NEED TO KNOW
Dr. Peter Attia’s next appearance on 60 Minutes has been pulled after his past correspondence with billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein gained national attention this week.
Following Attia’s name appearing in the final batch of Epstein-related documents released by the Department of Justice, PEOPLE can confirm that CBS News has pulled a 60 Minutes rerun from the air featuring the newly announced contributor. The segment first aired in October and featured Attia speaking with correspondent Norah O’Donnell, per multiple outlets including Deadline and Variety.
The development comes just days after Attia, a 52-year-old longevity influencer, was named one of CBS News’ 19 new contributors on Jan. 27 by editor-in-chief Bari Weiss.
CBS News did not immediately respond when asked about Attia’s status at the network.
Attia’s name appears roughly 1,700 times in the DOJ’s Epstein Library, including as part of an email in which he wrote to Epstein that the “biggest problem with becoming friends with you” is that the “life you lead is so outrageous, and yet I can’t tell a soul.” He also wrote that “p—y is, indeed, low carb,” adding that he was “still awaiting results on gluten content, though.”
Attia wrote in one email in January 2016, “I go into JE withdrawal when I don’t see him.”
On Monday, Feb. 2, Attia issued a lengthy apology to social media after sharing the same message with his team internally. At the time, he wrote on X that he did not participate in or witness criminal activity. His “interactions with Epstein had nothing to do with his sexual abuse or exploitation of anyone,” Attia wrote.
“That said, I apologize and regret putting myself in a position where emails, some of them embarrassing, tasteless, and indefensible, are now public, and that is on me,” Attia wrote. “I accept that reality and the humiliation that comes with it.”
Department of Justice
After Attia wrote that he met Epstein in 2014, he emphasized on X that he “asked him directly about his 2008 conviction” soon after. Epstein notably served over a year behind bars in Palm Beach County as a result of his 2008 guilty plea to soliciting a person under 18 for prostitution.
In the years since 2008, dozens of women have accused Epstein of sexual abuse. In July 2019, he was arrested and charged with one count of sex trafficking of minors and one count of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of minors. Epstein died by suicide one month later.
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Attia also directly addressed one email to the sex offender, which featured the subject line “Got a fresh shipment.” Per Attia, that email “contained a photograph of bottles of metformin, a medication I had just received from the pharmacy for my own use” and he was referring to the medication in the subject.
“In 2018, I came to learn this was grossly minimized (more on this below),” he wrote. “I was incredibly naïve to believe him. I mistook his social acceptance in the eyes of the credible people I saw him with for acceptability, and that was a serious error in my judgment.”
“To be clear, I never witnessed illegal behavior and never saw anyone who appeared underage in his presence,” Attia added.
CBS News previously pulled a 60 Minutes segment, titled “Inside CECOT,” back in December. The segment focused on Venezuelan men who were deported by the Trump administration to a notorious El Salvador prison.
The veteran correspondent behind the piece said she learned the day before that Weiss had “spiked our story,” calling the decision “not an editorial decision” but “a political one.”
A CBS News spokesperson wrote in an updated release that the story needed additional reporting. It later aired on Jan. 18.
Weiss was appointed editor-in-chief of CBS News in October.
