Terrance WilliamsWarning: The following story includes language related to sexual abuse.
American University School of International Service students and survivor advocacy group NoMore-AU staged a protest Wednesday afternoon in response to the university’s response to Professor Earl Anthony Wayne’s name appearing in the Epstein Files, a recently-released trove of more than 3 million documents related to the Justice Department investigation into billionaire human trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
The files include an email exchange between someone identified as ‘Ken Turner’ and an NYPD Detective, Walter Harkins. In the 2019 messages, Turner suggests Wayne should be questioned in relation to his involvement with an underage girl. The documents do not indicate Wayne was accused of any crime by law enforcement.
Wayne, the Hurst Senior Professorial Lecturer and former US Ambassador to Mexico from 2011-15, who teaches two spring classes in U.S. diplomacy and foreign policy, told The Wash he had reviewed the documents and described the claim as “baseless” and “fabricated”.
Said Wayne: “It appears to originate from a disjointed email chain that makes outlandish claims regarding international conspiracies and events that demonstrably never occurred as they would have been matters of public record or reported in the media at the time they occurred, and they were not.”
We don’t know what’s going on, and that makes us feel unsafe.
Students unsatisfied with the university’s response to the unverified allegations protested Wednesday, calling for a transparent investigation. The AU chapter of NoMore, a national organization that advocates for ending sexual and domestic violence and empowering survivors, organized the walk-out after news of the professor’s name in the files spread on YikYak, an anonymous campus-based message board.
“We don’t know what’s going on, and that makes us feel unsafe,” said Adah Nordin, one of the student protestors who helped organize the walk-out. “As someone going to class and getting a diploma from SIS, we deserve to know.”
The documents are being released as part of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, passed late last year, which requires the government to release all its investigatory files concerning the late sex offender and financier.
Students have developed a list of demands for the university in response to the allegations.
“We want the university to push for a criminal investigation, for him to be suspended without pay while it goes on, transparency on the process, and a statement from SIS administration and AU addressing these allegations,” said Tanishka Khanna, a senior who also helped organize the walk-out. “Survivors need to feel safe on campus.”
As of Thursday morning, there had been no official statement from the university addressing the allegation.
“Knowing someone with these allegations is teaching here…this can’t be a safe place for survivors without transparency,” said Emily Kershner, Vice President of NoMore-AU. “Whether the allegations prove true or false, we need transparency.”
In the email exchange, Turner writes: “You may want to question the Ex US Ambassador to Mexico; Mr. Earl Anthony Wayne about his involvement with an underage girl when he attended and was arrested by the Federal Police.”
He goes on to allege Wayne fathered a child with an 11-year-old child in Mexico and that another man is incarcerated there for Wayne’s crime.
Wayne said he sent a statement to each of his classes describing the allegations in the file as “online misinformation.”
“I stated unequivocally that the allegations about me are false,” he wrote.
Wayne also said that he never heard from law enforcement about the matter, and that he does not know who Ken Turner is.
Update: Following news of the allegations, the American Academy of Diplomacy released a statement. It reads, in part;
Upon reviewing the available facts, the Academy believes allegations in recently released Epstein files concerning Ambassador (ret.) Earl Anthony Wayne are false and malicious.
The allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor reference a party in 2014 and a supposed trial in Mexico in 2017. Any allegations as serious as those described against a United States Ambassador would at least have been reported to the Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security. We have checked with the relevant incumbent at the time and there was no such report.
You can read the full statement here: American Academy of Diplomacy Statement.
Ellen Tannor
Luisa Clausen
Kelly Doyle
The students who organised the protest should be expelled. People’s lives have been destroyed over false allegations like these.
His alibi of you would have heard about it is pretty laughable considering the amount of power an ambassador has and the lack of accountability anyone involved has faced. Not to mention how the FBI reports went ignored for years regarding Epsteins crimes. The US was the world’s only super power at this point, Mexicos most important trade partner, and he was the man representing all of that power. Sounds like 9 times out of 10 we would never have heard about it.
Please read the actual email from Ken Turner. In it, he also claims that U.S government agents were following him around since he sent the first email (he sent two) and that his “partner” had already had to kill five U.S. agents and asks the detective he is emailing if the detective had told anything to other government agencies to cause this. The detective’s answer was no. The emails sound like they were from someone delusional.
If you think this could be true and that a raid on a U.S. embassy in Mexico (as Turner also claimed ) would NOT have made news in the U.S., why not research and see if it made news in Mexico? If you believe there is actually a warrant for his arrest (which makes very little sense if you also believe that the cover up included a U.S. soldier serving time for him, WHY would there still be an arrest warrant for him?) why not look to see if there is news of his supposed trial in Mexico?
There isn’t. Also, look to verify that he was an elections observer in Mexico.
Why would they have invited him for this important task if he was wanted in Mexico?
There are so many names in the files of perps that actually were emailing directly to Epstein. This professor is not one of them.
Sounds like you like pedos Antonio Vega. ICE is coming pal.
Expel kids for protesting for better transparency in a child sex trafficking ring?
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What is Detective Walter Harkins’ phone number or email address? Surely, someone who is that bitter towards questioning has something to hide