Disclosed Exchanges Depict Epstein and Larry Summers as Confidantes
Multiple exchanges between adjudicated sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein and former US treasury head Larry Summers were released this week, indicating the pair were close contacts.
These exchanges, covering 2013 to early 2019, show the two men sharing intimate – and at times questionable – views on public affairs and interpersonal dynamics.
I am attempting to figure why [the] American elite believe if u kill your baby by beating and abandonment it must be unimportant to your admission to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} figure why [the] American elite think if u take the life of your baby by beating and desertion it must be not a factor to your admission to Harvard,”} Summers wrote to Epstein in a 2017 message. Yet flirted with a few women 10 years ago and cannot work at a network or think tank. KEEP CONFIDENTIAL THIS INSIGHT.”
Back then, Harvard University was grappling with an admissions discussion after a previously incarcerated woman’s acceptance to a PhD program. Summers, a ex- president of the university who lost his position amid a controversy after making gender-biased comments about women in academia, added in the email to Epstein: I pointed out 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 liberal circles – a one-time treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the main architects of Barack Obama’s approach to the market collapse, and a steadfast presence in the liberal commentariat. But questions have remained about his association with Epstein, a long-standing associate of Donald Trump. Epstein was accused of a extensive sex trafficking of minors operation before his demise in prison in 2019 in New York City.
Following publication of a previous tranche of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 report, a agent for Summers stated that he “profoundly regrets being in contact with Epstein after his guilty verdict”.
Democratic lawmakers disclosed emails from the Epstein estate this week that imply Epstein was of the opinion Trump was knew about conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In reply, Republican lawmakers published a much bigger collection of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
These records show that Summers continued friendly contact with the adjudicated child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the most recent email exchange happening only months before Epstein’s apprehension.
Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday that he would be requesting the Department of Justice and the FBI to look into Epstein’s “role and association” with Summers, among other influential liberal leaders and industry figures.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein discuss politics – especially Summers’s contempt for Trump – as well as the details of philanthropic social networking – and women. Summers, 70, shared with Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his romantic gestures toward an unnamed woman, and being rejected.
“shes smart. making you pay for past errors,” Epstein responded in an exchange on 16 March. “overlook the 'daddy' remark, I'm dating the motorcycle guy, you responded appropriately.. frustration signals affection., no protests revealed fortitude.”
Summers reiterated his sorrow in a recent statement. “I have great regrets in my life,” he commented. “As previously stated, my connection to Jeffrey Epstein represented a serious lapse in judgment.”
Summers was president of Harvard University from 2001 to 2006. Epstein contributed more than $9m to Harvard and its affiliated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was appointed a visiting fellow to conduct research. The university later determined Epstein “lacked the educational background visiting fellows usually possess and his application suggested a course of study Epstein was ill-equipped to pursue”.
Harvard only stopped accepting Epstein’s donations after he confessed to child sex offenses in 2008.
At that point Obama’s star was rising. Summers would eventually receive appointment as director of the White House National Economic Council from January 2009 until November 2010.
After Summers exited the White House, he began soliciting Epstein for charitable advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor pursuing a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made philanthropic donations to projects associated with Summers’s wife, and the two men got together a dozen times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.
After reporting about Epstein’s donations emerged, New’s charity made a donation “above and beyond” of that received to anti-exploitation organizations.