Mehmet Oz, the current administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and longtime television host, is named in newly released Epstein files showing he exchanged emails with Jeffrey Epstein years after the financier’s 2008 sex crime conviction.
According to documents published by the Department of Justice (DOJ), Oz and his wife, Lisa, sent Epstein what appears to be a digital invitation to a Valentine’s Day party at their Palm Beach home in 2016.
The email, reportedly sent through Paperless Post, was part of a series of exchanges between 2012 and 2016.
Those communications occurred after Epstein had already served time in Florida for soliciting a minor and was a registered sex offender.
One additional email dated Jan. 1, 2016, was reportedly encrypted and unreadable in the released documents.
Oz now serves in the administration of President Donald Trump, who selected him to lead CMS. The release of the correspondence has placed him among several high-profile officials whose past interactions with Epstein have resurfaced.
CMS did not immediately respond to media inquiries regarding the emails.
The document dump also renewed scrutiny of other administration figures.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick testified before Congress this week about his own contacts with Epstein.
During a Senate Commerce Committee hearing, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) accused Lutnick of previously minimizing his relationship with the financier.
“You misled the country and the Congress based on your earlier statements suggesting that you cut off all contact when in fact you had not,” Van Hollen said.
Lutnick had told the New York Post last year that he severed ties with Epstein after an initial meeting in 2005 because he felt “creeped out.”
However, newly released files indicate Lutnick and his family later visited Epstein’s private island in 2012.
When asked about that visit, President Trump said, “No, I wasn’t aware of it,” adding that he had not yet discussed the matter directly with Lutnick.
The broader document release has once again pulled prominent names into the Epstein orbit, per the Daily Mail.
Public records and previously disclosed materials have shown that figures across politics and business had varying degrees of contact with Epstein before his 2019 death in federal custody while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Epstein’s network has remained under intense scrutiny as additional records surface through litigation and government disclosures.
Oz’s inclusion in the files centers specifically on email communication and a social invitation sent years after Epstein’s conviction. There is no allegation in the released material that Oz was involved in any criminal conduct.
