UCLA professor responds to Epstein Files allegations
Following the release of the Epstein Files on Feb. 10, 2026, Mark Tramo, a University of California, Los Angeles [UCLA] professor of neurology and former neurologist at Los Robles Hospital, has responded to his name’s appearance in emails between himself and Epstein as well as allegations present in the files. Tramo’s profile is located on the UCLA “Faculty” section of their official website, as well as a UCLA website with information detailing Tramo’s involvement as the director of the Institute for Music and Brain Science at UCLA.
In one file, it is apparent that Tramo asked Epstein to donate upwards of $500,000 to create “The Jeffrey Epstein Project for Brain Development in Critically-Ill Infants.” While this project was never funded, Epstein donated over $100,000 to Tramo’s Institute for Music and Brain Science. It is also reported in the emails that Tramo would often send Epstein the alleged “profiles” of students in his UCLA classes, where Epstein would ask if they were “cute.” In Tramo’s response to KTLA, Tramo claimed that his understanding of Epstein was that he was convicted of a crime in which he did his time, which “yields a clean slate.” This statement did not mention the “student profiles” sent by Tramo to Epstein. “I, like the many scientists he associated with – there is quite a long list – had no idea Epstein was a psychopath with a paraphilia,” Tramo said in this statement.
Tramo, being so far the only UCLA professor to appear in the newly released Epstein Files, has sparked protests across campus. According to the Los Angeles Times, a petition has been signed with over a thousand signatures from UCLA students.
To conclude his statement to KTLA, Tramo claims his involvement with Epstein as nothing other than an investor in his work. “I’m horrified, sickened, and angry that Epstein dared to associate himself with me one minute, then turn around and commit heinous crimes the next. I wish I’d never been introduced to him by the Harvard Provost, and I regret I ever had anything to do with him,” Tramo said. It is unclear whether further investigations into his involvement with Epstein will be pursued.
