A Congressional Inquiry, a Disputed Email, and Botstein’s Final Exit From Bard

So now let's get back to talking about Leon Botstein.

Yeah.

And Walter, there's a lot for us to unpack here.

I think listeners deserve time to understand both the seriousness of these allegations and the questions about the evidence.

And I just want to make a quick note for listeners that today's conversation will include discussion of sexual abuse and allegations of sexual misconduct.

Okay, good.

So Emily, let's start with the distinction that might be confusing people.

Botstein had already stepped down as president.

So what actually happened last week?

Yeah.

So on Wednesday, October 7th, Representatives Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Madeline Dean of Pennsylvania in a joint letter called on the Justice Department and the FBI to investigate Botstein's possible involvement in Epstein's abuse.

Raskin also sent a letter to Bard's acting president, Jonathan Becker, and its board chairman, Brandon Weber, raising allegations about Botstein's conduct and his influence over the college's handling of sexual misconduct complaints, I should note, having nothing to do with Epstein.

Later that day, Walter, the trustees announced that Botstein was resigning immediately from all Bard-affiliated positions.

They specifically included his professorship, his role with the orchestra now, which is Bard's graduate orchestra, and other music programs, including roles that he holds at the conservatory, which is the undergraduate performance school, essentially, that also now has several graduate components.

The board said it unanimously accepted his resignation of these additional roles.

And that goes considerably further, Walter, than what happened in June.

So his retirement from the presidency took effect June 30th, and Becker became acting president July 1.

At that point, Botstein had said he was going to continue teaching and leading the graduate orchestra.

He subsequently announced a teaching sabbatical for this academic year, a story we broke a few months ago, a month or so ago, but he still had important institutional roles.

So last week's announcement ended those remaining formal roles, and Becker's letter the next evening explicitly said that the release of the congressional letter led to these resignations.

And how did Botstein explain his decision?

So he said that the allegations that were in the letter from these congressional leaders were untrue.

And in remarks released by the Orchestra Now's executive director, Botstein specifically denied writing or sending the disputed email that is at the heart of Raskin and Madeline Dean's letter.

And we could talk more about that later.

He also said that any assertion that he knew of or was involved in Epstein's criminal behavior was wrong.