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‘Mr. Brooks had no contact with him before or after this single attendance at a widely-attended dinner,’ the New York Times said in a statement on Thursday.
Justin Baragona in New York Thursday 18 December 2025 20:19 GMT- Bookmark
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CloseDonald Trump says his photos with Jeffrey Epstein is 'no big deal'
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New York Times columnist David Brooks was featured in the latest tranche of photographs from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate – one month after Brooks wrote a column dismissing the obsession over the Epstein files.
In a series of photographs from an event with the deceased sexual predator, which were made public Thursday, Brooks could be seen smiling directly at the camera while having drinks and eating dinner with other guests.
However, this dinner was not mentioned in a column Brooks wrote last month in which the conservative writer groused about the amount of political oxygen the Epstein case had taken up in Washington, especially among Democrats.
“What I don’t understand is why some Democrats are hopping on this bandwagon. They may believe that the Epstein file release will somehow hurt Trump,” he stated in the piece. “But they are undermining public trust and sowing public cynicism in ways that make the entire progressive project impossible. They are contributing to a public atmosphere in which right-wing populism naturally thrives.”
The column, titled “The Epstein Story? Count Me Out,” also saw Brooks going to bat for the political and business elite, insisting that they shouldn’t be painted with a broad brush and portrayed as sexual deviants.
open image in galleryDavid Brooks appeared in the latest tranche of Epstein documents released on Thursday. The NY Times brushed it off as a one-time thing. (House Oversight Committee)
open image in galleryBrooks could be seen smiling directly at the camera while having drinks and eating dinner with other guests in one photo (House Oversight Commitee)“I know a thing or two about the American elite, ahem, and if you’ve read my work, you may be sick of my assaults on the educated elites for being insular, self-indulgent and smug,” Brooks wrote last month. “But the phrase ‘the Epstein class’ is inaccurate, unfair and irresponsible. Say what you will about our financial, educational, nonprofit and political elites, but they are not mass rapists.”
Asked why Brooks’ article didn’t contain any disclosure about the Epstein event, and if the paper would be taking any action towards Brooks over Thursday’s revelation, a New York Times spokesperson stated that the meeting was a one-time situation and part of his relationship-building efforts.
“As a journalist, David Brooks regularly attends events to speak with noted and important business leaders to inform his columns, which is exactly what happened at this 2011 event,” the spokesperson said. “Mr. Brooks had no contact with him before or after this single attendance at a widely-attended dinner.”
Elsewhere in the document dump, which comes as the deadline for the Justice Department to release its files related to Epstein approaches, undated photographs show lines from Vladimir Nabokov’s scandalous novel Lolita written on parts of a woman’s body.
“Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth,” one image reveals, showing text scrawled on a woman’s chest.
“She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock,” another photo shows, with that passage written on a woman’s foot. Meanwhile, others say “she was Lola in slacks” and “she was Polly at school.”
Other images released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee portray Epstein – who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges – accompanied by unidentified women whose faces have been obscured, including a picture of a seated Epstein with one woman wrapping her arms around his shoulders while two others sit closely beside him.
open image in galleryOther high-profile figures shown in this latest batch of documents include famed author Noam Chomsky, former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, Oscar-winning filmmaker Woody Allen, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Google’s Sergey Brin (House Oversight Committee)Besides Brooks, other high-profile figures shown in this latest batch of documents include famed author Noam Chomsky, former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, Oscar-winning filmmaker Woody Allen, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Google’s Sergey Brin. A person’s appearance in the files or in images alongside Epstein does not allege wrongdoing.
“As we approach the deadline for the Epstein Files Transparency Act, these new images raise more questions about what exactly the Department of Justice has in its possession,” Rep Robert Garcia (D-CA), the ranking member of the oversight committee, said Thursday. “We must end this White House cover-up, and the DOJ must release the Epstein files now.”
The interest in the Epstein files exploded in July after the Justice Department determined that there was no Epstein “client list,” there would be no further investigation into other third parties, that the financier had died by suicide and there was “no basis to revisit the disclosure of those materials.”
Considering that Trump – who had a lengthy friendship with Epstein prior to a falling out in the 2000s – had promised to release the Epstein files prior to his return to the White House, the DOJ memo brought renewed scrutiny into his relationship with the deceased financier. Trump has not been accused of any wrongdoing as it relates to Epstein's crimes.
Eventually, after a monthslong pressure campaign from Democrats and some Republicans – which featured the release of several batches of previously unpublished documents from Epstein’s estate – the president reluctantly agreed last month to compel the DOJ to release all its materials related to the Epstein cases.
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