Dr. Oz Invited Sex Offender Jeffrey Epstein to a Party after his Conviction
Dr. Mehmet Oz, President Donald Trump’s administrator of the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, emailed an invitation to a Valentine’s Day party in 2016 to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, recently released Justice Department documents show.
The email, dated February 1, 2016, and addressed from Oz and his wife to Epstein, has a subject line reading “Mehmet and Liza Oz’s Valentine’s Day Celebration” and contains a link to a digital invite, Reuters reported.
He is not accused of any wrongdoing in relation to the Epstein scandal.
The Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
Oz appears several more times in the files, including an email sent from an account under his name to Epstein on January 1, 2016, that has the subject line “Dr oz.” The body of the message is completely redacted.
Late last month, Dr. Oz posted a video on official Health and Human Services social media accounts depicting him targeting various Armenian-owned establishments in Los Angeles and accusing them of engaging in medicare fraud. His baseless and racist accusations prompted a wave a condemnations from elected officials, including California Governor Gavin Newsom and Senator Adam Schiff, among others.
Newsom was swift in his condemnation of Dr. Oz’s actions across multiple public statements. In an initial tweet, Newsom stated: “Our office is reviewing reports that Dr. Mehmet Oz targeted the Armenian American community in Southern California recently — making racially charged claims of fraud outside Armenian-owned businesses, including a popular bakery. Given the historic sensitivities involved, we are taking these allegations seriously. Any and all acts of hate have no place in California.”
On January 29, Governor Newsom announced his office was filing a civil rights complaint with U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (HHS OCR), stating Dr. Oz “spewed baseless and racially charged allegations targeting the Armenian community in Los Angeles.”
“Dr. Oz’s demonization of Armenian Americans and targeting of their small businesses is racist and must end. Attacking fraud does not require bigoted attacks on an entire community.” Senator Schiff said, pledging to work with federal and state partners to conduct oversight and an independent review of the racial profiling.
The Armenian National Committee of America on January 30 filed a federal civil rights complaint https://asbarez.com/anca-
Prominent members of the community with ties to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. also urged the Trump administration official to investigate and take necessary measures to rectify his department’s racists posturing.
