Peter Attia Exits CBS News After Chummy Relationship With Jeffrey Epstein Revealed

(Screengrab via 60 MInutes/YouTube)

Peter Attia is out at CBS News.

The fitness guru is “stepping aside” from his new role as a network contributor after the latest batch of files on Jeffrey Epstein showed Attia had a chummy relationship with the dead sex criminal, The Hollywood Reporter was first to report on Monday.

Attia’s exit comes after he was named one of 19 new contributors by CBS News boss Bari Weiss in January. It also comes the day after HBO’s John Oliver lambasted CBS for retaining Attia, saying it was “wild” the network was keeping him around after his ties to Epstein were revealed.

Mediaite’s David Gilmour reported last week:

Many critics in-house — as well as from the outside — called for Attia to be dropped over the revelations in the Epstein files. But others, such as Mediaite Founder Dan Abrams, argued that he should retain his new gig.

Emails between Attia and Epstein are included in the Justice Department’s file library, where database search returns 1,838 results linked to the author’s name. Many messages date from the mid-2010s, after Epstein’s 2008 conviction but before his 2019 arrest. Some involve medical discussions; others contain crude remarks.

One of those messages from 2015 showed Attia saying the “biggest problem” with being Epstein’s friend was “the life you lead is so outrageous, and yet I can’t tell a soul…”

Another message the following year showed the health nut making a crass joke. “P*ssy is, indeed, low carb. Still awaiting results on gluten content, though,” he wrote.

Attia responded to the uproar over his friendship with Epstein in an X post on February 2, describing the emails as “embarrassing, tasteless, and indefensible.” He said he met Epstein in 2014 and went to his home in Manhattan several times, but denied being involved in any criminal sex acts.

He stepped down as “chief science officer” at a snack bar company he invested in, David Protein, after the emails were published. But it looked like Attia would retain his new CBS role, with The Guardian journalist Jeremy Barr reporting on February 14 that the network had “unofficially” decided to keep him around. One staffer told Barr “We’re pissed about it.”

That staffer — and many others, apparently — are probably happier on Monday, following Attia’s exit.

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