Michael Link, a computer science instructor and doctoral candidate at UF, sent at least 19 emails to Jeffrey Epstein over the course of 2017 and 2018, with the released emails stopping less than a year before the financier was arrested on charges of sex trafficking.
At the time, Link was a 19- to 20-year-old undergraduate student at Southern Methodist University. His father, Scott Link, was Epstein’s lawyer in a civil litigation case earlier in the year.
The emails featured requests for advice, favors and information on Epstein’s life experiences, in addition to the scheduling of in-person and Skype meetings.
“I met Jeffrey Epstein through my father, who is an attorney and represented Mr. Epstein in 2017 on a civil matter,” Link wrote in an email to The Alligator. “The topic of our conversations was rooted in my interest in STEM and did not extend beyond that. We last spoke in 2019, long before I enrolled as a student at the University of Florida.”
In an email sent on Nov. 24, 2017, Link wrote to Epstein, “Thank you so much for your time today. I really enjoyed talking to you about math, the future, and all of the exciting opportunities the world will bring me.”
Epstein replied within minutes, writing, “we can talk about the stuff you and I know you get up to. no need for listeners.”
Link talked with Epstein about his relationship with his parents and asked him for advice on what he should do next, including asking for a job recommendation, because his parents wanted him to recuperate after college before going to graduate school, according to one email.
Several emails show Epstein taking an interest in Link’s medical issues. In one email, Link wrote, “Just wanted to send along my thanks for your mentorship and support over the past months.”
Gavin Calleja, an 18-year-old UF computer science freshman, is taking Link’s class this semester after taking a different class taught by him in the Fall.
He said Link mentioned his relationship with Epstein during the Fall semester before any of the files were released. Link told him he was invited to Epstein’s island but didn’t go, according to Calleja’s recollection, and the pair were friendly with each other but not friends.
It’s unclear if Link was aware of Epstein’s trafficking operation. Although Epstein was arrested on charges of soliciting prostitution in 2006, public awareness of his private island, Little St. James, as the center of his operation wasn’t widespread until his 2019 arrest.
In one email chain dated July 20, 2018, Link asked Epstein, “How is your time usually divided? Mainly island?”
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Calleja said Link almost has a “cult following” among his students.
“A lot of the people who take his classes stay — they love the man,” Calleja said.
Calleja said he doesn’t think Link is capable of being involved in the illegal aspects of Epstein’s life, and that this knowledge doesn’t change his opinion of him as a professor.
Yoan Exposito, a 20-year-old UF computer science junior who is also taking Link’s class this semester, has the same sentiments.
“He’s a pretty good professor,” he said. “I don’t think he did anything wrong.”
Exposito said, from what he has experienced this semester, Link doesn’t give the type of demeanor of someone who would be involved with the criminal aspects of Epstein’s life.
“I’d still be comfortable with him,” he said. “He doesn’t seem like that type of person at all.”
UF spokesperson Cynthia Roldán declined to comment.
Contact Alexa Ryan at aryan@alligator.org. Follow her on X @AlexaRyan_.
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Alexa is a second-year journalism and international studies student and The Alligator’s Spring 2026 Enterprise Politics Reporter. She previously served as the Fall 2025 Criminal Justice Reporter. In her free time, she enjoys running, traveling and going on random side quests.