A UCLA neuroscience professor pledged his loyalty to Jeffrey Epstein, newly unearthed emails show — even after finding out he was going to plead guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor.
Professor Mark Tramo, who teaches neuroscience course “Music, Mind and Brain” — referred to himself and the convicted pedophile as “boys from The Bronx” who “stay true to their friends.”
The email came in 2007 after Tramo read reports that Epstein was going to enter a guilty plea to solicitation charges — for which he served a 13-month sentence, Bloomberg reported.
“I read the newspapers this morning. … Please remind him that boys from The Bronx (even if they end up at Harvard) have long memories, know all about cops, and stay true to their friends through thick and thin (no less peccadilloes),” Tramo said in the email.
Epstein was also charged with sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors in July 2019. He died in jail two months later.
Since then, the pedophile has been linked to former President Bill Clinton, Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson and disgraced former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
In a statement to the Harvard Crimson, Tramo denied knowing what had happened in 2006-2007.
He claimed he had been “duped to believe” Epstein committed minor offenses.
“I never visited Epstein’s island, never flew on his planes, and never saw him with young girls,” he told the Crimson.
In a 2018 email Tramo also spoke about Kanye West’s meeting with President Trump, telling Epstein that he planned to analyze the interaction and give the information to him, “given your interest in creativity.”
UCLA is reported to have received donations from Epstein over the years. The Institute for Music and Brain Science, founded by Tramo, allegedly received grants from the Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation between 2010 and 2012.
The disgraced financier also allegedly made donations to the Institute of International Education, UCLA, between 2010 and 2012, via different charities.
Reaction from Tramo’s students has been mixed.
“You can’t say that you didn’t know what was going on if then you’re still contacting him past his initial arrest,” one UCLA student told Daily Bruin, on the condition of anonymity.
Another student, Grace Wang, who took the neuroscientist’s class fall 2025, told the news outlet that the she doesn’t think the emails say much about Tramo’s connection to Epstein.
Wang added that the professor seems like the type of person to email “anyone of even remote interest to him.”
Epstein is pictured wearing a UCLA shirt in several images released in recent weeks.
The trove of documents — released by the Justice Department under bipartisan mandate — includes FBI files, court records and photographs.
Large sections remain heavily redacted, which the DOJ said was done to protect victims.
In a letter to lawmakers, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the department sifted through hundreds of thousands of pages of material — including investigative files, digital records and photographs — using teams of attorneys to determine what could legally be disclosed.
More Epstein-related material is expected in the weeks ahead.
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