Disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein told a reporter last year he believed the criminalization of sex with teenage girls was a "cultural aberration," according to a newly released interview.

Epstein gave the interview to New York Times columnist James Stewart last August with the caveat that it would not be attributed to Epstein directly, but Stewart wrote today that “I consider that condition to have lapsed with his death.” The Bureau of Prisons said Saturday that Epstein was found “unresponsive in his cell” in the Special Housing Unit following “an apparent suicide."

Stewart wrote he met Epstein at his Manhattan mansion to ask him about rumors that Epstein was advising Tesla founder Elon Musk, and wrote that Epstein explained he had to be cryptic in his answers because “once it became public that he was advising the company, he’d have to stop doing so.”

"If he was reticent about Tesla, he was more at ease discussing his interest in young women,” Stewart remembered.

Stewart then wrote that Epstein “said that criminalizing sex with teenage girls was a cultural aberration and that at times in history it was perfectly acceptable.” Stewart also said that Epstein compared laws banning sex with underage girls to laws banning homosexuality, with Stewart writing that Epstein “pointed out that homosexuality had long been considered a crime and was still punishable by death in some parts of the world.”

Stewart also noted that the door to Epstein’s palatial Manhattan apartment was opened by a girl he thought may have been in her teens and that Epstein was displaying photos of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman as well as pictures of himself with film director Woody Allen and former President Bill Clinton.

“Displaying photos of celebrities who had been caught up in sex scandals of their own also struck me as odd,” Stewart wrote.

Stewart didn’t quote Epstein directly in the article except to say Epstein called himself “radioactive,” likely because of his prior sex offender conviction following a sweetheart deal with federal prosecutors in 2008.

Stewart also wrote that earlier this year Epstein “called to ask if I’d be interested in writing his biography” and that “he sounded almost plaintive,” with Stewart saying that “I sensed that what he really wanted was companionship.”

Epstein made this request after the explosive investigative articles by the Miami Herald catapulted the allegations swirling around Epstein back into the public eye, yet Stewart said he was “relieved I could say that I was already busy with another book” and turned down Epstein’s request, and the opportunity to learn more.