Disclosed Exchanges Depict Epstein and Larry Summers as Confidantes
Multiple messages between found guilty sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein and one-time US treasury head Larry Summers were released this week, showing the pair were confidants.
Their correspondence, spanning 2013 to early 2019, show the two men sharing intimate – and at times unseemly – perspectives on public affairs and interpersonal dynamics.
I am attempting to understand why [the] American elite feel if u kill your baby by beating and abandonment it must be irrelevant to your entry to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} figure why [the] American elite believe if u take the life of your baby by violence and desertion it must be unimportant to your entry to Harvard,”} Summers wrote to Epstein in a 2017 email. However flirted with a few women 10 years ago and are unable to work at a network or think tank. DO NOT SHARE THIS IDEA.”
During that period, Harvard University was grappling with an acceptance controversy after a formerly incarcerated woman’s enrollment to a PhD program. Summers, a former president of the university who stepped down amid a uproar after making discriminatory comments about women in academia, went on to say in the correspondence to Epstein: I noted that half of the IQ in [the] world was possessed by women without noting they are more than 51 percent of population.”
Summers was previously a key player 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 committed voice in the left-leaning punditry. But doubts have lingered about his association with Epstein, a former associate of Donald Trump. Epstein was accused of a extensive exploitation operation before his death in prison in 2019 in New York City.
Following the release of a prior set of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 article, a spokesperson for Summers commented that he “profoundly regrets being in contact with Epstein after his guilty verdict”.
Democratic Party lawmakers made public emails from the Epstein estate this week that suggest Epstein was of the opinion Trump was had knowledge of conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In reply, Republican lawmakers published a more extensive tranche of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
These records show that Summers kept up amicable contact with the adjudicated child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the last email exchange occurring only months before Epstein’s apprehension.
Trump stated on Truth Social on Friday that he would be instructing the Department of Justice and the FBI to examine Epstein’s “involvement and connection” with Summers, among other influential Democrats and industry figures.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein talk about politics – especially Summers’s disdain for Trump – as well as the aspects of charitable social networking – and women. Summers, 70, disclosed to Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his advances toward an unidentified 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 regret in a recent statement. “I have great regrets in my life,” he said. “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 gave more than $9m to Harvard and its associated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was named a visiting fellow to perform research. The university later concluded Epstein “did not have the educational background visiting fellows normally possess and his application outlined a course of study Epstein was not prepared to pursue”.
Harvard only stopped accepting Epstein’s donations after he pleaded guilty to child sex offenses in 2008.
At that point Obama’s career was advancing. Summers would later win appointment as director of the White House economic advisory body from January 2009 until November 2010.
After Summers left the White House, he began requesting 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 linked to Summers’s wife, and the two men saw each other a dozen times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.
After reporting about Epstein’s donations emerged, New’s charity made a donation “more than” of that received to combatting sex trafficking organizations.
