CBS Quietly Decides to Retain Peter Attia as Contributor Despite Epstein Fallout, Network Staffers Say

(Screengrab via 60 MInutes/YouTube)

CBS News has quietly decided to retain contributor Peter Attia despite the release of emails showing extensive communications with Jeffrey Epstein, according to staffers at the network.

Attia was among 19 new on-air contributors introduced by editor-in-chief Bari Weiss in late January, only to be featured in the tranche of Epstein documents released by the Justice Department days later.

The network has not publicly addressed Attia’s future and, according to The Guardian journalist Jeremy Barr, declined to comment when approached on Friday. However, staffers revealed to the paper that CBS executives had “unofficially” decided to keep him on board, despite the fallout.

“Everyone internally unofficially concluded he was staying as of about a week ago,” one CBS News staffer told the outlet, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Another added: “We’re pissed off about it.”

Many critics in-house — as well as from the outside — called for Attia to be dropped over the revelations in the Epstein files. But others, such as Mediaite Founder Dan Abrams, argued that he should retain his new gig.

Emails between Attia and Epstein are included in the Justice Department’s file library, where database search returns 1,838 results linked to the author’s name. Many messages date from the mid-2010s, after Epstein’s 2008 conviction but before his 2019 arrest. Some involve medical discussions; others contain crude remarks.

Attia acknowledged the correspondence in a public apology posted to X, describing the emails as “embarrassing, tasteless, and indefensible.”

“What I wrote in that email reads terribly, and I own that,” Attia said, adding that he met Epstein in 2014 and visited his Manhattan home several times, while denying any involvement in criminal conduct.

After the revelations, Attia stepped down as chief science officer at a snack bar company he invested in, David Protein.

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