On April 30, 2026, Jacobin published an investigation reconstructing the relationship between Jeffrey Epstein and Peter Thiel — the venture capitalist whose protégé J.D. Vance is now Vice President of the United States. The reporting, drawn from emails and documents in the public record, traces a five-year courtship by Epstein (August 2009 to March 2014) before LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman finally connected the two men. From 2014 through 2018, Epstein and Thiel maintained frequent email contact, took phone calls, and met in person.
The relationship was substantive, not casual. Epstein offered to invest between $50 million and $100 million through Thiel's funds; Thiel accepted. Epstein sought Thiel's tax advice, and Thiel told him: 'I never question your judgment on tax-related issues.' Thiel arranged meetings between Epstein and the cofounders of Valar Ventures, his European venture firm, and advised Epstein to invest $10–20 million. When Epstein's name was problematic for a Bitcoin-mining venture, he used Thiel's name to legitimize the investment.
Epstein actively brokered Thiel into Trumpworld. He encouraged Thiel's prominent role in the 2016 Trump campaign, called the move 'Fun,' praised Thiel during the 2016 RNC convention, and asked: 'Are you enjoying raising your public profile?' He advised Thiel to cultivate a closer relationship with Trump through real-estate investor and Trump fundraiser Tom Barrack. Six months into Trump's first term, Epstein asked Thiel: 'Are you still playing with Donald?' He warned Thiel about Trump's vindictiveness after a critical Buzzfeed article.
Epstein also opened, or tried to open, a remarkable foreign-policy and intelligence rolodex for Thiel. The list of people Epstein facilitated or attempted introductions with: Bill Burns (future CIA director), former Sen. Bob Kerrey (Senate Intelligence Committee), former Israeli PM Ehud Barak, Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, former Russian official Sergei Belyakov, and Thorbjørn Jagland (Council of Europe Secretary General), plus various European, Middle Eastern, and Asian officials. When the 2015 Roberts/Andrew/Dershowitz lawsuit alleging an Epstein sex ring went global, Thiel's response was sympathetic to Epstein's 'bad press' and offered to share strategies for managing negative publicity. Privately, Epstein dismissed Thiel to Larry Summers as 'autistic, no global sense' — even as Epstein worked to expand Thiel's influence.
The relevance is not historical curiosity. Thiel is the political and financial mentor to J.D. Vance — vice president, Trump's likely heir, and the funder behind much of the post-2022 GOP realignment. Thiel also funded Senate runs for Blake Masters (his former business partner) and is publicly connected to Steve Bannon and Reid Hoffman's broader network. The Trump–DOJ Epstein-files transparency fight remains unresolved: 2.5 million pages of the 6 million pages reviewed by DOJ are still withheld, and Acting AG Blanche has been sued by Katie Phang to enforce the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The Jacobin reporting reframes 'who is in Epstein's network' to include the financial and political infrastructure under and adjacent to the second Trump administration.