Preliminary Fact-Finding about MIT and Jeffrey Epstein

Folks should remember that Rafael Reif was the provost under Susan Hockfield who orchestrated the whitewashing of research misconduct allegations that MIT Professor Ted Postol launched against MIT Lincoln Laboratory for using fabricated data to report results of a critical ballistic missile defense test to the Pentagon. MIT was found "guiltless" by Provost Reif after an "internal investigation" was conducted over the course of almost a decade. Steve Weiner (a highly respected former director of ballistic defense research at Lincoln for almost 20 years) has since accused MIT of engaging in a "kickback scheme" whereby Lincoln would tell the MDA whatever it needed to hear about the viability of a Starwars-inspired missile defense shield in order for executives at Raytheon to receive multi-billion dollar contracts to build it. The phony missile defense tests that Postol challenged intensely for almost a decade were one small but critical piece of the massive fraud that MIT has perpetrated against the United States taxpayer here. President Reif needs to be incarcerated, not just fired!

It appears that the claims about a disqualified donor list were substantially false, and that donations from Epstein were accepted with the knowledge and approval of MIT administration.

Additionally, the administration directed that the donations be kept anonymous to avoid using the institution to enhance Epstein's reputation.

This supports some of the position's taken by Lessig that many posters on HN took issue with, and reveals that Ito's role was substantially different than many were making it out to be.