Drew Faust

INTELLIGENCE SUMMARY

Drew Gilpin Faust served as President of Harvard University from 2007 to 2018. Her connection to the Jeffrey Epstein case is entirely institutional and administrative in nature, with no criminal, civil, or disciplinary accountability findings against her personally. In 2008, shortly after Epstein was convicted of soliciting a minor for prostitution, Faust was briefed on the allegations against him and determined that Harvard should no longer accept gifts from him. A November 2008 email from Harvard psychologist Stephen Kosslyn documented her apparent opposition to further donations, noting "If Drew weren't opposed to taking [Epstein's] money, there wouldn't be a problem." Faculty of Arts and Sciences dean Michael D. Smith independently reached the same conclusion in 2013. Despite this ban on direct donations, Harvard's 2020 official investigation found that Epstein continued to maintain a meaningful presence at the university through faculty relationships and by facilitating donations from other wealthy donors to Harvard programs. The Program for Evolutionary Dynamics (PED) maintained a biographical page for Epstein on its website, which was only removed in October 2014 after sexual assault survivor advocates contacted both PED and Faust's office directly. The official report commissioned by President Lawrence Bacow in 2019 and released in May 2020 found no specific criticisms of Faust's conduct. Her decisions were characterized as appropriate institutional leadership. The criticism in the report was directed at earlier periods and gaps in gift acceptance procedures predating her presidency. Faust stepped down as Harvard president in 2018, before the major public scrutiny of the university's Epstein ties intensified in 2019. She has not been sued, investigated, charged, or subjected to any formal accountability proceedings in connection with Epstein.