CBS News Boss Bari Weiss Has a Jeffrey Epstein Problem
Turns out one of Weiss' new hires was one of Epstein's biggest penpals, sending him cringey and disturbing emails. But she's fighting to keep him on staff anyway.
Jennifer Schulze is a longtime Chicago journalist. She’s on Bluesky @newsjennifer.bsky.social. Subscribe to her Substack, Indistinct Chatter.
Three days. That’s how long it took for the Bari Weiss era at CBS News to go from dumpster fire to raging inferno.
First there was the 60 Minutes fiasco. Then the promotion of herself to on air talent for an Erika Kirk town hall ratings disaster. Then there was the shameless promotion of The Free Press inferior opinion drek on the CBS website and of course, the Trump-friendly content permeating the once objective, nonpartisan news network. Then last week, Weiss’ plan to replace fact-based reporters and high quality journalism with MAGA-coded podcasters and quack influencers met immediate and searing criticism both within and outside of the legendary news network.
Media coverage quickly spotlighted the shaky credentials and conspiracy theory-driven views held by many of Weiss’ new team of nineteen contributors meant to help her turn the legacy news organization into a glorified podcast. But that was just the beginning.
Now, Bari Weiss has an Epstein problem.
Last Friday’s long delayed release of a second tranche of Epstein files revealed uncomfortable ties both close to home and in the workplace for Weiss. Her wife and business partner, Nellie Bowles, shows up in the Epstein Files setting up a meeting with the registered sex offender and engaging in witty banter including about introducing her parents to her new girlfriend, presumably Weiss. Also in the newly released files is Weiss’s new wellness contributor at CBS, Peter Attia.
Attia doesn’t just show up in the files. He ranks as one of the top communicators with Epstein. In fact, the DOJ’s “Epstein Library” contains nearly 2,000 communications with notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and Epstein’s staff between 2015 and 2019.
The emails include some medical topics and scheduling of appointments but the rest are (at a minimum) cringey and disturbing and some are sexually suggestive as Dr. Jen Gunter found when she read through them. (Read her analysis here.) Some of the lowlights include when Attia emails Epstein (or his staff) about:
Longing to visit Epstein’s private island (where we now know much of the sexual abuse occurred)
Telling an Epstein assistant that he’s going through “JE withdrawal” and needs to see Epstein again
The timing of these exchanges is important. Attia had to know something about Epstein’s vile history when they struck up this relationship. Their first contact (at least in these documents) comes about four years after Epstein was incarcerated for sex trafficking crimes. And their emails (and presumably appointments and meetings as well) continue even after Julie Brown’s revealing Perversion of Justice investigation in the Miami Herald in 2018 that detailed at least 80 victims of Epstein’s sexual abuse. That story put Epstein back in the headlines and in the sights of federal investigators. In fact, in one of the newly released emails, Attia asks Epstein about the fallout from Brown’s stellar reporting.
The sheer number of Attia mentions in the Epstein files is also notable. There are over 1,700 email exchanges and a total of 1,892 results including calendar entries when you search the full Epstein library for “Attia.” That makes Peter Attia one of Jeffrey Epstein’s biggest penpals.
Weiss cannot pretend to be surprised. Even before this recent email expose, there was evidence of Attia’s attachment to Epstein. In his 2022 book, Outlive, Attia recounts how he went to an appointment with Epstein in New York rather than return home to California when his infant son was facing a near death medical emergency. By the time Attia shared this story, Epstein was dead by suicide and details of his disgusting sex-trafficking, rape and abuse were becoming quite well known. But none of that was mentioned when Weiss interviewed Attia about his book on her ironically named Honestly podcast in 2023.
Flash forward to 2025 when Weiss took over the news operation at CBS News. Soon after, 60 Minutes devoted a segment to Attia’s wellness and longevity theories. It was a fluffy piece with limited questions about Attia’s theories that journalist Bill Grueskin called “more Home Shopping Network than Mike Wallace.” Then just a few days later, Attia’s name showed up on CBS again. This time it was in a CBS News story about how an some eight-thousand documents released by congressional Democrats revealed more information about Epstein’s “habits and relationships.” One of those relationships was with, you guessed it: Peter Attia. The CBS story that day said:
“Epstein also repeatedly met Peter Attia, a doctor specializing in longevity whose books have sold millions of copies. Attia’s later appointments suggest Epstein was a patient. The schedule includes notations for blood draws and follow-ups over several years.”
Based on that evidence, we now know that Attia’s relationship with the notorious sexual predator went beyond blood draws. But today Attia issued a statement saying he was never Epstein’s doctor. Then what were all those appointments and blood draws about exactly? Something doesn’t smell right …
The Attia statement posted on Twitter Monday also said: “I am not asking anyone to ignore the emails or pretend they aren’t ugly. They simply are.”
Weiss and CBS have yet to comment on the crude email exchanges. But The Wrap is reporting that Weiss and Paramount, the corporate parent of CBS, are in an “internal battle” with Weiss insisting that firing Attia amounts to “giving in to the mob.”
Credit to CBS Justice Correspondent Scott McFarlane for reporting the Attia-Epstein-CBS story on the Monday, Feb 2 edition of the CBS Evening News. There was also a story specifically about the Attia apology on the network’s website. These are the first mentions by CBS since the email story first broke over the weekend. It will be interesting to see if the story gets any further attention from the network as it plays out.
This whole incident is just one more example of how Weiss is unfit to lead a major news organization. Frankly, it’s hard to think of one smart, effective thing Weiss has done since she was put in charge of CBS News. The lack of judgement she showed in hiring Attia in the first place and is exhibiting now as she fights to keep him is further evidence of that.
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Seems that Weiss gave into the "mod" not the other way around. The disgust of Epstein is not going away no matter how hard the Epstein groupies try to bury it. Excellent article. Very enlightening. Thanks, Jennifer.
Cronkite is spinning