New Epstein files show years of email exchanges with Sixers co-owner Josh Harris

Jeffrey Epstein and Sixers co-owner Josh Harris had an ongoing business relationship that included numerous phone calls and at least one visit to Epstein’s home in Manhattan, according to emails released Friday by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The emails do not contain any indication that Harris was involved with sexual misconduct. The records — buried within the three million documents made public Friday as part of the congressionally ordered release of the Epstein Files — shed light on a yearslong correspondence that occurred after Epstein’s 2008 guilty plea for solicitation of prostitution with a minor, but before his 2019 arrest on child sex trafficking charges.

Requests for comment from Harris through his company, Harris Blitzer Sports Entertainment, were not immediately returned Friday.

Harris and Epstein moved in similar circles among Wall Street financial brokers. Harris, co-founder of the investment firm Apollo Global Management, exchanged multiple emails and phone calls with Epstein between 2013 and 2016.

A meeting between Epstein and Harris was detailed in earlier records released by the DOJ, and first reported by the Daily Pennsylvanian, the student newspaper at the University of Pennsylvania. Harris is an alumnus of Penn’s Wharton School.

The exchanges, which have not been previously reported, begin with a series of emails between Epstein and Harris’s schedulers seeking a meeting at Epstein’s home in 2013, along with former Apollo CEO Leon Black and billionaire Marc Rowan, apparently to discuss financial affairs and investments.

“Just reconfirming Leon, Josh and Marc will all go see Jeffrey at his home, 9 East 71st Street between 5th and Madison tomorrow, Tues. Oct. 22nd at 7am for a breakfast meeting,” a scheduler wrote in an email from October 2013.

Rowan could not be reached for comment late Friday.

Years later, it would emerge that Black had paid Epstein $158 million for “financial advice” — despite the financier’s conviction on sex trafficking charges, leading to his ouster as head of the company.

It’s unclear if the 2013 meeting took place. Harris later apologized to Epstein for having “rescheduled on you a few times.”

Correspondence between Harris and Epstein carried on.

Emails from January 2014 then show Epstein’s assistant following up on a request for Harris to pull together a series of organizational documents at Epstein’s request.

A June 2014 email features Epstein describing a proposed $2.4 million payment apparently from Harris to Black’s former executive assistant, Melanie Spinella.

Details surrounding the payment, or it ever occurred were not clear.

Later in 2014, Harris and Epstein’s schedulers e-mailed yet again to arrange a different visit to Epstein’s home.

This time, Epstein proposed another breakfast involving Black, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, tech investor Reid Hoffman and Ron Baron, the founder of Baron Capital.

“Jeffrey Epstein would like to invite Josh to breakfast on Dec. 5th at Jeffrey’s home in NY... Bill Gates will be in attendance. The breakfast will be intimate...less than 6 people,” one email invitation read.

The pair also discussed the meeting directly.

“Sorry i missed you. Crazy week,” Harris wrote to Epstein in November 2014. “U around any time from now to sunday? Whats this Bill Gates thing about? Tks for thinking about me.”

“I thought you might like to schmooze,” wrote Epstein in response, asking Harris to call him. “nothing but fun friday 5th breakfast.”

That meeting does appear to have taken place, based on subsequent emails, with Harris in attendance.

“Did you have fun at breakfast?” Epstein wrote to Harris, about a week after the meeting was scheduled to take place.

“Yes very much,” he responded. “Thank you for inviting me.”

In another typo-laden email, Epstein later bragged to Bank of America President Paul Morris about the breakfast meeting.

“as you might know I had a recent breadkfst at the hosue with ron baron. josh harris, and billgates,” he wrote, in Jan 2015.

Epstein’s relationship with Black and Apollo would eventually disintegrate over a legal dispute about his tax and estate planning fees. Harris and Epstein continued to email sporadically until at least 2016.

That year, Robert Bodian, managing partner at the law firm Mintz, reached out to Epstein, indicating he was contacting him at “Josh’s request,” apparently regarding a tax issue.

And, in September 2016, Epstein e-mailed Harris again directly asking him to call him about an unspecified issue.

“Any conversation that you prefer to stay between just us. will. its my financial confessional booth for jews,” Epstein wrote.

“Will do Jeff,” Harris responded. “Happy to catch up. Thx.”