NYT reporter warned Jeffrey Epstein ex-NYPD detective was researching book on him, emails show

A then-New York Times finance reporter tipped off Jeffrey Epstein in the spring of 2016 that an investigative journalist and former NYPD detective was “digging around” on the convicted pedophile for a tell-all book about his depraved lifestyle.

Landon Thomas Jr., gave the disgraced financier a heads-up after being contacted by ex-cop-turned-reporter John Connolly about the tome which became “Filthy Rich,” according to a tranche of emails released Wednesday by the House Oversight Committee.

“Keep getting calls from that guy doing a book on you — John Connolly. He seems very interested in your relationship with the news media. I told him you were a hell of a guy:),” Thomas wrote to Epstein in an email dated June 1, 2016.

“He actually seemed to be a sensible guy/solid reporter — just from the few conversations I had with him. I think he is close to finishing up. Did you ever speak to him?”

Elsewhere in the exchange, Thomas went on to note that Connolly had apparently inquired about an article he had written for New York Magazine in 2002 in which Donald Trump was quoted speaking highly of Epstein.

“One oddity: he said he had been told that that quote from Trump about you in the original NY Mag story had been manufactured. ie, that I did not actually speak to Donald,” Thomas wrote in the email.

“Which is bull s–t of course. I am sure that is what Trump told him as they have been getting a lot of questions from reporters about you.”

In earlier emails, Thomas acknowledged that people had been coming to him because they figured he had “juicy info on you and Trump” — specifically because of his magazine article that quoted Trump as saying, “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” and “It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do and many of them are on the younger side.”

Connolly, who died in January 2022 at the age of 78, published “Filthy Rich: The Shocking True Story of Jeffrey Epstein” in October 2016, sharing author credit with celebrity wordsmith James Patterson.

The book became the basis of a four-part Netflix documentary that began streaming in May 2020, months after Epstein was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.

In September 2017, nearly a year after the book was released, Thomas emailed Epstein that Connolly “is digging around again — not clear if its another book/or expanded paperback version. Was asking me all sorts of questions about why you hired Ken Starr” — a reference to the former independent counsel who investigated the Clinton White House.

“I told him I had no idea — I think he is doing some Trump-related digging too,” Thomas added. “Anyway, for what it’s worth…”

Other emails in the trove of more than 20,000 documents released Wednesday detail Thomas’ chummy relationship with Epstein through the years — revealing that the reporter picked the pervert’s brain for background information on a potential story about Saudi Arabia

In multiple emails, Thomas fretted about Donald Trump potentially defeating Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, writing to Epstein in a Feb. 10 exchange: “Its [sic] getting scary. The stories you could tell…”

Thomas left the Times in early 2019, after he revealed to editors that he had solicited a $30,000 donation to a cultural center in Harlem from Epstein, NPR reported at the time.

His disclosure led brass at the Grey Lady to revisit Thomas’ past work, turning up a fawning profile of Epstein published in 2008, days before he began serving time as part of a slap-on-the-wrist plea deal on Florida child prostitution charges.

“Landon Thomas Jr. has not worked at The Times since early 2019 after editors discovered his failure to abide by our ethical standards,” Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha told The Post Wednesday.

Attempts to contact Thomas were unsuccessful.