Dalai Lama’s Office Denies Any Link With Jeffrey Epstein After Fresh Claims
The office of the Dalai Lama on Sunday firmly dismissed media and social media reports attempting to link the Tibetan spiritual leader with late American financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, calling the claims false and misleading.
In a press statement issued from Dharamsala, the office said, “We can unequivocally confirm that His Holiness has never met Jeffrey Epstein or authorised any meeting or interaction with him by anyone on His Holiness’s behalf.”
The clarification followed a wave of reports and online posts that surfaced after the recent release of documents related to Epstein by the United States Department of Justice.
In a post on X, the Dalai Lama’s office stated, “Some recent media reports and social media posts concerning ‘Epstein files’ are attempting to link His Holiness the Dalai Lama with Jeffrey Epstein.”
The office reiterated that no meeting, interaction or association had ever taken place.
US Justice Department Releases Millions of Pages in Epstein Files
The denial comes amid renewed global attention on the so-called Epstein Files, a massive cache of investigative material released by the US Department of Justice on January 31.
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The release includes more than three million pages of documents, over 2,000 videos and approximately 180,000 images connected to Epstein and related investigations.
Announcing the disclosures at a news conference, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the release fulfilled a transparency mandate passed by Congress last year.
He said it “marks the end of a very comprehensive document identification and review process to ensure transparency to the American people and compliance with the act.”
The Justice Department had initially missed a December 19 congressional deadline to publish the full set of records.
Files Redacted to Protect Victims as Reports Cite Dalai Lama References
In response to the legislation, officials assigned hundreds of lawyers to review the files to determine what required redaction to protect victims’ identities.
Blanche said materials that could compromise ongoing investigations or expose potential victims were withheld.
Some media outlets, citing the Department of Justice website, reported that the Dalai Lama’s name appeared at least 169 times in the released files.
According to these reports, the name allegedly appeared in multiple personal emails and in the index of a book titled ‘Massage for Dummies’, which was included as a scanned document among the case records.
The Dalai Lama’s office rejected any inference drawn from such mentions, reiterating that the spiritual leader had no association with Epstein.
Media Claims Revived, Dalai Lama’s Office Denies Link
Additional claims circulating online referred to emails dated October 2012 that allegedly suggested a possible meeting or an event where both Epstein and the Dalai Lama were expected to be present.
The Dalai Lama’s office denied all such suggestions.
The controversy had surfaced earlier as well, following comments made by journalist Michael Wolff during an appearance on the Daily Beast podcast last year.
Wolff spoke about gatherings described as “salons” reportedly hosted at Epstein’s Manhattan residence and attended by prominent personalities.
While naming attendees, Wolff included the Dalai Lama and speculated that the spiritual leader’s presence, if any, may have been connected to fundraising or philanthropic outreach.
Epstein Files Name Prominent Figures, No Charges Filed
Independent journalist Jacob Silverman later referred to Wolff’s claims in an article titled “Why Was The Dalai Lama At Jeffrey Epstein’s House?”, noting that the Dalai Lama’s office did not respond to queries at the time regarding any donations or association.
The latest batch of Justice Department materials also includes images showing several well-known figures such as Bill Gates, Steve Bannon, Woody Allen and former US President Bill Clinton socialising with Epstein, sometimes on his private island.
None of those depicted have been charged in connection with the case. Other names mentioned in various reports linked to the newly released documents include current and former US Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, and business leaders such as Bill Gates and Elon Musk.
Jeffrey Epstein was charged with sex trafficking of minors and prosecutors alleged that he ran a long-standing operation involving hundreds of underage girls.
Authorities said he abused girls as young as 14 at properties in New York, Florida, New Mexico, the US Virgin Islands and abroad, using a system in which victims were pressured to recruit other girls.
In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to soliciting a minor and received a widely criticised sentence of 13 months in jail with work release as part of a controversial plea deal.
Epstein died by apparent suicide in a New York jail cell in August 2019, a month after being indicted on federal sex trafficking charges.
The Dalai Lama, who has lived in exile in Dharamsala since fleeing Tibet in 1959, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his consistent, nonviolent struggle to liberate Tibet.
His office said the recent clarification was necessary to counter misinformation and prevent the spread of unfounded allegations linking the Tibetan spiritual leader to Epstein.
(With inputs from ANI)