Valeria Chomsky, the wife of Noam Chomsky, said she and her husband made “serious errors in judgment” after new documents focused attention on their relationship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. In a statement she shared with The Associated Press, Valeria Chomsky said the couple recognizes the “gravity” of Epstein’s crimes and expressed “unrestricted solidarity with the victims,” adding that nothing in the statement was intended to minimize the suffering of those victims.
She said she was speaking for herself and for Noam Chomsky, who is 97 and “confronting significant health challenges” after suffering a stroke in 2023. Valeria Chomsky said the couple “were naive and uninformed” at the time, and she cited Noam Chomsky’s “overly trusting nature” as a reason for what she called their misjudgments.
Valeria Chomsky said the couple first met Epstein in 2015 and, at that time, did not know about Epstein’s 2008 jail term related to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl. She said that by 2015, Epstein’s accusations had been the subject of hundreds of news articles that included allegations Epstein had paid dozens of underage girls for sex, but she argued the couple did not have that information when they were introduced.
She described Epstein as presenting himself as “a philanthropist supporting science” and “a financial expert,” and she said those portrayals helped draw Noam Chomsky’s attention. Valeria Chomsky wrote that Epstein gained his attention, they began corresponding, and she characterized it as “unknowingly” opening “a door to a Trojan horse.”
Valeria Chomsky said she and Noam Chomsky did not witness inappropriate behavior and described the interactions as friendly but focused. She said Epstein “began to encircle Noam, sending gifts and creating opportunities for interesting discussions,” and she regretted that they did not interpret those actions as an effort to ensnare them or undermine causes Noam Chomsky supports.
In her statement, Valeria Chomsky said she and her husband visited Epstein once at his ranch in New Mexico, attended dinners at his Manhattan townhouse, and stayed at his apartment a few times. She said the relationship was friendly and “entirely professional,” adding that there were no “children or underage individuals present.”
The AP report said the scrutiny grew after documents released by the Justice Department showed a more extensive relationship than previously reported. It said the documents include a memo suggesting that Chomsky was advising Epstein on how to rehabilitate his public image.
Valeria Chomsky also addressed the tone of exchanges between Epstein and her husband before Epstein was arrested on sex-trafficking charges and died by suicide in jail. She wrote that in emails exchanged in 2019, months before Epstein’s arrest, Epstein lamented his “putrid” reputation, and Chomsky responded by commenting on what she called the “horrible way” Epstein had been treated by the media and advising him to ignore it. She said her husband’s remarks should be “read in context,” describing Epstein as having claimed he was being unfairly persecuted and that Noam Chomsky, in good faith, believed it.
Admirers and longtime collaborators of Noam Chomsky reacted as the new information surfaced. Vijay Prashad, who has written books with Chomsky, released a letter last week saying he was “disgusted by Epstein’s pedophilia, and so by Noam’s friendship with him.”
In the closing portion of her statement, Valeria Chomsky wrote that Epstein created what she described as a manipulative narrative about his case that Noam Chomsky believed. She said it is now clear it was “all orchestrated,” with at least one of Epstein’s intentions being to have someone like Noam Chomsky help repair his reputation by association.