The importance vis-a-vis MIT is the dates. If this article is accurate Harvard stopped taking the money once he was a convicted sex offender, MIT didn't.
--- Well, MIT put Epstein on their donor blacklist, but Joi Ito specifically circumvented that and tried to hide the source of Epstein's donations in 2013. ---
Edit: I stand corrected as nullc points out below (and why no strikethroughs HN?)