Epstein Files Reveal Diana DeGette’s Connection to Alleged Enabler

Emails between Jeffrey Epstein and Barbro Ehnbom suggest a disturbing partnership between the convicted sex offender and the Swedish businesswoman; from Ehnbom sending Epstein a photo of a “little blond girl” who she thinks would be of his “taste,” to offering up her “brainy and sensual” project manager to be Epstein’s “wife choice this year.”

Amid their correspondence, a surprising name arises time and time again: Diana DeGette.

The Colorado congresswoman’s name appears in over a dozen emails between Epstein and Ehnbom sent from 2009 to 2016, according to documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice. Though there is no evidence that DeGette ever communicated with Epstein directly, his emails shine a light on the years-long relationship between DeGette and Ehnbom, a friend of Epstein who is accused of using her professional positions to connect the wealthy sexual predator to young women.

Ehnbom repeatedly asked Epstein to meet DeGette, the emails show. At times, she requested financial support for DeGette’s campaigns, including inviting Epstein to a fundraiser for DeGette in 2012.

“I am doing a small fund raiser for Diana deGette of Colorado,” reads an Ehnbom email to Epstein in September 2012. DeGette had become a “friend” of hers, the email continues, “She is smart and courageous. …Will you help support this? She is one of the few in congress with a scientific agenda and she stands up for women!”

A spokesperson for DeGette says the congresswoman had no knowledge that Ehnbom was trying to connect her with Epstein.

“Congresswoman DeGette never met Jeffrey Epstein,” says Jack Stelzner, DeGette’s communications director. “She was not aware of Ms. Ehnbom’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, nor that she was sending him invitations. …Mr. Epstein did not attend the fundraisers that Ms. Ehnbom mentioned, nor has Rep. DeGette ever received any campaign contribution from Mr. Epstein.”

Federal Election Commission filings confirm that Epstein did not donate to DeGette’s campaigns. Ehnbom donated $1,500 to DeGette in 2014, according to FEC records.

DeGette voted in favor of the Epstein Files Transparency Act in November, requiring the documents be made publicly available. Stelzner says the congresswoman continues to “strongly support the full release of the Epstein files.”

Swedish publications have reported on Ehnbom’s connection to Epstein for years, after it was revealed that Ehnbom’s “Female Economist of the Year” scholarship at the Stockholm School of Economics was funded by donations from the sex offender. In 2022, reporters discovered that Ehnbom had brought some of the scholarship winners to the United States to meet Epstein, with one outlet reporting that the young women were instructed to dress to show their “bare legs.”

At the time, Ehnbom reportedly claimed there was nothing untoward about the meetings. However, her emails with Epstein tell a different story.

Ehnbom repeatedly sent photos of the women who applied for the scholarship to Epstein. “Lots of charming beautiful interested candidates for FEOY – photos will come!” she wrote in April 2011. In Epstein’s emails to Ehnbom, he requested that she find a “wife” for him on multiple occasions.

“Where is my swedish wife?” Epstein wrote in October 2011, in response to Ehnbom sending him the tax ID for the Stockholm School of Economics. “So it must be a Swedish wife? How about the Ambassador,” Ehnbom replied, going on to discuss a “Brazilian girl” working “with some of my Swedish girls.”

“I just think that photo is stunning..maybe she should be for me!” Ehnbom added.

Following the latest release of documents on January 30, the Stockholm School of Economics issued a statement apologizing for and condemning Ehnbom.

“We are profoundly saddened that young women came into contact with a sex offender through someone they trusted and had confidence in,” reads the statement posted on February 4. “In light of everything that has emerged, it is abundantly clear that representatives of the School should not have trusted Ehnbom, and we should of course have ended our collaboration with her much earlier.”

The school ended its collaboration with Ehnbom after leadership became aware of Epstein’s donations to her scholarship in 2015, according to the statement.

According to an email from Ehnbom to Epstein, she met DeGette in 2009, when the congresswoman was the keynote speaker at Ehnbom’s Swedish-American Life Science Summit in Stockholm. DeGette was most recently pictured with Ehnbom in 2018 at a SALSS event, the Colorado Times Recorder reported.

“Congresswoman DeGette met Ms. Ehnbom through a constituent because of her work on biomedical research,” Stelzner says. “She has not received a donation from Ms. Ehnbom in over eleven years and no longer has a relationship with her.”

Stelzner did not respond when asked why DeGette’s relationship with Ehnbom ended, and what the cause was.

That relationship has led to DeGette’s name being unintentionally intertwined in disturbing messages between Ehnbom and Epstein.

In August 2012, Ehnbom emailed Epstein about a fundraiser for DeGette, “she is just super — if anything I am hoping on your involvement?” Ehnbom wrote. Epstein replied, seemingly ignoring the invitation, “who is your wife choice this year?” Ehnbom answered, “How about this year’s SALSS Project Manager, [redacted], brainy and sensual! Picture attached!”

In June 2009, Ehnbom sent Epstein a link to DeGette’s Wikipedia page, including the following unrelated message: “Did you get the big photo yet with many of the girls on the staircase? That little blond girl in the pink dress behind me there, [redacted], also sings like an angel. …She is very pretty I think…! Marcus thought so too and I notice you seem to have similar taste.”

Ehnbom recently criticized “inaccuracies” in media reports about her appearance in the Epstein files.

“I am deeply outraged by the abuse and harm that many girls have been subjected to,” Ehnbom wrote in a statement on LinkedIn, as translated from Swedish to English. “I feel disgusted to have had any kind of contact with the person who has now, posthumously, been exposed for actions that lack any defense.”