Revive clash

Epstein files revive clash over Trump’s college sexual misconduct rule

Epstein’s messages offer a rare window into how powerful figures viewed President Donald Trump’s Title IX regulation as leverage in defending against sexual harassment claims.

By Bianca Quilantan

When a celebrity physicist found himself embroiled in a sexual harassment probe on his college campus, he turned to Jeffrey Epstein for help.

As Epstein looked for ways to help, he saw an opportunity with the Trump administration when he heard it was drafting a new rule for how sexual misconduct gets investigated by schools.

The late sex offender was trying to help Lawrence Krauss, then a professor at Arizona State University facing a sexual harassment complaint at the height of the #MeToo movement. In 2018, according to files released by the Justice Department this year, Epstein fielded texts, phone calls and emails from Krauss and helped bolster the professor’s legal defense.

Krauss has denied wrongdoing. But their exchange reveals how much Epstein believed the first Trump administration’s work to establish more protections for people accused of wrongdoing under Title IX — the federal education law that bars sex-based discrimination — could limit the university’s probe into Krauss and let him keep his job.

“My friends in the White House HATE the title ix c--ts,” Epstein wrote to Krauss in April 2018.

“Ironic but he might be your out,” Epstein added, without being clear about who “he” was.

“Ironic indeed!” Krauss, a vocal Trump critic, replied. “But I will take it.”

Trump has said he and Epstein, who was once a frequent guest at Mar-a-Lago, had a falling out years before Epstein died in 2019. While Epstein’s relationship with Krauss has been well known, the newly released correspondence remains resonant eight years later in part because advocates for sexual assault survivors say the messages back up their calls to stop the second Trump administration from officially resurrecting its Title IX rule.

“The emails really offered what was a very rare thing in public life: a paper trail showing exactly how men with power talk about the laws designed to hold them accountable,” said Noreen Farrell, executive director of Equal Rights Advocates, a nonprofit women’s rights organization.

The public attention to the Epstein files “is a powerful cultural zeitgeist on the broader issue of sex abuse that I think we should leverage in this moment as we approach rulemaking,” Farrell said.

The Biden administration tried to scrap the 2020 regulation, but its efforts were ultimately stymied in court over its inclusion of discrimination protections for transgender students.

Last year, the new Trump administration used that legal status to ditch Biden’s version altogether as it seeks to codify its rule through regulation, a process that may begin as soon as this fall but can take years to finalize.

“This Epstein email and essentially his blessing and support of the Trump 2020 rule, it just really affirms what we’ve been saying all along,” said Shiwali Patel, senior director of Education Justice at the National Women’s Law Center.

“It’s meant to be an anti-survivor rule,” she said. “I don’t know if it could be made any more clear after the Epstein files revealed his role in support of it.”

The White House declined to comment. Krauss did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The Trump administration has been enforcing the first-term Title IX requirements through guidance — policies advocacy groups say have chilled reporting of incidents on campus and added hurdles for them in the complaint process.

Those organizations point out that the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights did not resolve any sexual harassment or violence complaints last year when the Trump administration began enforcing its rule again.

They argue that the public’s fervor around Epstein’s crimes — combined with the department’s inaction on those complaints — could help them garner enough public support to make reimposing the rule politically unpopular.

Epstein wrote about how he believed the pending Title IX regulation meant the university and faculty investigating Krauss “are now on notice that the rules they have been operating under , will be changed.”

“DUE PROCESS,” Epstein wrote.

Title IX lawyer Justin Dillon, who represented Krauss in the university’s probe as well as dozens of students accused of misconduct, remains a proponent of the 2020 rule. He has argued the Trump rule is more protective of due process rights for those accused of misconduct compared to previous federal guidance.

Dillon said Epstein’s views about the policy shouldn’t hold weight.

“Just because a monster like Jeffrey Epstein thought more due process was a good idea does not make more due process bad, and I cannot imagine why anyone would possibly care what he thought about this issue,” Dillon said in a statement. “‘Bad person liked thing I do not like’ is not much of an argument.’”

Krauss’ outreach to Epstein began six months before Arizona State University relaunched an investigation under Title IX into Krauss after misconduct allegations emerged in a February 2018 Buzzfeed article and a complaint was filed. The ASU report detailed unwelcome sexual comments and touching, sexist comments and unprofessional and sexually inappropriate interactions with students and employees of the Origins Project, an initiative that explores the origins of life and the universe that was partially funded by Epstein and his associates.

“IF being silly , socially unaware is a crime. under title 9, , half of the great scientists would be out of work,” Epstein told Krauss.

Epstein paid at least $15,000 for Krauss’ legal fees, vetted lawyers and consulted high-profile allies including Ken Starr, who investigated former President Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky, according to the Epstein documents. Starr lost his job as president of Baylor University in 2016 over the school’s handling of sexual assault allegations.

Epstein also told Krauss that Trump’s Education Department had a new view on how colleges should handle sexual harassment complaints. These views sharply diverged from Obama administration policies directing schools to quickly investigate and resolve sexual harassment complaints or lose their federal funding.

Epstein made a point of noting the university’s financial ties to the federal government, which included receiving Pell Grants, funding that helps low-income students pay for college.

“I’m told they should be reminded that there is [a] new sheriff in dc,” Epstein wrote.

Krauss knew of Epstein’s supposed ties to the White House. In emails with Dillon — which he often forwarded to Epstein — Krauss touted Epstein’s list of friends with influence as a reason why Dillon needed to consult Epstein.

“Bottom line is that Jeffrey is not only friends with most of the famous people from finance, to business, to Hollywood, who have either been brought down during #metoo,” Krauss wrote to Dillon, ”he also speaks regularly with people ranging from the awful white house people, who he is friends with, to ken starr etc.”

The Title IX final rule that took effect in August 2020 was a key part of Betsy DeVos’ legacy as Education secretary during Trump’s first term. She scrapped Obama-era guidance that called on schools to take immediate action on any unwelcome sexual misconduct and developed a formal process schools must undertake in investigating such accusations.

That included requiring colleges to respond to formal complaints with courtroom-like hearings and allowing representatives for alleged offenders and survivors to call witnesses and challenge their credibility and assess evidence. The rule also changed the government’s definition of sexual harassment and allowed schools to use a higher standard of proof in campus disciplinary proceedings compared to the Obama-era guidance.

DeVos has said the rule officially codifies protections to hold schools accountable by ensuring sexual assault survivors aren’t brushed aside and no accused student’s guilt is predetermined.

“We can and must continue to fight sexual misconduct in our nation’s schools, and this rule makes certain that fight continues,” DeVos said at the time. A DeVos spokesperson declined to comment for this report.

Education Department spokesperson Amelia Joy said the Trump administration’s rule “provides a balanced legal approach that protects both survivors and the constitutional right to due process.”

“On the other hand, the Obama and Biden Administrations distorted the law, including by using it to suspend and expel students with no notice, giving no opportunity for evidence to be reviewed, and providing no right to a hearing,” Joy said in a statement. “The Trump Administration remains committed to upholding Title IX, restoring commonsense safeguards against sexual assault, and vigorously protecting all students.”

The rule has also helped standardize the process for all schools across the country, said KC Johnson, a Brooklyn College professor whose 2019 research showed the number of legal challenges over the campus adjudication processes were climbing.

“The DeVos regulations were designed to deal with this problem, which is that these lawsuits had exposed the often glaringly unfair processes,” he said, adding that since the regulations have been in effect “there’s been a dramatic decrease in litigation against schools because schools that actually adhere to these regulations are forced to do the process in a fair way.”

Epstein appeared to be watching the rulemaking closely.

As discussions about the rule advanced in 2018, he advised Krauss to ask the university “which title 9 rules are they applying.” He told Krauss to tell the school, “as you know the title 9 rules are being modified. I assume we will operate under the proposed regs. as you are on notice. of the changes. ??”

“If they say no, you might suggest , waiting until they are finalized as after a hearing you will fly a court action. that will by definition. have the new rules in place by that time,” Epstein added.

Ultimately, Krauss didn’t benefit from the Trump rule because it took several years to finalize after drawing more than 124,000 public comments and several legal challenges.

Arizona State University’s investigation determined that most of the complaint against the professor was valid. Krauss was put on paid leave by the university and was later ousted from the leading post of the prestigious science program that he founded. The university found that Krauss breached the school’s sexual harassment policy and senior university officials recommended his firing. But the professor ended up retiring instead.

“To be clear, I have never harassed or assaulted anyone and have most certainly not exhibited gender discrimination in my professional dealings at the University or elsewhere,” Krauss wrote in a statement at the time.

Krauss has also said none of his correspondence with Epstein “relate in any way to the horrendous crimes he was accused of in 2019.”

The Trump Title IX rule was not finalized until 2020, but advocates who tried to crush the regulation argue the documents prove their view that it would give the advantage to those accused of misconduct.

“When Betsy DeVos was the secretary of Education, the public talking points were about male students being falsely accused and that the Obama administration had gone too far and the result was these really unfair sexual assault misconduct processes,” said Amanda Walsh, a spokesperson for the Victim Rights Law Center, which provides free legal services for sexual assault survivors.

“But when you look at these emails, it reads as if this is a group of just well connected guys looking out for each other,” she said.

Some argue, however, that many provisions in Trump’s version of the rule may prove popular.

“How do you argue against letting people see the evidence against them or question and bring up their witnesses?” said Robert Shibley, who is special counsel for campus advocacy at FIRE, a free speech group advocating for the due process protections in the regulation. “It’s shocking that that wasn’t routinely part of the Title IX process before.”

Getting rid of the Trump rule was a key priority for former President Joe Biden, who said the policy “gives colleges a green light to ignore sexual violence and strip survivors of their rights.”

Catherine Lhamon, who led the Education Department’s civil rights office under both Biden and Obama, said she found the Epstein correspondence stunning.

“When I saw that text in the Epstein files, my jaw dropped,” said Lhamon, who now leads UC Berkeley Law’s Edley Center on Law and Democracy. “It is very surprising to me to see the crass and dismissive terminology, as reported, from the White House about survivors of discrimination … and the ugliness of the explicit planning and strategizing and which of our kids in school our federal government disdains.”

The National Women’s Law Center is still fighting in court to uphold the Biden administration’s sexual misconduct portions of the regulation. But Trump administration officials have said they are already enforcing the 2020 regulation.

Still, the Education Department has to go through another rulemaking process to officially strip the Biden regulation off the books to ensure a future administration can’t quickly unravel its efforts.

The Trump administration’s enforcement of its own rule is also being criticized.

Dozens of groups that advocate for students who have experienced sexual harassment or violence say the department is “neglecting” its mandate to address campus Title IX complaints.

In late February, the groups said the agency had “resolved zero complaints of sexual harassment or violence in 2025” and opened fewer than 10 sexual violence investigations since March 2025. About 90 percent of overall complaints to the office from March to September 2025 were also dismissed.

Johnson said there are accused students who file these OCR complaints as well.

“The issue of OCR not resolving things, that’s a much more serious line of argument to me than the Epstein stuff,” he said.

The Education Department did not respond to a question about the cases. By contrast, Lhamon said her office addressed 11 sexual harassment cases in just the three weeks leading up to Trump’s 2025 inauguration.

“I know what cases were pending, what cases we were trying to get resolved, what cases were in negotiations when I walked out the door on the last day of the Biden administration,” Lhamon said. “I am sick about those cases still sitting and the affected students not receiving the relief that the law entitles them to.”