Kevin Rudd calls in the lawyers over mention in email to Jeffrey Epstein released by the US Congress – opening up his diary to prove ‘cocktail party’ never happened
Australia’s US ambassador Kevin Rudd has tapped a defamation lawyer to defend himself from any suggestion he met notorious paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, rejecting as false a document that suggested they once attended the same cocktail party.
Rudd’s name appeared in an email from veteran US journalist Michael Wolff to Epstein in 2015, which was revealed when the US House Oversight Committee released a tranche of documents from Epstein’s estate last week.
Mr Wolff had written a lengthy feature about Epstein that was destined for the New York Magazine, but never made it to publication. The unpublished piece was sent to Epstein by Mr Wolff as a draft. Rudd’s name appeared on page five.
It read: ‘That evening, in the Epstein dining room (he rarely seems to use the rest of the house’s 50,000 square feet), there is a small cocktail party, which includes the former Prime Minister of Australian (sic), Kevin Rudd, and Thorbjørn Jagland the head of the Noble Peace Prize Committee, who offers an affable, but general scathing, critique of U.S. diplomacy (and a brief defense of Obama’s Peace Prize award) and to whom Epstein offers a ride back to Europe on his jet.’
Rudd, who chaired and vice-chaired the International Peace Institute between 2014 and 2023, previously accepted he was once involved in a conference call attended by Epstein in 2014, and attended another event Epstein was invited to in 2013.
But he has been at pains to express that he has no recollection whatsoever of ever meeting Epstein.
Contacted by the Daily Mail about the cocktail party report, Rudd’s spokesperson doubled down and described Wolff’s unpublished account as ‘utterly false’.
Kevin Rudd is pictured at an ICM press conference on September 22, 2014
Jeffrey Epstein is pictured with Ghislaine Maxwell, who worked together to traffic teenage girls for sex
The spokesperson said Rudd attended three events on the evening of September 22, 2014. Two events were photographically documented, and there was no diary record of a cocktail party.
‘We are aware of an email exchange in 2015 which referred to utterly false allegations that Dr Rudd attended a cocktail party hosted by Jeffrey Epstein on 22 September 2014,’ the three-page response read.
‘In fact, Dr Rudd’s diary records that he attended three separate events during the afternoon and into the evening of the date in question.
‘In addition, we have no record of Dr Rudd even being invited to the reported cocktail party with Epstein, and we have no reason to believe that Dr Rudd ever met Epstein at any other time.’
They said Rudd attended a private meeting with Lichtenstein’s Foreign Minister Aurelia Frick that evening, along with UN representative Christian Wenaweser, to discuss his new role as chair to the International Commission on Multiculturalism.
Rudd then chaired the inaugural meeting of the ICM’s Ministerial Board, followed by a press conference to formally announce his appointment alongside Børge Brende and John Baird, according to the spokesperson.
He then attended the International Peace Institute’s annual ministerial dinner on the Middle East with a range of foreign ministers from countries including Canada, Cyprus, Demark, Egypt, and Lebanon.
Photos of Rudd at the ICM press conference and the ministerial dinner were supplied.
Kevin Rudd is pictured at the International Peace Institute’s annual ministerial dinner on September 22, 2014
US journalist Michael Wolff wrote a feature about Epstein, with details about the cocktail party
Rudd’s spokesperson warned that his lawyer, Patrick George from defamation firm Giles George, would ‘take immediate action in relation to any defamatory coverage of this unsubstantiated report’.
Daily Mail does not suggest the unpublished story is correct, only that his name appeared in the document, which made up part of a cache of documents related to Epstein’s estate in the Epstein files.
Contacted for comment, Mr Wolff simply noted that the draft article referencing Rudd was unpublished. ‘My story, you nit wit, doesn’t exist’.
‘This is a draft of something that was never published, and never meant to be published.’
Further documents from Epstein’s estate show journalist Aaron Yablon contacted the disgraced financier in an email titled, ‘fact checking questions for New York Magazine story’.
Mr Yablon asked Epstein to verify all claims in Mr Wolff’s story, including the claims about Rudd.
Epstein took his own life in jail in 2019 after being arrested on child sex trafficking charges.
The following year, Rudd – who chaired the International Peace Institute – released a statement saying he was ‘blindsided’ by US$650,000 in donations to the institute from the disgraced paedophile.
When the donations were made, between 2011 and 2019, Epstein was already a convicted paedophile who had spent 13 months in jail.
Rudd also declared that he was on a teleconference call attended by Epstein in 2014, and attended an event in 2013, which Epstein was also invited to, but has ‘no recollection whatsoever’ of meeting him.
