Tech mogul Palmer Luckey has reignited a long-running feud with rival Jason Calcanis after newly released emails from the Jeffrey Epstein files showed ties between Calacanis and the disgraced sex offender.
The Justice Department tranche of documents that was released last week show that Calacanis, the angel investor who was among the first to buy into Uber, casually emailed Epstein 15 years ago, writing: “hey pal.”
A June 4, 2011 email shows Calacanis offering to connect Epstein with early Bitcoin developers Gavin Andresen and Amir Taaki, acting as an intermediary three years after Epstein’s 2008 conviction.
Calacanis addressed Epstein casually as “hey pal,” said he was “running out to a kids birthday party,” and promised to “dig up their info” — later leading to Epstein contacting Andresen directly.
Previously, Calacanis had said his only contact with Epstein occurred in the 1990s. He wrote on X last week: “I probably spoke to Epstein for a total of 30 minutes in my entire life.”
Luckey replied to Calacanis: “I don’t believe you.”
Luckey, who was fired from Facebook in 2017 after Calacanis criticized him for donating money to President Trump’s campaign, ripped into Calcanis on X last week:
“Man starts VR company, donates to Trump: ‘Total moron, no moral compass!’” Luckey wrote. “Man rapes children: ‘hey pal!’”
After Epstein’s arrest in July 2019, Calacanis said he met Epstein once in the 1990s while trying to raise money for his dot-com magazine, Silicon Alley Reporter.
According to Calacanis, the meeting took place at Epstein’s New York townhouse and lasted about 30 minutes.
He said Epstein offered brief advice — telling him to “think bigger” — and that the interaction went no further. “He gave me some advice at his townhouse once when I was raising money for the magazine,” Calacanis told Financial Advisor.
Calacanis has repeatedly denied any deeper involvement, saying he never flew on Epstein’s plane, never visited Epstein’s private island, Little St. James and never attended parties connected to the financier.
The Post has sought comment from Luckey and Calacanis.
The decade-old feud flared up last year when Calacanis accused Luckey’s camp on X of sharing a “photoshopped photo of me being twice as fat as I ever was,” calling it a deliberate attempt to smear him.
Luckey responded that the photo was “a screenshot from his CNBC interview,” not a manipulated image.
In August 2022, Calacanis attempted to smooth things over as Luckey’s defense firm Anduril began landing government contracts.
“I’m grateful we have Palmer making our weapons now — we need hard-core dudes like him to keep the CCP in check,” Calacanis wrote, adding flexed arm and heart emojis.
Luckey responded with fury, rejecting the outreach and unloading years of resentment in a blistering, profanity-laced reply.
“Go f—k yourself and all the other clout-chasing leeches and liars who pretend sucking my d—k post-Ukraine absolves treating me like s—t for years,” he wrote.
The clash centers on Calacanis’ blistering public attacks on Luckey during the 2016 election cycle and Luckey’s claim that the backlash cost him his job at Facebook.
Luckey was revealed to have donated $10,000 to Nimble America, a pro-Trump political group known for online trolling and anti–Hillary Clinton memes.
The donation triggered an immediate backlash inside Silicon Valley, where Luckey — then the public face of Facebook-owned Oculus — faced boycott calls and internal pressure as the controversy spread across tech media.
Calacanis emerged as one of Luckey’s most aggressive critics, publicly attacking him on podcasts and social media and arguing that a tech executive had no business engaging in partisan political trolling.
The fallout intensified over the following months, culminating in Luckey’s firing from Facebook in March 2017.
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