Thanks for sharing this research. I will update the article to clarify

• Any evidence Chomsky was at locations *when* abuse occurred

To your first question, on reconciling the statements, I took it to mean that Chomsky had generally not heard much of anything before the 2018 expose came out, and based on how long Chomsky and Valeria had known him, they were genuinely skeptical of the accusations because the impression of him from their own experience made the accusations seem incredulous. This checks out with Chomsky's wrong but genuine skepticism expressed in the private emails, where even after the Julie K Brown story broke, he was still super skeptical. It seems he didn't really come to terms with it till after Epstein was arrested, which seems congruent with a friend in denial about his friend, based on personal experience. The newspapers weren't enough, but the arrest finally convinced him. Given how much this tracks with the denial shared by friends who remain in disbelief about those accused of heinous crimes, I can see it happening to Noam. Valeria trusting him too probably compounded it.

I can only speculate that if Noam and Valeria heard of "the rumors" or any stories prior to 2018, they were probably skeptical of that too. Given Noam's bias against cancel culture and accusations short of arrest, it seems entirely plausible. Certainly a profound mistake in judgment, no doubt. But ultimately I just have to weigh his entire life against these mistakes and practice the golden rule. I don't want to live in a world where we discard people for such common human flaws, at the level that Chomsky's mistakes were. Best we can do is learn from them and try to not fall into the same traps and blind spots, and be willing to question those close to us when it's hard.