Peter Attia Has Millions of Followers, a CBS Contract—and Some Seriously Bad Epstein File Appearances

And, as we all discovered late last week when the Department of Justice released a huge cache of new files, he was also a close friend and confidante of Jeffrey Epstein. The many exchanges between Epstein and Attia start in 2015, well after Epstein pleaded guilty to procuring a child for prostitution and was a registered sex offender. The emails get increasingly chummy through 2019, the year of Epstein’s arrest and death. Taken together, the emails suggest a close—even intimate—relationship. Attia and Epstein discussed Epstein's MRIs, his blood work, and his medications, with Attia giving medical advice. Although Attia has said that he was not Epstein’s doctor, their relationship certainly extended in that direction; Attia even explicitly offered to take Epstein as an official patient. Attia’s pitch: “Have you decided if you’re interested in living longer (solely for the ladies, of course)?” Epstein’s reply: “i can pay to be one of your clients. dont [sic] be shy you are a valuable friend and resource.” In hundreds of emails, the two also banter about real estate (Epstein once lent Attia one of his Manhattan apartments while Attia waited for his own rental to finalize) and about the 2016 election (Epstein thought Hillary Clinton would win). After Attia’s wife kicks him out, Attia confides in Epstein, “I’m fixing my life.” They engage in a constant churn of scheduling and rescheduling (“let’s make a plan in new year”), as is necessary when one is constantly off to Palm Beach, the ranch, or the private island. In 2016, Attia cracked a special inside joke: “Pussy is, indeed, low carb. Still awaiting results on gluten content, though.” Some of the most disturbing email chains start off vaguely health-related and go sideways. In a recent statement, Attia claims that an email he sent with the subject line “Got a fresh shipment,” was referring to a private stash of metformin, a diabetes drug that some in the longevity world take off-label to combat aging. But Epstein apparently turned the conversation back to his more personal interests. He replied “me too,” attaching a photo, which Attia maintains was of an adult woman. (The photo is not included in the files.) Attia replied: “Please tell [me] you found that picture online...bastard.” Epstein: “fraid not.” Attia: “the biggest problem with becoming friends with you? The life you lead is so outrageous, and yet I can't tell a soul…” Attia rose to wealth and fame by trading on his bona fides as a doctor and zeitgeisty, more-is-more, self-optimization data bro, reliably appearing on The Joe Rogan Experience and Huberman Lab. But being a doctor is not just a position of power and prestige; it also comes with certain obligations, one of which is to report suspected child abuse to the relevant authorities. By law, health care professionals are mandated reporters when they suspect harm to children—not telling a soul isn’t a legal option. Dhivya Srinivasa, MD, a prominent breast reconstructive surgeon in Los Angeles who has been outspoken about Attia since he appeared in the files, says in an interview that doctors should be “far more concerned about the oath that you took and reporting behavior like this, than adjacency to powerful people.” On Monday, Attia released a lengthy apology in which he maintains that he did not witness anything illegal, did not go to Epstein’s island or ranch, and never attended one of Epstein’s sex parties. He implies that he didn’t know that convicted sex offender Epstein was a pedophile. “Shortly after we met, I asked him [Epstein] directly about his 2008 conviction,” Attia wrote. That conviction was for procuring a child for prostitution. “He characterized it as prostitution-related charges. In 2018, I came to learn this was grossly minimized.… I was incredibly naïve to believe him.” If Attia didn’t go to the island, the ranch, or other properties, it was not for lack of trying. In 2015, Attia booked a flight on Southwest to visit Epstein’s ranch in New Mexico on his own initiative. Epstein’s assistant emailed Epstein about it: “Reminder Peter Attia has scheduled himself to come see you at the ranch.” Epstein cancelled Attia’s visit. In 2016, when Epstein said he was in Palm Beach, Attia replied as a golden retriever might: “I miss you! When are you coming back? Maybe I need to visit you there.” “Good idea,” replied Epstein. Earlier in the same year, Attia had tried for the island, musing: “I need to visit sometime…” Attia’s purported naivete is hard to square with a December 2018 email in which he asks, “What is fallout from recent story?” A few days earlier, the Miami Herald’s Julie K. Brown had published a story about Epstein’s network of sexually trafficked girls. Epstein responds, “same as usual, just tougher.” Attia: “Legally any change?” Epstein: “Zero.” The emails also put an anecdote from Attia’s book in a dark new light. Attia writes that in 2017, his month-old infant son nearly died. Attia’s wife, a nurse practitioner, saved her son by performing CPR until he could be rushed to the hospital, where he was admitted to the intensive care unit. Attia was in New York at the time; when his distraught wife called, asking him to come home to San Diego, he didn’t for 10 days. In the book, Attia doesn’t specify what “‘important’ work” made it impossible for him to leave New York. The emails reveal during that time, he had a planned meeting with Epstein. These revelations have prompted an outpouring of fury. Predictably, other longevity bros have pounced on one of their own—but there’s a particularly righteous rage among health care professionals, who say that there have been red flags about Attia’s trustworthiness all along. One prominent doctor posted “breaking news in longevity research” with data that shows being sexually abused as a child is linked to premature death. Srinivasa points out that it’s a big deal that Attia never graduated from a residency program—the hands-on clinical training after med school. It means he is not eligible to be board certified, one marker of a competent physician. Many hospitals don’t allow physicians who are not board certified to practice in their facilities; not having this certification can also make it more expensive to get malpractice insurance, because a physician who isn’t is a riskier bet. “Board certification is the bare minimum,” Srinivasa says. She says she finds it astounding that people pay six figures to see a doctor who might not be able to treat them in a hospital. Ob-gyn and pain medicine physician Jen Gunter, MD, has also been vocal about Attia in the wake of the files’ release. She points out that Epstein loved to collect people, and that surrounding himself with credible professionals helped create a halo effect around him—and Attia played right into his hands. Attia helped make Epstein look “normal,” Gunter says. “And that’s the harm [Attia] did.” The truth is, Attia was never telling anyone the secrets of the universe. A lot of what he prescribes are the well-known basics, cleverly repackaged with data-crunching, macho vibes: good exercise, diet, sleep, stress management. But the idea he really sells is that, with a lot of money, and by focussing relentlessly on the minutia of yourself, a person can slip the bounds of ordinary mortality—that with a lot of money and deep self-obsession, someone can opt out of the rules others must follow. In that light, his alignment with Epstein makes perfect sense. Attia has stepped down from his role at David, and did not respond to repeated requests for comment. CBS News has not taken a public stance on the revelations about their new contributor, and did not respond to requests for comment. Some reporting indicates that Weiss, the network’s embattled new editor in chief, is constitutionally opposed to cutting him loose because that would align with what she sees as cancel culture. As for Gunter, she isn’t having it. “I knew in 2015 that Epstein was raping girls,” says Gunter. “If I had been contacted by Epstein, I would have been like, ‘Fuck off.’”