Jeffrey Epstein once pulled strings in the White House for Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn

NEW YORK – In 2015, Woody Allen and his wife, Soon-Yi Previn, took a trip to Washington, DC. With the help of their friend Jeffrey Epstein, they were able to tour the White House.

Allen’s friendship with Epstein has been known for years, but emails in the massive trove of records released by the Justice Department in recent days illustrate that relationship with new depth.

The filmmaker, his wife and Epstein were neighbors in New York City and the three often dined together, records show. They offered each other emotional support during periods when they were criticized in the media. They commiserated about being accused (unfairly, they told each other) of sexual misconduct.

Bruce Glikas via Getty Images

And in 2015, Epstein used his connections with another friend who had been in President Barack Obama’s administration to help the couple tour the White House.

“Could you please show me around the White House soon?” Epstein wrote in a May 2015 email to former White House adviser Kathy Ruemmler. “I guess Woody would be too politically sensitive?”

“I’m sure I could show you both around the White House,” Ruemmler responded, although she doubted that Epstein, who in 2008 had pleaded guilty to soliciting an underage girl for prostitution, would be allowed inside.

“I think you are too politically sensitive,” he added.

White House records show that Allen, Previn and Ruemmler visited the country on December 27, a Sunday. Obama was in Hawaii at the time.

Stéphane Cardinale – Corbis via Getty Images

Ruemmler and Allen were among a long list of notable people who remained friends with Epstein over the years, even though he was a registered sex offender who had been accused of abusing children and whose legal problems had been widely covered in the newspapers.

Some of the guests who accompanied Allen and Previn to dinners with Epstein included talk show host Dick Cavett, linguist Noam Chomsky and the late comedian David Brenner. Epstein also attended screenings of Allen’s films and, according to emails, would visit Allen to watch him edit his latest film.

“A wide variety of interesting people at every dinner party,” is how Allen described some of their gatherings in a letter commissioned for an Epstein birthday party in 2016. “It’s always interesting and the food is sumptuous and plentiful. Many dishes, many options, numerous desserts, well served. I say that well served is often by some professional housewife and just as often by several young women reminiscent of Dracula’s Castle, where (actor Bela) Lugosi has three young vampires who They take care of the place.”

A message sent to an aide to Allen and Previn via email seeking comment was not immediately returned. Epstein committed suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

The emails suggest that Previn also had a close relationship with Epstein and often served as an intermediary between Epstein and Allen.

Numerous exchanges between Allen, Previn and Epstein concern scandals that began in the early 1990s when Allen acknowledged that he was having an affair with Previn, the adopted daughter of his then-girlfriend Mia Farrow. Around the same time, state authorities investigated him over allegations that he had assaulted his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, while visiting Mia’s home in Connecticut.

A Connecticut prosecutor said in 1993 that there was “probable cause” to charge Allen with sexually abusing Dylan, but he decided not to pursue the case.

Allen, who married Previn in 1997 and has since adopted two daughters, has denied any wrongdoing. Dylan’s accusations made headlines again in 2014 when an open letter from him was published in The New York Times. Allen has since been ostracized by the American film community.

In emails from 2016, Epstein, Previn and Allen compared their own scandals to another news celebrity at the time: Bill Cosby, who had denied allegations that he drugged and sexually assaulted numerous women.

“The mob needs a witch to burn, and there aren’t many left,” Epstein wrote.

Allen responded, in a message transmitted through Previn, that his own situation is “radically different” from Cosby’s.

“I expect (and receive) a lot of ugly and unfair accusations, (but) he has to fight 50 women and criminal charges,” Allen said, according to Previn’s email. “I have a furious mother whose case was investigated and discredited,” he said, referring to Mia Farrow.

Epstein responded that the public scorn Allen received was likely related to his relationship with Previn, which he called a “publicly broken taboo.”

“Everything else is noise,” he added.

Allen, in comments broadcast via Previn, responded that if the problem was the couple’s taboo relationship, “there’s nothing to be done.”

“I’m certainly not going to leave her and I’m not going to apologize because I don’t think either of us did anything that we should apologize for,” he says. “Our romantic life is our business and not the public’s business, so it’s a desperate situation because there’s no way out if that’s what they have against us.”

Epstein advised his friends to simply enjoy themselves and life.

“Some actors or actresses might turn down a role,” Epstein wrote. “But so what?”

Allen has not been accused of having any involvement in Epstein’s alleged sexual abuse of girls and women.