Revealed Communications Illustrate Epstein and Larry Summers as Close Associates
Numerous messages between convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and ex- US treasury head Larry Summers were released this week, indicating the pair acted as trusted allies.
These exchanges, spanning 2013 to early 2019, demonstrate the two men exchanging intimate – and at times unseemly – views on public affairs and personal connections.
I'm struggling to figure why [the] American elite think if u kill your baby by physical abuse and desertion it must be not a factor to your acceptance to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} figure why [the] American elite believe if u kill your baby by violence and neglect it must be irrelevant to your admission to Harvard,”} Summers wrote to Epstein in a 2017 email. Yet flirted with a few women 10 years ago and are unable to work at a network or think tank. DO NOT REPEAT THIS INSIGHT.”
During that period, Harvard University was wrestling with an acceptance debate after a formerly incarcerated woman’s acceptance to a PhD program. Summers, a former president of the university who resigned amid a scandal after making sexist comments about female academics, continued in the message to Epstein: I noted that half of the IQ in [the] world was held by women without mentioning they are more than 51 percent of population.”
Summers was previously a leading light in Democratic circles – a former treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the main architects of Barack Obama’s response to the financial crisis, and a stalwart figure in the progressive media. But questions have lingered about his association with Epstein, a former connection of Donald Trump. Epstein was alleged to have run a broad exploitation operation before his passing in jail in 2019 in New York City.
Following the release of a previous set of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 article, a representative for Summers stated that he “deeply regrets being in contact with Epstein after his legal finding”.
Democratic Party lawmakers made public emails from the Epstein estate this week that suggest Epstein thought Trump was aware of conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In reply, GOP lawmakers issued a larger batch of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
These records show that Summers continued amicable contact with the adjudicated child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the final email exchange occurring only months before Epstein’s arrest.
Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday that he would be instructing the Department of Justice and the FBI to examine Epstein’s “role and connection” with Summers, among other influential liberal leaders and industry figures.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein talk about politics – especially Summers’s contempt for Trump – as well as the aspects of philanthropic social networking – and women. Summers, 70, disclosed to Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his advances toward an unnamed woman, and being turned down.
“shes smart. making you pay for past errors,” 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 reiterated 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 named a visiting fellow to carry out research. The university later found Epstein “lacked the scholarly credentials visiting fellows normally possess and his application suggested a course of study Epstein was unqualified to pursue”.
Harvard only stopped accepting Epstein’s donations after he admitted guilt to child sex offenses in 2008.
At that point Obama’s star was rising. Summers would ultimately 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 charitable contributions to projects associated with Summers’s wife, and the two men saw each other a multiple times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.
After media coverage about Epstein’s donations emerged, New’s charity made a donation “in excess” of that received to combatting sex trafficking organizations.