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‘Realised what the guy was’: Hardeep Puri says met Jeffrey Epstein as part of IPI delegation
In a combative press conference, union minister Hardeep Puri also asserted that he did not visit Epstein’s private island, Little St. James.
New Delhi: Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Wednesday said his meetings with disgraced American financier Jeffrey Epstein were part of an official delegation of the International Peace Institute (IPI) as he launched a vigorous defence against allegations by the Opposition that linked him to the swirling global controversy around the sex trafficker.
In a combative press conference, Puri also asserted that he did not visit Epstein’s private island, Little St. James, and cut off contact with the American when he “realised what the guy was”.
Addressing the media at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headquarters, the minister said he met Epstein only three or four times as part of an official delegation while working with the IPI in New York and explained that these interactions between 2014 and 2017, were part of his networking with Silicon Valley figures, including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman.
Across the world, politicians, celebrities and royals have been caught up in the turmoil after the US Justice Department last month published a new cache of nearly three million documents related to the investigation of Epstein –– who died in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.
The press conference came hours after Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said the emails name Puri and Anil Ambani, and it was the former who introduced the businessman to Epstein.
Puri, who said his party will move a motion of privilege against Gandhi, said the allegations were “buffoonery” and a “smear campaign”.
“There is a young leader who has a habit of making baseless allegations…” Puri said and went on to describe in detail his interaction with Epstein.
Puri said he came in contact with the American financier during his stint with IPI. “I was secretary general of something called the independent commission on multilateralism set up in the IPI as a project to see if the United Nations was fit for purpose on the occasion of its 75th anniversary…The President of this chair was a former prime minister of Australia,” he said, and added that it was in this capacity he met Epstein and that his then boss, former President Terje Rød-Larsen, was the one who knew Epstein.
“It is a part of a delegation of the IPI or the ICM that I met Epstein on a few occasions… three or maximum four.. and the ICM was dealing with international issues, thematic issues and the kind of people who were on the ICM were the former prime minister of Australia Kevin Rudd…Børge Brende, a Norwegian politician who is now CEO of the World Economic Forum..” he said.
He also said it was his contacts who had introduced him to Hoffman. “After the meeting with Reid Hoffman I sent a message…the Epstein files you should know are all about wrongdoing, criminal offence… my introductions had nothing to do with that,” he said.
The minister read out the email to Hoffman, on which Epstein is copied, in which he says India presents a terrific opportunity for Internet-based economic activity and that it will have 500 million users by 2018.
“...Here is a professional. I’m (was) not even part of the government in the month of November 2014. I was a private citizen, somebody said they wanted to look at India...” the minister said, defending his communication.
Referring to himself as a “farsighted private citizen”, Puri said, his interactions were to advocate for India’s policy interventions such as Make in India and Digital India. To buttress that there were no friendly ties between him and Epstein, Puri said the financier had described him as “two-faced” in an email, which went on to show they were not close allies.
