Former Montana State University professor and well-known paleontologist Jack Horner responded Thursday afternoon to reports that he had emailed the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Horner was listed at least in four separate emails in the Epstein files.
In one email, Horner thanked Epstein and "the girls" for his visit: “Although we didn’t find any dinosaur fossils, we did discover that he has ocean front property, a nice beach with loads of shellfish, potential for marine reptiles, and a really cool old railway,” Horner wrote in one email. “Jeffrey and the girls were very gracious hosts as were Brice and [redacted]. And of course, the food was incredible!”
The news of Horner's involvement with Epstein was contained in a release of more than 3 million additional pages of records.
According to reporting from Scripps News, the DOJ states that the newly published materials comprise more than 2,000 videos and approximately 180,000 images.
The records were collected from five primary sources, according to the DOJ: The federal criminal cases against Epstein in Florida and New York, the New York prosecution of Ghislaine Maxwell, investigations into Epstein’s death, a Florida case involving a former Epstein employee, multiple FBI investigations, and a Justice Department inspector general review of Epstein’s death.
My Personal Statement Regarding Emails in the Epstein Files
John R. “Jack” Horner
"As has been reported publicly, emails released in the Jeffrey Epstein Files include correspondence between me and Epstein in 2012 concerning a potential donation to support my DinoChicken Project. Scientific research requires either grants from foundations or donations from individuals. At the time, the project was high risk and extremely difficult to fund. Epstein was known to me only as a wealthy individual with an interest in science who had made donations to major academic institutions.
I was aware that he had previously been charged with soliciting a prostitute and had served a sentence, but I was not aware of any additional allegations or misconduct. I want to make it perfectly clear that I knew nothing more than that! No amount of money in the world would have lured me to meet with a known sexual predator! I understand now that there was much more to his conviction, but that many of his other charges had been sealed. Regardless, my decision to pursue him as a donor, was extremely poor judgement!
In early April 2012, Epstein invited me to his ranch in New Mexico to hear a presentation about the project. As part of my standard practice with potential donors, particularly those who owned land in the west, I acquired topographic and geologic maps, and prepared to discuss the geology, offering to give him a geological tour of his property.
I connected with his people, made arrangements, and flew down to Albuquerque. Epstein’s ranch manager picked me up and took me to the ranch. Those present besides the ranch manager and his wife included Epstein, a chef, Epstein’s secretary and four women who were introduced to me as college students, two of whom claimed to be adept in genetics. There was nothing weird, inappropriate, or out of the ordinary.
That afternoon, I presented my proposal, and the students plus Epstein asked a myriad of questions. At the conclusion of my presentation, Epstein declined my request stating that he wasn’t persuaded of its feasibility. So that was it! We had dinner and then everyone scattered about the house. Nothing weird or suspicious.
The next day I first took an ATV and drove around the ranch looking at the geology so that I would be able to explain what they would be looking at.
Later in the day, I took them out fossil hunting in what I determined to be a near shore estuarine Cretaceous sediment where we picked up a bunch of fossil shells and other odds and ends. Later, Epstein led us all to an igneous cliff that had petroglyphs on it. Then we looked at an old narrow gauge railroad bed at the end of which was a restored caboose. They seemed genuinely interested in the rocks, the fossils, and in science in general. I did not observe any behavior that raised concern.
Epstein and the students went back to the house, and I poked around some more in the rocks until the ranch manager came to get me. I was driven back to Albuquerque.
Once back in Bozeman I sent a brief email thanking Jeffrey and the students (“the girls”) for allowing me to present my project and to explore the ranch. The ranch was beautiful, and I had told him how lucky he was to have Cretaceous sediments right there where he could go out and collect fossils. An envious situation in my opinion.
Some time later I requested a limited amount of funding ($8,600) to convene a workshop of developmental biologists and a paleobiologist to evaluate the viability of the project. Epstein agreed to that funding and sent a check for $10,000 to the Museum of the Rockies. I later followed up to explain how the funds had been used.
In 2016, I returned briefly to the ranch with a graduate student as a part of a geology tour of the southwestern United States to further look for vertebrate fossils. Epstein was not present; only the ranch manager and his wife were there. No vertebrate fossils were found.
In retrospect, I regret that I did not investigate Epstein’s background beyond what was commonly known at the time, something that I had never done with other potential donors. That is a lesson learned!
When the full extent of Epstein’s crimes became public in 2019, I reflected back upon my limited interactions with him. Nothing I observed or experienced during my short stay at the ranch indicated or suggested the conduct that came to light. That said, I regret my use of the term “girls” in emails referring to the students, rather than using more appropriate language. I know understand the students may have been victims of Epstein, and I deeply regret that I did not realize this at the time"
The release was made under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was passed by Congress in late 2025 and signed by President Donald Trump. It required the DOJ to release all of its investigative files related to Epstein within 30 days. Officials said it did not meet that deadline because of the number of documents it possessed.
The DOJ said some files were not being released, including those that depict violence. The department added that redactions were narrowly applied to protect victims and their families. Some pornographic images were also redacted, with officials saying the department treated all women depicted in such images as victims. The department said notable individuals and politicians were not redacted in any of the released files.
Justice Department officials cautioned that some of the released material may contain false or misleading information, noting that the disclosure includes reports that were investigated and later cleared.
