Yale computer science professor David Gelernter defended recommending a young woman to Jeffrey Epstein because he was trying to satisfy the sex offender's "habits."
In newly released emails written in 2011, Gelernter told Epstein that he should consider hiring an unnamed alumna described as a "v small goodlooking blonde."
On Wednesday, the professor attempted to explain the email to the Dean of the School of Engineering & Applied Science, Jeffrey Brock.
"I was recommending her for a job I thought she'd like," Gelernter said in the email obtained by the Yale News. "When you do that--when you actually care about a rec letter--you keep the potential boss's habits in mind."
"This one was obsessed with girls (like every other unmarried billionaire in Manhattan; in fact, like every other heterosex male), and if I hadn't said what I did in that letter ten-odd years ago, he would certainly have called me & asked for a lot more aesthetic detail. (This is how men behave)," he added. "So long as I said nothing that dishonored her in any conceivable way, I'd have told him more or less what he wanted. She was smart, charming & gorgeous. Ought I to have suppressed that info? Never!"
"I'm very glad I wrote the note."
Gelernter has previously claimed that he did not know Epstein was a sex offender when he wrote the letter three years after his conviction.
