Julie K. Brown on Epstein reporting: ‘It takes a village.’
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The morning after The Stanford Daily published an investigation into a former Stanford University professor’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein, a lawyer’s email was waiting.

It was the professor’s legal team contesting the allegations The Daily had found in the Epstein files and threatening to sue for defamation. 

But the students, confident in their reporting of what the files stated, didn’t back down. They had given the professor multiple chances to comment and had a lawyer review their story before publication.

Instead, they saw this as an opportunity to do further reporting. They reviewed additional documents provided by the professor’s lawyers, and that allowed them to add more context that undermined some of the allegations in the files.

Similar situations are playing out in college newsrooms across the country, as student journalists seek to learn what connections Jeffrey Epstein had to their school, professors and the broader community, including influential donors.

This month, student journalists sat down with the Student Press Law Center to discuss how they’re helping cover the millions of documents released in connection to several Epstein investigations, and how to defend accurate reporting when powerful people push back.

Moderated by CNN’s Katelyn Polantz, the webinar featured Julie K. Brown, the Miami Herald reporter whose dogged reporting helped bring much of the Epstein story to light — along with Mike Hiestand, SPLC’s senior legal counsel, and three student journalists who have reported on Epstein’s ties to their own universities.

Brown welcomes students’ reporting

“I am grateful for the fact that we have young student journalists that are looking at this — as they should — because this is their college,” Brown said. “They are paying these colleges a lot of money, and I think it is fair to question [Epstein’s] role with their connections to the colleges.”

After the U.S. Department of Justice and others released millions of files relating to the Epstein case in late 2025 and early 2026, the public had an overwhelming ocean of information to parse through. 

“It’s been a little bit like looking for a needle in a haystack, because the DOJ’s webpage is not the best organized,” Brown said. “In fact, I’m convinced that they sort of threw all this information out there in a disorganized manner, so that it would take us longer and perhaps even hinder us from really getting stories out of this.”

Brown works 12- to 15-hour days, and while she finds scouring the files “addicting,” she still doesn’t have the time to cover every aspect of the case — including Epstein’s connections to academia. The story is too big for one reporter.

“It does take a village with this story, I think, because it is so sprawling, and I think that everybody’s doing the best job they can,” Brown said. 

Student journalists have stepped up

At the University of Chicago, The Chicago Maroon has reported on connections between Epstein and members of the university’s board of trustees. 

“We looked at the files that had been released and uncovered this initial connection which seemed to demonstrate that Thomas Pritzker and Jeffrey Epstein had been very close,” said Nathaniel Rodwell-Simon, managing editor of The Maroon. “They had dozens of emails going back and forth over the years, both before Epstein’s initial conviction through Julie’s excellent reporting in 2018.”

Other student journalists from universities across the country sought answers to the Epstein question as well. 

Sterling Davies, managing editor at The Daily, was among a team of journalists interested to know what Epstein’s role was at Stanford.

“So [we were] kind of looking through when the different files were released, looking through what ties to Stanford are related and what ties to Stanford are included,” Davies said. “And especially, looking at any names of, you know, researchers, professors, donors, different people that tie to the university and just analyzing those connections to Epstein.” 

Aadi Kucheria, a reporter at The Daily, used AI to parse the files and cross-reference who had interactions with Epstein while he was at Stanford. 

“You can actually ask it pretty pointed questions and say, ‘OK, who are the people who were on campus during these dates that may have had an interaction with Epstein,’ and it pulls up a list, and I mean, it’s pretty easy to just go through the files and search those names,” Kucheria said.

That work, alongside other reporting and soliciting tips from readers, allowed The Daily to build a timeline and do unparalleled reporting on the connections to their campus.

“We know that Epstein was on campus or in the Bay Area several times, at several different points,” Kucheria said. “I think the most notable was finding out that [Epstein] had visited our local coffee shop that almost all Stanford students are pretty familiar with.”

Be transparent, and be prepared for pushback

As a veteran journalist, Brown knows how to deal with threats of litigation from those wanting to stop her reporting. She said student journalists must remain stalwart through their identities and responsibilities as reporters.

“Have the material in front of you and understand that they’re going to come at you,” she said. “These are powerful people, and they’re going to try everything at their disposal. And the other thing is, don’t be intimidated. You’re a journalist.”

Rodwell-Simon said he was able to avoid pushback through transparency.

“We were incredibly careful in how we reported our stories,” he said. “I think we went above and beyond in terms of presenting, laying our cards on the table, essentially, and saying, ‘we are coming to these conclusions based on what we’ve read, but we’re going to provide these documents to you ourselves, so that you can read them and make your own decisions.’”

Mike Hiestand, senior legal counsel at the Student Press Law Center, agreed that it is important to provide this context about what is known and unknown — and to be clear with readers that having ties to Epstein does not necessarily mean wrongdoing.

Hiestand said it is also helpful to have a lawyer review sensitive stories like these before publication, just as the students at Stanford did. And if you do receive a letter threatening suit, take it seriously by speaking with a lawyer who can help you navigate next steps.

If your newsroom doesn’t have its own attorney, the Student Press Law Center can help — whether or not a legal threat is waiting in your inbox. Through SPLC’s free Legal Hotline, you can speak directly with an attorney about any media law question and even get feedback on your story before publication.

“Write the story, and we have your back,” Hiestand said as the webinar concluded.

For the full conversation, follow this link to our YouTube channel. If you’re a student journalist or educator looking for legal support this school year, contact the Student Press Law Center’s free, confidential Legal Hotline.

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Examples of student reporting

A small sampling of reporting in college media about Epstein’s connections to their universities: