(Feb 11): Four months before Jeffrey Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019, he flew a veteran tech communications executive named John Pinette to his home in Palm Beach, Florida, according to materials released by the US Department of Justice.
The two men discussed rebuilding the disgraced financier’s public image, Epstein recounted in a March email. He later asked Pinette if he could hire him with “no need to surface publicly”, working quietly with journalists. Pinette told Epstein: “If I’m in — I’m in” and that he was “thinking” about the offer.
While it’s unclear if he accepted, Pinette joined Meta Platforms Inc the next month as the company’s vice president of global communications.
Details about Epstein’s network of financiers, global politicians and high-profile executives continue to emerge years after the convicted sex offender’s death in August 2019. Recent revelations include his relationships with the Norwegian elite and a prominent UK politician.
Epstein’s dealings with Pinette underscore how deep his connections to the corporate world ran even more than a decade after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to prostitution charges in Florida, serving 13 months of an 18-month sentence.
Pinette didn’t respond to phone calls, emails, or other messages seeking comment.
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The same month he met Epstein at his home, Pinette was concluding a stint as vice president of marketing and communications at Vulcan Inc., Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen’s Seattle-based private office, according to Pinette’s LinkedIn profile.
He had earlier worked as director of communications for Gates Ventures, the private office of Microsoft’s other co-founder, where he “managed Bill Gates’ personal image and communications programme,” according to his profile. He also ran communications for billionaire Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management, and earlier oversaw communications for Alphabet Inc’s Google in Asia, his profile says.
Pinette advised Epstein to “not try to change the perception” of himself too soon, according to Epstein’s account of Pinette’s advice in one email exchange.
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“Chip away,” then “in a few months begin something else,” Epstein wrote in the email, which he sent to Kathy Ruemmler, now Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s top lawyer.
Spokespeople for Meta, Pershing Square and Goldman Sachs declined to comment. Ruemmler’s spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Representatives for Vulcan, now known as Vale Group, and Google didn’t respond to requests for comment. A Gates Ventures spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
After the Palm Beach visit, Pinette appeared to write to Epstein with ideas about how they could work together. “I will send you some thoughts — do you want to ask your attorney if it presents less surface area for attack if I write it for her/him with regard to the next steps in the federal case?” he wrote in a text message.
Pinette also emailed Epstein’s attorneys later in March about the fact checking process for an apparent article in The New Yorker.
In April, Pinette responded to an email about an open letter written by prominent attorney Alan Dershowitz assailing reporting on Epstein. “Glad he did it,” Pinette wrote. “Glad we didn’t.”
Pinette also discussed with Epstein possibly joining Meta, saying in one email that he might take a job with “[the new] Evil Empire in Menlo Park,” home to the company’s headquarters.
Announcing his appointment, then chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said Pinette would be “invaluable to helping us communicate the work we do at Facebook every day”.
Uploaded by Felyx Teoh
