^1] ### Epstein as Donor According to reporting cited by Representative Jamie Raskin in 2026, Epstein gave Bard 125,000 dollars in several donations in 2011 and 2012 and dozens of laptops for its high school program in 2015, and his foundation's website listed Bard High School Early College among its grant recipients; Botstein had said Epstein's only gifts were a 75,000 dollar gift and 66 laptops. Raskin also wrote that Botstein "apparently knew that a 2014 donation to the college by apparent co-conspirator [Leon Black](/people/leon-black/) was made at Mr. Epstein's behest"; Black has denied wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.[^4] On December 18, 2012 the president's office arranged Botstein's trip to "Jeffrey's island" in the [U.S. Virgin Islands](/places/us-virgin-islands/) by boat, and was told that his passport copy had been forwarded to "Leon Black's office."[^5] On December 15, 2014 a correspondent sent Epstein's accountant [Richard Kahn](/people/richard-kahn/) a contact card, "President Leon Botstein.vcf," under the subject "Leon Botstein/Bard."[^6] On July 25, 2016 the president's executive assistant arranged an Epstein visit to the campus on July 27 for a matinee opera and an early dinner; Bard's head of security wrote, "We are excited and honored to welcome back Mr. Epstein," and said the helicopter landing would be coordinated with Epstein's pilot, [Larry Visoski](/people/larry-visoski/), and the local fire company. Botstein replied "Excellent."[^7] In 2016 Gratitude America, Ltd., whose operating account was at [Deutsche Bank](/organizations/deutsche-bank/) Trust Company Americas, paid Botstein personally in quarterly checks of 37,500 dollars; one dated August 1, 2016 bore the memo "Leon Botstein, Bard College, 30 Campus Road, Annandale-On-Hudson, NY 12504 - 3rd Quarterly Payment of 4." Deutsche Bank later produced the check images to federal prosecutors in New York. Bard said in May 2023 that the 150,000 dollars was compensation for a one-year term on the foundation's advisory board "as an expert in music" and that Botstein gave it all to the college that year as part of a one million dollar gift.[^8][^9] In January 2017 the daughter of Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn wrote to Botstein that Bard was her first choice; he replied that he would pass her sentiments "on to the admissions committee," and Previn forwarded the exchange to Epstein. Allen's household then wrote to Epstein: "I can't thank you enough for getting [her] into Bard ... Thank you for coming through for us." Bard denied that Epstein had any role in the admission.[^4][^10] On March 26, 2018 Epstein wrote to the president's address asking that a Russian woman be put in touch with an adviser about Smolny, and forwarded the reply with the note "he is the president of smolny."[^11] ### The WilmerHale Review After the [Justice Department](/organizations/department-of-justice/)'s releases under the [Epstein Files Transparency Act](/concepts/epstein-files-transparency-act/), the trustees retained WilmerHale in February 2026 to review Botstein's communications and financial dealings with Epstein. The summary delivered to the trustees on April 30, 2026 recorded 25 visits by Botstein to Epstein's Manhattan townhouse between 2012 and 2019 and a two-day visit to the island, and reported that Epstein twice visited Bard and attended recitals and concerts "accompanied by multiple women who have since been identified as victims of Epstein."[^4] It found that Botstein had disagreed with a senior faculty member who objected to the relationship, having "relied on his view that a person convicted of crimes involving sex with a minor, 'an ordinary sex offender', in his words, could be presumed to be rehabilitated," and quoted him: "I would take money from Satan if it permitted me to do God's work." It concluded that he "did not do anything illegal" but "made decisions in the course of that relationship that reflect on his leadership of Bard."[^3] On May 1, 2026 the executive committee of the board thanked Botstein "for his five decades of service," said that "concerns raised in recent months have been serious and deeply felt," announced that "Funds associated with Jeffrey Epstein will be directed to organizations that support survivors of sexual harm," and committed the college to "strengthening its policies on donor vetting, fundraising, and conflicts of interest." Bard's media relations office separately called Botstein "a transformative leader with the vision and unwavering commitment that has shaped Bard into the world-class educational institution it is today." He remained on the faculty.[^2][^3] On June 17, 2026 Raskin, ranking Democrat on the [House Judiciary Committee](/organizations/house-committee-on-the-judiciary/), wrote to the board's chair, James Cox Chambers, that the review was "too narrowly tailored" and that its summary did not mention Smolny, and asked Bard to make Botstein available for a transcribed interview and to produce records on Epstein, Kahn, [Darren Indyke](/people/darren-indyke/), Black, [Ghislaine Maxwell](/people/ghislaine-maxwell/) and Gratitude America.[^4] [^1]: Bard College, "History." https://www.bard.edu/about/history/ [^2]: Executive Committee, Bard College Board of Trustees, "Message from the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees," May 1, 2026. https://www.bard.edu/news/message-from-the-executive-committee-of-the-board-of-trustees-2026-05-01 [^3]: "Bard College's president to retire after scrutiny of relationship with Jeffrey Epstein." *Associated Press,* via *NPR,* May 2, 2026. https://www.npr.org/2026/05/02/nx-s1-5808942/bard-college-president-leon-botstein-retire-jeffrey-epstein [^4]: Letter from Representative Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member, House Committee on the Judiciary, to James Cox Chambers, Chair, Board of Trustees, Bard College, June 17, 2026, quoting the WilmerHale memorandum to the Bard trustees of April 30, 2026. https://democrats-judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/democrats-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2026-06-17-raskin-to-chambers-bard-re-epstein.pdf [^5]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00399132, DataSet 9, email chain between the office of Leon Botstein and Jeffrey Epstein's office, "Jeffrey Epstein," December 18, 2012. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00399132.pdf [^6]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02087019, DataSet 10, email to Richard Kahn, "Re: Leon Botstein/Bard," December 15, 2014. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA02087019.pdf [^7]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02047292, DataSet 10, email chain "Re: Jeffrey Epstein visit to Bard," July 25, 2016. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA02047292.pdf [^8]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01348714, DataSet 10, check of Gratitude America, Ltd drawn on Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas to Leon Botstein, August 1, 2016. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01348714.pdf [^9]: Scott Jaschik, "Leon Botstein received $150,000 from Jeffrey Epstein," *Inside Higher Ed,* May 18, 2023. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2023/05/18/leon-botstein-received-150000-jeffrey-epstein [^10]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00710494, DataSet 9, email from Soon-Yi Previn to Jeffrey Epstein forwarding a reply from Leon Botstein, January 10, 2017; EFTA01208496, DataSet 9, extracted iMessage log, January 12, 2017. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00710494.pdf ; https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA01208496.pdf [^11]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02491562, DataSet 11, email from Jeffrey Epstein forwarding a March 26, 2018 exchange with the Bard president's office, 2018. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2011/EFTA02491562.pdf