After turning up in the latest round of Jeffrey Epstein documents, Barry Josephson has addressed his past communications with the late sex offender and human trafficker.
The Bones executive producer, who accepted multiple personal loans from Epstein and arranged set visits for young women in his circle during their years-long friendship, has recently spoken out about their correspondence.
“There’s no excuse for what I said in some of my emails,” he started in a statement shared with Variety. “The language was crude and juvenile, and I’m ashamed.”
Josephson continued, “While I did attend social events with Epstein, and he did visit my sets twice, I never traveled with him on his plane, visited his island, or saw him in the company of minors. In my 47 years working in the entertainment industry, I’ve encountered thousands of people. My biggest regret, bar none, is that I foolishly believed his denials of wrongdoing. I was impressed by his circle of acquaintances from varied industries, and it blinded me. I apologize to all who were hurt by this clearly terrible and depraved individual.”
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Deadline has reached out to Josephson for comment, but he has not responded.
According to the latest round of documents released by the Justice Department on Jan. 30, Josephson maintained a friendship with Epstein long after the financier was convicted in 2008 for procuring a child for prostitution and other charges. Emails show the pair were in contact as recent as 2018, a year before Epstein died in prison while awaiting trial.
Not only did the former Columbia Pictures president borrow over $330,000 off Epstein in 2011 and 2012 to settle tax bills and the like, to which Josephson told him he was “overwhelmed by your friendship.” But Josephson bantered with his pedophile pal about a “young, attractive” woman with an “insane rack” for Epstein to hire as an assistant. In return, perpetual networker Epstein leveraged the relationship with Josephson to gain deep entry into Hollywood. Epstein also tried to get Josephson to score roles on Bones for women he knew, but that didn’t seem to pan out.