Recently released documents by Congress from the estate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein are shedding new light on the disgraced financier’s relationship with prominent Illinois civic figure Thomas Pritzker.
Pritzker, Gov. JB Pritzker’s cousin, exchanged at least 20 back-and-forth emails with Epstein that show the two remarking on current events and making plans to see each other, according to a review of some of the 20,000 pages of documents released by the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform committee last week.
“Looking for a time to catch up in NY,” Thomas Pritzker wrote to Epstein in an August 2016 exchange apparently centered around an invite list for an unknown event.
“im in santa fe for the next two weeks come visit,” Epstein responded. The governor’s cousin didn’t write back.
Thomas Pritzker has not been accused of any wrongdoing, nor has he been named in any investigation into Epstein’s crimes. Thomas Pritzker declined to comment on the newly released documents through a spokesperson for Hyatt Hotels Corporation, where he currently serves as executive chairman.
The emails stretch from at least 2010 — two years after Epstein was convicted of soliciting sex from a child as young as 14 — to early 2019, the year Epstein was arrested for child sex trafficking before killing himself in jail, according to the local medical examiner.
In those years, Thomas Pritzker and Epstein exchanged friendly emails on at least five occasions, once about the Chicago way of politics. Separately, Epstein or his staff made reference to Pritzker numerous times in nondescript lists or scheduling emails. One marked Pritzker on a “possible Invite List” for a seminar on “MONEY & POWER” that also included Bill Clinton and Jeff Bezos.
In 2016, Epstein appeared to list his schedule for the week while coordinating plans with former Harvard President Lawrence Summers: “ehud in on sun pritzker mon. you around? dinner woody sunday.” The list could be referring to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Woody Allen, both of whom were among those who wrote to Epstein for his 63rd birthday in 2016.
Pritzker’s name appears on another list Epstein sent himself the week before he was arrested with the subject line “list for bannon steve.”
In addition to Hyatt Hotels, Pritzker serves as executive chairman of The Pritzker Organization and as a board trustee of the University of Chicago. Neither entity responded to a request for comment.
The University of Chicago’s student newspaper, The Chicago Maroon, was the first to report on the breadth of the emails between Epstein and Pritzker.
Gov. JB Pritzker’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the newly released documents. In 2019, when Thomas Pritzker’s name initially appeared in Jeffrey Epstein court records, Gov. Pritzker said he was “unaware if [Thomas Pritzker] knew Jeffrey Epstein at all. And, as you know, I did not.”
A handful of the emails discuss current political events, including one about Thomas Pritzker’s own family member, Penny Pritzker, in 2013. Epstein sent Pritzker a Washington Post article about Penny Pritzker, an Obama administration cabinet nominee at the time, understating her income by $80 million.
“I clearly did something wrong in my last life to have to deal w this bull – – – -. AND I warned her,” Pritzker wrote.
“nice to see you , please come more often,” Epstein replied. It’s unclear what he’s referring to.
“Always fun,” Pritzker wrote back.
In 2010, Epstein forwarded Pritzker an email with a subject line that included “Nobody knows nobody in Chicago.” The email contained apparent analysis about the inner workings of Chicago politics and the relationship between Barack Obama and disgraced convicted former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
“These two? They don’t know each other! They said they didn’t,” the email stated under a picture of Blagojevich, Obama and former Mayor Richard M. Daley.
“RULE #1,” of Chicago politics, the email reads, “No matter what you see, hear, or do –you don’t know anybody and you don’t know nothing! … P.S. If you pass this on to your friends, don’t forget, you know nothing and they will know nothing.”
Pritzker didn’t respond to the message, according to the documents.
The last documented exchange between the two was in February 2019, when Epstein sent Pritzker an email asking: “News?”
“You are news! I am quiet,” Pritzker responded before discussing a “Chairman’s dinner” to “discuss trade.”
“sasse was told im a witness against trump. ?,” Epstein writes, in possible reference to former U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse who was part of the Senate committee overseeing the investigation into Epstein.
“others were told I m a witness against clinton.. So My credibilitiy (sic) needs destroying,. unlikely. :),” he said.