Jef-frey Eps-tein’s involvement in a 2006 smear campaign came to light through an investigative report by Drop Site, which found that he helped circulate attacks against political scientists John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt. Their paper, published by the London Review of Books after The Atlantic declined to run it, examined the influence of pro-Israel advocacy networks on US foreign policy. Before the paper even went public, editors were alarmed, and once it was released the authors faced intense backlash, including accusations of antisemitism and an official distancing by Harvard’s Kennedy School.

Drop Site reported that Eps-tein received drafts of an attack essay by Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz and actively helped distribute it. He also provided talking points to undermine the scholars and used his network to amplify allegations against them. The pressure campaign had measurable consequences: events were cancelled, institutions demanded “balanced” panels before hosting the authors, and their space in mainstream forums narrowed for years.

The report also placed Eps-tein’s actions in the wider context of his influence at Harvard, where more than nine million dollars in donations gave him access, office space and faculty connections even after his 2008 sex-offense conviction. He visited the campus repeatedly until 2018, and a later review faulted Harvard for its handling of his involvement. Eps-tein was arrested in 2019 on federal sex-trafficking charges and was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell weeks later, a case that continues to draw public scrutiny because of his extensive ties to powerful figures.