ANKARA

Valeria Chomsky, wife of renowned linguist Noam Chomsky, has issued a public apology for the couple's past contacts with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, admitting they unknowingly "opened a door to a Trojan horse" and were deceived by his manipulative tactics.

In her statement, released amid fresh scrutiny from newly unsealed Epstein documents, Valeria explained that the couple only learned the full extent of Epstein's crimes after the Nov. 2018 Miami Herald report exposed details of his 2008 Florida conviction.

Introduced to him in 2015 at a professional event, Epstein posed as a science philanthropist and financial expert, gaining their trust.

"We were careless in not thoroughly researching his background. This was a grave mistake," she wrote, emphasizing Epstein's exploitation of Noam's criticisms of "cancel culture" to portray himself as unfairly persecuted, something Noam believed in good faith.

Interactions remained professional, limited to academic discussions, lunches, dinners, and brief stays tied to work with no island visits, no witnessed wrongdoing, and no presence of children or underage individuals, she said.

The statement strongly underscores solidarity with victims, saying: "We recognize the gravity of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes and the profound suffering of his victims. Nothing in this statement is intended to minimize that."

The statement also addresses financial interactions. Epstein provided administrative help on a private matter unrelated to his crimes, including facilitating a $270,000 transfer of Chomsky's own funds and sending a $20,000 check for a linguistics initiative. It clarifies these were technical assistance arrangements, not donations in either direction.

Noam Chomsky, now 97, suffered a severe stroke in June 2023 that left him unable to speak or communicate publicly. He is under constant medical care, looked after solely by Valeria without any public relations help.

The apology highlights a stark contrast. Noam's lifelong liberal principles focused on challenging power structures and advocating for the marginalized stand in sharp tension with any unwitting link to a figure like Epstein, whose actions embodied the very abuses he critiqued.

The US Justice Department recently released more than 3 million pages, 2,000 videos, and 180,000 images under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was signed into law last November.

The materials include photos, grand jury transcripts, and investigative records, shedding light on relationships Epstein had with business personnel, billionaires, government officials and media figures -- in the US and beyond.

Epstein was found dead by suicide in a New York City jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges involving underage girls.