Steve Tisch Plans To Vacate Giants Ownership, Perhaps Relieving Scrutiny On His Jeffrey Epstein Ties

New York Giants executive vice president and chairman of the board Steve Tisch, his brother Jonathan Tisch, who is the team's treasurer and board director, along with their sister Laurie Tisch who is also a board director, plan to transfer their club ownership stakes into trusts and that could effectively lift a shadow of negative scrutiny on the club over a connection to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

According to an NFL memo, first obtained by ESPN, the siblings are requesting to transfer their entire interests in the club, which totals 23.1 percent, to the trust.

Aug 26, 2017; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Jets acting ceo Christopher Wold Johnson (right) talks to New York Giants co-owners John Mara (left) and Steve Tisch before a preseason game at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

"Following the transactions, the sellers will no longer own any interest in the Club," the memo's most important line reads.

One NFL source familiar with the memo told OutKick the transaction comes in the wake of past transfers in 2023 and 2024 and insisted the next transaction would be part of a previously authored succession plan. 

But a different source drew a connection between the timing of this transfer to the recent revelations Steve Tisch's name was found in the so-called Epstein files – which caused the Giants co-owner to acknowledge his relationship with Epstein, and resulted in the NFL doing fact-finding work to determine if further action was necessary.

The fact Tisch and his siblings, who co-own the Giants, will no longer co-own the team once the transfer is complete is expected to close the matter for the league, the source said. 

And the hope is also that it ends the negative and sometimes intense scrutiny the matter brought on the family and club.

The Tisch family co-owns the Giants with the Mara family, which has owned the franchise since its founding in 1925. John Mara remains the club's president and CEO.

New Epstein documents reveal emails linking Giants owner Steve Tisch to disturbing exchanges with the trafficker, including discussions about women and film roles. (Getty Images)

Tisch, now 77, in 2013 engaged in what he called a "brief association" with Epstein. That association raised uncomfortable questions for the club from the league level all the way down to the front office and coaching level at the NFL Scouting Combine a few weeks ago. 

That brief association included between 429 and 440 instances in which Tisch appears in the Epstein files and in emails between the two men. And those correspondences, released in a Justice Department Epstein email dump in January, had the convicted sex offender setting up Tisch with women.

And, yes, Epstein was already a convicted felon when he and Tisch had their so-called brief association.

"We had a brief association where we exchanged emails about adult women," Tisch said of Epstein in his January statement. "I did not take him up on any of his invitations and never went to his island. As we all know now, he was a terrible person and someone I deeply regret associating with."