Reid Weingarten ’71 and Darren Indyke J.D. ’91 were among the top-mentioned individuals in the latest batch of convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s personal emails released by the House Oversight Committee on Nov. 12.
Weingarten and Indyke, lawyers representing Epstein in various criminal and civil cases, were both in communication with Epstein regarding President Donald Trump and how to defend Epstein against press inquiries and lawsuits.
Weingarten, an anti-corruption prosecutor turned white collar defense attorney, maintained close ties with Epstein. He was mentioned 109 times in the trove of released emails, where his correspondences reveal a decade-long personal relationship with Epstein beyond legal representation.
In a 2011 email, Weingarten told Epstein, “weird day…some poor soul just jumped in front of my acela to commit suicide … quite a mess,” to which Epstein later replied, “time to relax. go get a massage.”
“i wish,” Weingarten wrote back.
After Trump was elected president, the two traded thoughts about politics until Epstein’s death.
After Epstein forwarded an article about the Pizzagate conspiracy theory — alleging that the Clintons and other politicians ran a sex trafficking ring in the basement of a D.C. pizza shop — to Weingarten, the attorney said “Yikes...my boy jeffrey is everywhere....”
“you might want to tell your dem friends that treating trump like a mafia don ignores the fact that he has great dangerous power,” Epstein wrote to Weingarten in 2018.
Weingarten responded: “not a stupid point… [Trump is] starting to behave very erratically.” The emails came at a time when Trump’s Secretary of Defense, James Matthis, resigned in protest of Trump’s decision to suddenly withdraw troops from Syria and the federal government was heading towards a shutdown.
During special counsel Robert Mueller’s 2017 investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election, Weingarten wrote to Epstein, “trump is going to fire mueller and republicans on hill wont do a thing.”
He also speculated that “Trump leaked the two pages … cross the government’s star witness tomorrow… its odd i still do this shit.” The exchange occurred less than an hour after some of Trump’s tax returns were leaked to MSNBC.
Epstein and Weingarten then speculated in 2018 about the nature of then-White House communications director Hope Hicks’ relationship with Trump, sharing a “Blind Gossip” article titled ‘The Wrong Faux Boyfriend.’
Weingarten, who works as Senior Counsel at Steptoe — a top law firm based in Washington, D.C. — discussed Steptoe’s representation of Epstein.
“Jeffrey has paid about 450 and owes about 300 and seems disinclined to make Steptoe whole.....hhhhhmmmm....first reaction is déjà vu.... As you know I am the 800 pound gorilla here, Steptoe is not going to chase you down for the money but there are 500 lawyers here,” Weingarten emailed, in regards to Epstein’s apparently incomplete payment to the firm.
Steptoe, which billed over $100,000 for defending Epstein, maintains a presence at Cornell Law School’s fair and currently employs seven Cornell law school graduates.
In other email exchanges, Weingarten mentioned he might consider “repping [Michael] flynn,” Trump’s first National Security Advisor, though he eventually decided against it.
Meanwhile, Indyke, mentioned 130 times in the files, worked in Palm Beach as Epstein’s personal lawyer, representing him in court in the U.S. Virgin Islands. He was sued along with Richard Kahn, Epstein’s accountant, in 2024, by two of Epstein’s victims for sending payments from Epstein’s accounts to victims and knowingly benefitting from participating in Epstein’s sex crimes, among six other charges, but he denied wrongdoing in the case.
The case is still ongoing.
The Cornell Law grad, who has been described as a “staple of every [Epstein] event” by a lawyer for Epstein’s victims, handled press inquiries for Epstein and frequently forwarded him news articles regarding legal cases against him, according to the released emails. Indyke now works for Parlatore Law, a D.C.-based firm with strong ties to Trump and represents current U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
Indyke and Weingarten did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Atticus Johnson is a member of the Class of 2028 in the College of Arts and Sciences. He is a senior writer for the News department and can be reached at ajohnson@cornellsun.com.
