Epstein files: Longevity guru Peter Attia quits CBS News after email fallout

Longevity guru Dr. Peter Attia resigned as a contributor to CBS News amid fallout over his past email correspondence with convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein being made public.

“Dr. Attia’s contributor role was newly established and had not yet meaningfully begun,” a spokesman for Attia told CNBC in a statement on Monday.

“As such, he stepped back to ensure his involvement didn’t become a distraction from the important work being done at CBS,” the spokesman said. “He wishes the network and its leadership well and has no further comment at this time.”

The Hollywood Reporter first reported Attia’s departure from CBS.

CBS did not immediately respond to requests for comment by CNBC.

Attia has not been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.

But in early February, CBS pulled a “60 Minutes” segment featuring Attia from a repeat airing of that news show, days after emails between him and Epstein were released by the Department of Justice, along with millions of other documents related to criminal probes of Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.

Attia’s departure came to light on the same day that police in London arrested Britain’s former ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Mandelson, like the former British prince, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who was himself arrested on the same charge last week, has been under investigation in connection with confidential information they shared with Epstein.

A number of other prominent people have left their jobs after their correspondence with Epstein was released by the DOJ. Being mentioned in the DOJ files is not proof of wrongdoing, and no one in the files has been criminally charged since they were made public.

Attia was among a group of new CBS News contributors recruited by editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, who herself was hired in October, two months after the network’s parent, Paramount Skydance, completed a merger between its two prior constituent parts, Paramount Global and Skydance Media.

In a post on X on Feb. 3, Attia said he had told his team and patients, “I was not involved in any criminal activity;” “My interactions with Epstein had nothing to do with his sexual abuse or exploitation of anyone;” and “I was never on his plane, never on his island, and never present at any sex parties.”

“That said,” Attia added, “I apologize and regret putting myself in a position where emails, some of them embarrassing, tasteless, and indefensible, are now public, and that is on me. I accept that reality and the humiliation that comes with it.”

Attia, in his tweet, addressed a June 2015 email to Epstein with the subject line “Got a fresh shipment,” in which the doctor included a photograph of bottles of the medication metformin.

Epstein “replied with the words ‘me too’ and attached a photograph of an adult woman,” Attia wrote. “I responded with crude, tasteless banter.”

“Reading that exchange now is very embarrassing, and I will not defend it. I’m ashamed of myself for everything about this. At the time, I understood this exchange as juvenile, not a reference to anything dark or harmful,” he added.

Attia also wrote that he met Epstein in 2014 “through a prominent female health leader while I was raising funds for scientific research.”

Epstein had been released from a Florida state jail about five years earlier after serving a 13-month term for his conviction of soliciting sex from a minor.

“Between summer 2014 and spring 2019, I met with him on approximately seven or eight occasions at his New York City home, regarding research studies and to meet others he introduced me to. I never visited his island or ranch, and I never flew on any of his planes,” Attia wrote on X.

“When I was at his home, it was either meeting with him directly, meeting with small groups of scientists, doctors, or business leaders, and once at a dinner in 2015 with a number of guests including prominent heads of state.”

“Shortly after we met, I asked him directly about his 2008 conviction. He characterized it as prostitution-related charges,” Attia wrote. “In 2018, I came to learn this was grossly minimized … I was incredibly naïve to believe him. I mistook his social acceptance in the eyes of the credible people I saw him with for acceptability, and that was a serious error in my judgment. To be clear, I never witnessed illegal behavior and never saw anyone who appeared underage in his presence.

Epstein killed himself in jail in New York in August 2019, weeks after being arrested on federal child sex trafficking charges.