Epstein Files Reveal Peter Thiel’s Elaborate Dietary Restrictions
Peter Thiel – the billionaire venture capitalist, PayPal and Palantir co-founder, and pronounced commentator on all matters concerning the “Antichrist” – appears at least 2,200 times in the latest batch of files released by the Department of Justice related to convicted sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The tranche of records shows how Epstein managed to cultivate an extensive network of wealthy and influential figures in Silicon Valley. A number of them, including Thiel, continued to interact with Epstein even after his 2008 guilty plea to soliciting prostitution and procuring minors to engage in prostitution.
The new files show that Thiel agreed with Epstein several times between 2014 and 2017. “What do you do on Friday?” Thiel wrote to Epstein on April 5, 2016. “Should we visit for lunch?” Most of the communication between the two men in the data dump is about planning meals, conversations and meetings with each other. Thiel did not immediately return a request for comment from WIRED.
One piece of correspondence stands out as particularly bizarre. On February 3, 2016, Thiel's former chief of staff and senior executive assistant, Alisa Bekins, sent an email with the subject line “Meeting – February 4th – 9:30am – Peter Thiel Dietary Restrictions – CONFIDENTIAL.” The initial recipient of the email is being redacted, but it was later forwarded directly to Epstein.
The content of the message is also redacted in at least one version of the email chain uploaded by the Justice Department on Friday. However, two other files from what appears to be the same set of posts have less information redacted.
In one email, Bekins listed about two dozen approved types of sushi and animal protein, 14 approved vegetables and 0 approved fruits for Thiel to eat. “Fresh herbs” and “olives” were allowed, however, ketchup, mayonnaise and soy sauce should be avoided. Only one actual meal was explicitly described: “protein or greens/salad with some form of protein,” such as steak, which Bekins included “when they eat breakfast.” It is unclear if the February 4 meeting ultimately happened; other indicate e-mails Thiel was stuck in traffic that day on his way to meet Epstein.
According to a recording of an undated conversation between Epstein and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who was also part of the files the DOJ released on Friday, Epstein told Barak that he hoped to meet with Thiel the following week. He added that he was familiar with Thiel's company Palantir, but proceeded to spell it out loud to Barak as “Pallentier.” Epstein speculated that Thiel may place Barak on Palantir's board, though there is no evidence that ever happened.
“I've never met Peter Thiel, and everybody says he's kind of jumping around and acting really weird, like he's on drugs,” Epstein said at one point in the audio recording, referring to Thiel. The former prime minister agreed with Epstein's assessment.
In 2015 and 2016, Epstein set $40 million in two funds managed by one of Thiel's investment firms, Valar Ventures, according to The New York Times. Epstein and Thiel continued to communicate and discussed meeting with each other recently January 2019according to the files released by the DOJ. Epstein committed suicide in his prison cell in August of that year.
Below are Thiel's dietary restrictions as outlined in the February 2016 email. (The following list has been edited slightly for clarity.)
