New York Times columnist David Brooks appears in latest Epstein photos

The New York Times columnist David Brooks appeared in multiple photos from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein that were released on Thursday by the House committee on oversight and government reform.

The photos, which have been rolled out in batches by the minority Democrats in the committee, lack crucial context, including dates and locations. But the photos appear to show Brooks attending a lunch or dinner event. Brooks is shown seated next to Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google.

In a statement, the New York Times said the event took place in 2011, three years after Epstein had pleaded guilty in Florida to charges of solicitation of prostitution with a minor under the age of 18.

The Times said that Brooks, who did not respond to a separate request for comment, had no further contact with Epstein.

“As a journalist, David Brooks regularly attends events to speak with noted and important business leaders to inform his columns, which is exactly what happened at this 2011 event,” a Times spokeswoman said. “Mr Brooks had no contact with him before or after this single attendance at a widely-attended dinner.”

The timing of the release is notable. Last month Brooks published a column in the Times saying that he was not interested in the long-unfolding Epstein scandal.

“Why is Epstein the top issue in American life right now?” Brooks wrote. “Well, in an age in which more and more people get their news from short videos, if you’re in politics, the media or online it pays to focus on topics that are salacious, are easy to understand and allow you to offer self-confident opinions with no actual knowledge.”

He also likened the fascination with the Epstein story to the QAnon conspiracy theory, arguing that Americans were irrationally convinced that a cabal of elites was scheming and doing horrible things behind the scenes.

The photos released on Thursday raise questions about why Brooks did not disclose his attendance at an Epstein-attended event when writing about his lack of interest in the case.

“To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with attending the same event as Jeffrey Epstein,” the Business Insider journalist Jacob Shamsian wrote in a post on X. “I just find it odd to not write about the topic when you’re a journalist and he’s the biggest story on the planet.”

Thursday’s photo release also included images of Bill Gates, Woody Allen and Noam Chomsky.

In his 21 November column, Brooks also called out Democrats for “hopping on this bandwagon” and pushing for more transparency into Epstein’s past associations.

“They may believe that the Epstein file release will somehow hurt Trump,” he wrote. “But they are undermining public trust and sowing public cynicism in ways that make the entire progressive project impossible. They are contributing to a public atmosphere in which right-wing populism naturally thrives.”

Brooks was also heavily dismissive of the Epstein story in a July appearance on the PBS NewsHour. “Every August, Washington goes crazy with some stupid story. And then in September we think, ‘What was that all about?’” he said. “And so this year we’re a little early.”