Peter Attia Resigns From CBS After Sick Messages to Jeffrey Epstein
CBS contributor Peter Attia, who was handpicked by Bari Weiss to join the network, is now resigning after his close friendship with predator financier Jeffrey Epstein was made clearer in recent Justice Department files.Attia, a celebrity health and wellness influencer, expressed regret for being found out as a close friend of Epstein’s.“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,” Attia said, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which first reported the news. “I accept that reality and the humiliation that comes with it.”Attia shared hundreds of messages with Epstein throughout the 2010s—well after the financier pleaded guilty to procuring a child for prostitution—according to files made public by the Justice Department late last month. A simple search for Attia’s name in the Epstein files trove returns 1,838 results. Some of the messages are superficially benign, relating to health guidance, while others hint at a darker truth.In a June 2015 email headed “fresh shipment,” Attia wrote to Epstein: “You [know] the biggest problem with becoming friends with you? The life you lead is so outrageous, and yet I can’t tell a soul …” The email included an image that was redacted by the DOJ.In another crass exchange with the convicted sex offender, Attia cracked about the various health benefits of giving oral sex to women.In 2016 Attia wrote, “Pussy is, indeed, low carb,” to Epstein. “Still awaiting results on gluten content, though.” In another message from that year, he even told Epstein’s assistant that he went into “JE withdrawal” when he didn’t see him. And a year later, Attia chose to spend time with the convicted sex trafficker instead of visiting his infant son, who had been hospitalized after entering cardiac arrest.Attia joins an all-too-short list of Americans who have actually faced some kind of consequences for their proximity to and chumminess with an absolutely depraved individual. Former Obama White House attorney Kathy Ruemmler; Hyatt Hotels chairman Thomas Pritzker; Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison chairman Brad Karp; and New York School of Visual Arts department chair David A. Ross each resigned from their posts after the extents of their relationships with Epstein were revealed. Others—like Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Dr. Oz—remain unscathed.