ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—On October 7, Bard College announced it was conducting a review of allegations contained in a letter from Representative Jamie Raskin. As one of the initial steps in that review, the Bard Board of Trustees retained FTI Consulting, a leading cybersecurity firm, to conduct a forensic analysis to determine the veracity of a newly unredacted email that purported to be from former Bard President Leon Botstein. That purported email, which former President Botstein has consistently denied authoring or sending, discussed a victim of Mr. Epstein’s identified as Jane Doe. Bard provided FTI with full access to our information technology systems and charged them with writing an independent analysis examining this allegation.
 

FTI’s report concluded that “there is a strong substantive basis for questioning the authenticity, integrity, and origin of the Disputed Emails.” FTI established that the email in question has not existed on Bard’s server as far back as July 2017, more than a year before the Epstein scandal exploded into public view. As FTI wrote in its report, “[w]hile it is not possible at this time to establish with certainty that the exchange was entirely fabricated, indicators are clear that it is highly suspicious.” 
 

FTI was retained as an independent investigator because the firm is a globally recognized leader in forensic investigations, with 50 professionals named to the 2026 Lexology Index Investigations list of leading experts in digital forensics, e-discovery, asset tracing and investigations. FTI's Anthony Ferrante is a former FBI Cyber Division Chief of Staff and former Director for Cyber Incident Response at the White House National Security Council, recognized by Consulting Magazine for excellence in cybersecurity and data privacy and by Chambers as a Band 1 expert in cybersecurity risk. Bard is a community that believes in transparency and the right to due process. Our review of the other claims in Representative Raskin’s letter remains ongoing, and we are committed to establishing the facts. In the meantime, we will continue our work to provide a secure and respectful learning environment for everyone at Bard, a campus that embraces robust debate and diverse viewpoints.