Revealed Communications Illustrate Jeffrey Epstein and Summers as Close Associates
A series of communications between adjudicated child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and former US finance chief Larry Summers came to light this week, indicating the pair acted as confidants.
These exchanges, spanning 2013 to early 2019, reveal the two men discussing intimate – and at times improper – opinions on public affairs and interpersonal dynamics.
I'm struggling to figure why [the] American elite think if u kill your baby by physical abuse and abandonment it must be irrelevant to your entry to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} determine why [the] American elite think if u murder your baby by beating and neglect it must be irrelevant to your admission to Harvard,”} Summers wrote to Epstein in a 2017 email. Yet hit on a few women 10 years ago and cannot work at a network or think tank. DO NOT SHARE THIS IDEA.”
During that period, Harvard University was dealing with an enrollment debate after a formerly incarcerated woman’s enrollment to a PhD program. Summers, a former president of the university who resigned amid a controversy after making gender-biased comments about women scholars, continued in the message to Epstein: I noted that half of the IQ in [the] world was held by women without stating they are more than 51 percent of population.”
Summers was previously a prominent figure in Democratic circles – a one-time treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the primary designers of Barack Obama’s response to the economic downturn, and a steadfast presence in the left-leaning punditry. But concerns have lingered about his relationship with Epstein, a longtime contact of Donald Trump. Epstein was alleged to have run a broad exploitation operation before his passing in custody in 2019 in New York City.
Following disclosure of a previous tranche of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 piece, a agent for Summers stated that he “is very sorry for being in contact with Epstein after his legal finding”.
Democratic lawmakers released emails from the Epstein estate this week that indicate Epstein thought Trump was aware of conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In response, GOP lawmakers released a more extensive collection of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
These records show that Summers continued congenial contact with the found guilty child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the most recent email exchange occurring only months before Epstein’s detention.
Trump stated on Truth Social on Friday that he would be instructing the Department of Justice and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s “participation and connection” with Summers, among other prominent liberal leaders and industry figures.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein converse on politics – particularly Summers’s disdain for Trump – as well as the aspects of charitable social networking – and women. Summers, 70, confided in Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his romantic gestures toward an anonymous woman, and being turned down.
“she is clever. ensuring you atone for previous missteps,” Epstein replied in an exchange on 16 March. “ignore the daddy im going to go out with the motorcycle guy, you reacted well.. annoyed shows caring., no whining showed strentgh.”
Summers affirmed his remorse in a recent statement. “I have great regrets in my life,” he wrote. “As I have said before, my association with Jeffrey Epstein was a major error of judgement.”
Summers was president of Harvard University from 2001 to 2006. Epstein contributed more than $9m to Harvard and its related programs between 1998 and 2008, and was designated a visiting fellow to carry out research. The university later determined Epstein “did not have the educational background visiting fellows typically possess and his application suggested a course of study Epstein was unqualified to pursue”.
Harvard only discontinued accepting Epstein’s donations after he admitted guilt to child sex offenses in 2008.
At that point Obama’s star was rising. Summers would later win appointment as director of the White House economic advisory body from January 2009 until November 2010.
After Summers exited the White House, he began requesting Epstein for non-profit advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor pursuing a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made gifts to projects associated with Summers’s wife, and the two men got together a twelve times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.
After news about Epstein’s donations emerged, New’s charity made a donation “more than” of that received to anti-sex-trafficking organizations.
