--- alias: - William J. Burns - Bill Burns born: 1956-04-11 category: Intelligence & Government created: 2026-06-18 location: Fort Bragg, North Carolina (born) relations: - end: 2014-11 fn: 3 role: Deputy Secretary of State start: 2011 type: employed_by with: '[[United States Department of State]]' - end: 2025-01 fn: 3 role: Director start: 2021-03 type: head_of with: '[[Central Intelligence Agency]]' - fn: 8 role: member, per Tom Pritzker's 2016 roster type: member_of with: '[[Aspen Strategy Group]]' - fn: 3 reverse: true role: nominated as CIA director start: 2020-11 type: appointed with: '[[Joe Biden]]' summary: William J. Burns is the American diplomat who met Jeffrey Epstein three times in 2014 as Deputy Secretary of State and later served as CIA director from 2021 to 2025. tags: - Person - WilliamBurns - CIA - StateDepartment - JeffreyEpstein - Palantir - Biden - Intelligence updated: 2026-09-25 --- William J. Burns (born April 11, 1956, at Fort Bragg, North Carolina) is an American diplomat and intelligence official who served as Director of the [Central Intelligence Agency](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/) from March 2021 to January 2025 under President [Joe Biden](/people/joe-biden/). Burns's career spans the Foreign Service (ambassador to [Jordan](/places/jordan/) 1998-2001, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs 2001-2005, ambassador to [Russia](/places/russia/) 2005-2008, deputy secretary of state 2011-2014), the think-tank sector (president of the [Carnegie Endowment for International Peace](/organizations/carnegie-endowment-for-international-peace/) 2015-2021), and the intelligence community (CIA director 2021-2025). The Wall Street Journal reported in 2023, on the basis of the [Epstein calendars](/concepts/epstein-files/), that Burns met with [Jeffrey Epstein](/people/jeffrey-epstein/) three times in 2014, while Burns was serving as deputy secretary of state and preparing to leave government.[^1][^2] Burns stated through a spokesperson that he "deeply regrets" the meetings and was unaware of Epstein's 2008 conviction at the time.[^3][^4] ### Career and the Diplomatic-to-Intelligence Trajectory Burns entered the Foreign Service in 1982 and rose through the Near Eastern Affairs and policy-planning ranks under both Republican and Democratic administrations. His ambassadorial assignments in Jordan and Russia and his tenure as assistant secretary for Near Eastern Affairs placed him at the operational center of U.S. [Middle East](/places/middle-east/) policy across the [9/11](/events/september-11-attacks/) period, the Iraq War, and the post-Arab Spring regional realignment. His 2011-2014 tenure as deputy secretary of state under [Hillary Clinton](/people/hillary-clinton/) and [John Kerry](/people/john-kerry/) covered the Benghazi period, the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) negotiations, and the early stages of the Syrian conflict.[^3] Burns left government in November 2014 and took the [Carnegie Endowment](/organizations/carnegie-endowment-for-international-peace/) presidency in February 2015. The WSJ-reported Epstein meetings took place in 2014, while he was still deputy secretary of state; the *Journal* reported that after meeting Epstein, Burns left the [State Department](/organizations/state-department/) to run the Carnegie Endowment.[^1][^2] Burns spent the six years (2015-2021) between the State Department departure and the CIA directorship at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.[^3] ### The Epstein Meetings [The Wall Street Journal](/organizations/the-wall-street-journal/)'s May 2023 report on the Epstein calendars documented that Burns met with Jeffrey Epstein on multiple occasions in 2014, including at the Epstein Manhattan townhouse. The reporting was based on the schedules and emails obtained from the Epstein files, which the WSJ reviewed. The meetings occurred after Epstein's 2008 federal [non-prosecution agreement](/events/epstein-non-prosecution-agreement/) but before the 2019 federal sex-trafficking charges. Burns stated through a spokesperson that he was unaware of Epstein's 2008 conviction at the time and that he cut ties with Epstein upon learning of it. [The Guardian](/organizations/the-guardian/) reported Burns's statement that he "deeply regrets ever meeting" with Epstein.[^3][^4] [Peter Thiel](/people/peter-thiel/)'s documented 2014 meetings at the [Epstein townhouse](/places/9-east-71st-street/) overlap chronologically with Burns's, placing the chairman of a major CIA contractor ([Palantir](/organizations/palantir-technologies/), whose government business includes the CIA as a client) and the future CIA director in the same Epstein-mediated setting within the same calendar year. Burns became CIA director in March 2021, seven years after the meetings.[^5][^6] ### The Palantir Overlap Palantir Technologies received early funding from the CIA venture arm [In-Q-Tel](/organizations/in-q-tel/) in 2004 and is a documented CIA platform supplier through its [Gotham](/concepts/palantir-gotham/) product. Burns's CIA directorship (2021-2025) postdated his 2014 Epstein meetings by seven years. Peter Thiel's 2014 meetings at the Epstein townhouse overlap chronologically with Burns's, placing the future CIA director and the Palantir chairman on the same Epstein-mediated social terrain within the same calendar year.[^5][^6] The substantive question of what was discussed at the Burns-Epstein meetings, and whether any of it touched on Palantir or on intelligence matters, is not documented in the primary sources currently available. Burns's spokesperson's statement framed the meetings as relating to Burns's transition to the Carnegie Endowment and to geopolitics, and the WSJ reporting did not establish that intelligence or contracting matters were discussed. The Epstein calendars are the primary record; they document the meetings but not their content.[^3][^5] ### The CIA Directorship and the Biden Tenure Burns was nominated for the CIA directorship by President Biden in November 2020 and confirmed by the Senate in March 2021. His tenure covered the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal, the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine (Burns had met with Russian SVR chief Sergei Naryshkin in Moscow in November 2021 in a documented attempt to dissuade the invasion), the 2023 Hamas-Israel war, and the broader [China](/places/china/)-Russia strategic realignment. Burns returned to private life in January 2025 at the end of the Biden administration.[^3] The 2023 disclosure of the 2014 Epstein meetings surfaced the connection after Burns had already become CIA director, placing a sitting CIA director in the publicly disclosed Epstein relationship. Burns's spokesperson's framing (unaware of the conviction, regrets the meetings, cut ties on learning) is the official position. The underlying primary documents are the Epstein calendars and the 2026 [Justice Department](/organizations/department-of-justice/) releases.[^3][^4] ### The Calendar Record and the CIA Statement The *Journal*'s calendar reporting recorded three meetings between Burns and Epstein in 2014, when Burns was serving as deputy secretary of state in the Obama administration and preparing to leave government service.[^1][^2] When the reporting appeared in May 2023, Burns was the sitting CIA director. The agency's spokeswoman, Tammy Kupperman Thorp, said that "the two had no relationship," that Burns "did not know anything about him, other than that he was introduced as an expert in the financial services sector and offered general advice on transition to the private sector," that he "remembers being introduced in Washington by a mutual friend, and meeting Epstein once briefly in New York," and that he "does not recall any further contact, including receiving a ride to the airport."[^1][^2] The calendar records three meetings; the agency's statement describes one. The mutual friend was not named. The same calendar reporting documented Epstein's post-conviction meetings with the former [White House](/places/white-house/) Counsel [Kathryn Ruemmler](/people/kathryn-ruemmler/), the linguist [Noam Chomsky](/people/noam-chomsky/), Ariane de Rothschild of the Edmond de Rothschild Group, Joshua Cooper Ramo, a FedEx director and former co-chief executive of [Kissinger Associates](/organizations/kissinger-associates/), and [Leon Botstein](/people/leon-botstein/), president of [Bard College](/organizations/bard-college/), who received 150,000 dollars from Epstein.[^1][^2] In 2014, the year of the Burns meetings, Epstein also met Ruemmler within weeks of her departure from the White House.[^7] ### The Aspen Strategy Group Roster, 2016 On August 8, 2016 the Hyatt chairman [Tom Pritzker](/people/tom-pritzker/) wrote to Epstein that he had "Just finished presentation on leadership to grand pooh baahs of Aspen Strategy Group," adding, "Take a look at members it will make you laugh." Epstein replied, "who attends." Pritzker answered the same evening: "You have to be a bit of a wonk to know some of the names, but Nye, Scowcroft and Nick Burns run it (Scowcroft being replaced by Condi). Members include Patraeus, Albright, Slaughter, Donalon (Obama NSA), Hadley (Bush NSA), Sullivan (NSA Hillary), Bill Burns (State #2), Kurt Campbell, Hoss Carwright (#2 Jt Chiefs), Harman, Ignatius, Sanger, Nunn, Reed, Sawers ([MI6](/organizations/mi6/)), Sherman (iran deal), Work (current #2 DoD). It seems to now be taking on an aura. Looking for a time to come catch up in NY."[^8] The roster named, besides Burns, the Aspen Strategy Group's co-chairs Joseph Nye, [Brent Scowcroft](/people/brent-scowcroft/), and Nicholas Burns, with Condoleezza Rice succeeding Scowcroft, and among its members the former CIA director David Petraeus, the former national security advisers Tom Donilon and Stephen Hadley, Jake Sullivan, and the former chief of the British [Secret Intelligence Service](/organizations/mi6/), Sir John Sawers.[^8] Burns was then president of the Carnegie Endowment. A month later Epstein offered to introduce Pritzker to the Russian ambassador to the [United Nations](/organizations/united-nations/), [Vitaly Churkin](/people/vitaly-churkin/), describing him as "My very close friend Tom Pritzker . Hyatt hotels and chairman of CSI."[^9] [^1]: Ponieman, Natan. *Benzinga,* May 2023, on Epstein's private calendar, summarizing the *Wall Street Journal.* https://www.benzinga.com/news/23/05/32134015/private-calendar-reveals-jeffrey-epsteins-meetings-with-cia-director-noamchomsky-and-goldman-sachs [^2]: *The Daily Beast,* May 2023, on Epstein's calendar meetings with Noam Chomsky and William Burns. https://www.thedailybeast.com/epstein-calendar-reveals-meetings-with-noam-chomsky-and-former-cia-chief-william-burns/ [^3]: "Jeffrey Epstein's Private Calendar: CIA Director William Burns..." *Wall Street Journal,* May 2023. https://www.wsj.com/us-news/jeffrey-epstein-calendar-cia-director-goldman-sachs-noam-chomsky-c9f6a3ff ; For Burns's career and the CIA directorship, see the CIA official biography and the contemporaneous confirmation and tenure coverage. [^4]: "Jeffrey Epstein messaged with former CIA director Bill Burns, files show." *The Guardian,* February 2026. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/04/jeffrey-epstein-bill-burns-cia-messages [^5]: "Peter Thiel and Jeffrey Epstein Had a Yearslong Relationship." *Jacobin,* March 2026, on Thiel's 2014 contacts with Epstein and the Epstein-brokered Barak introduction. https://jacobin.com/2026/03/thiel-epstein-barak-ai-israel [^6]: For the Palantir Technologies-In-Q-Tel relationship and the CIA client base, see the Palantir Technologies page and the underlying SEC EDGAR filings. [^7]: "The Former Biglaw Partner In Jeffrey Epstein's Private Calendar." *Above the Law,* May 2023, summarizing the *Wall Street Journal.* https://abovethelaw.com/2023/05/the-former-biglaw-partner-in-jeffrey-epsteins-private-calendar/ [^8]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01783338, DataSet 10, email exchange between Tom Pritzker and Jeffrey Epstein, August 8, 2016. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01783338.pdf [^9]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA01619438, DataSet 10, iMessage log with contact "Vitaly Churkin," message of September 6, 2016. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01619438.pdf