WASHINGTON, Feb 24 — Physician-turned-influencer Peter Attia has left television network CBS News following the publication of hundreds of emails the commentator exchanged with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, US media reported.

Attia was part of a new group of contributors announced last month by CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, who has clashed with the network’s news division over editorial matters.

A spokesman for Attia told CNBC the longevity guru’s role had “not meaningfully begun” and he resigned to avoid becoming “a distraction from the important work being done at CBS.”

Attia, who has not been charged with criminal wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, wrote in a post on X earlier this month, “My interactions with Epstein had nothing to do with his sexual abuse or exploitation of anyone.”

But the released files revealed that Attia sent Epstein some vulgar notes about women, and in a June 24, 2015 email Attia wrote to Epstein that the “biggest problem” with being friends was “the life you lead is so outrageous and yet I can’t talk about it to anyone.”

Epstein was first convicted of sex crimes with minors in 2008, and he was alleged to have been a purveyor of underage sex to some of the world’s most powerful men.

Attia had more than a million subscribers on his YouTube channel, and The Washington Post reported that his name appears in hundreds of documents in the Epstein case.

In the X post dated February 2, Attia described the Epstein he knew as “a funder of science” who “moved openly among credible institutions and public figures.”

“In retrospect, the presence and credibility of such venerable people in different orbits led me to make assumptions about him that clouded my judgment in ways it shouldn’t have,” Attia wrote.

Attia said he visited Epstein’s New York City home “seven or eight” times between 2014 and 2019 “regarding research studies and to meet others he introduced me to.”

The departure from CBS makes Attia one of the few American public figures to face a consequence over consorting with Jeffrey Epstein, who died in prison in New York while awaiting trial for sex trafficking minors.

Other US-based Epstein penpals who have resigned since the Department of Justice began releasing his private emails include billionaire Thomas Pritzker, who left his executive chairman role at the Hyatt hotel group, and Kathryn Ruemmler, who left Goldman Sachs where she was general counsel.

US justice officials have declined to pursue new charges since the files have been disclosed, stirring public outrage and raising more questions amid continued demands from alleged victims seeking justice.

Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell has been successfully prosecuted and sentenced to 20 years in prison for her role in a scheme to sexually exploit and abuse multiple minor girls with Epstein over the course of a decade. — AFP