Uncovered Exchanges Illustrate Jeffrey Epstein and Summers as Close Associates
Multiple communications between convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and ex- US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers came to light this week, showing the pair were close contacts.
These exchanges, covering 2013 to early 2019, reveal the two men sharing intimate – and at times improper – views on politics and interpersonal dynamics.
I'm struggling to figure why [the] American elite feel if u murder your baby by violence and abandonment it must be unimportant to your entry to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} determine why [the] American elite feel if u murder your baby by physical abuse and neglect it must be unimportant to your admission to Harvard,”} Summers stated to Epstein in a 2017 email. However made advances toward a few women 10 years ago and are unable to work at a network or think tank. DO NOT REPEAT THIS IDEA.”
At that time, Harvard University was dealing with an enrollment debate after a once incarcerated woman’s enrollment to a PhD program. Summers, a one-time president of the university who resigned amid a controversy after making sexist comments about female academics, added in the message to Epstein: I pointed out that half of the IQ in [the] world was owned by women without stating they are more than 51 percent of the populace.”
Summers was once a prominent figure in Democratic circles – a one-time treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the primary architects of Barack Obama’s approach to the market collapse, and a stalwart voice in the liberal commentariat. But doubts have lingered about his connection with Epstein, a longtime associate of Donald Trump. Epstein was charged with a broad child sex trafficking operation before his demise in custody in 2019 in New York City.
Following the release of a earlier set of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 article, a spokesperson for Summers said that he “deeply regrets being in contact with Epstein after his guilty verdict”.
Left-leaning lawmakers released emails from the Epstein estate this week that suggest Epstein believed Trump was had knowledge of conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In reply, Conservative lawmakers published a much bigger batch of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
The released materials show that Summers continued congenial contact with the found guilty child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the most recent email exchange taking place 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 influential Democratic figures and business leaders.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein converse on politics – particularly Summers’s disdain for Trump – as well as the aspects of non-profit social networking – and women. Summers, 70, disclosed to Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his romantic gestures toward an unidentified woman, and being rejected.
“she's intelligent. holding you accountable for past mistakes,” 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 affirmed his regret in a recent statement. “I have great regrets in my life,” he said. “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 donated more than $9m to Harvard and its affiliated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was named a visiting fellow to perform research. The university later found Epstein “was missing the scholarly credentials visiting fellows usually possess and his application outlined a course of study Epstein was not prepared to pursue”.
Harvard only ceased accepting Epstein’s donations after he confessed to child sex offenses in 2008.
By that time Obama’s star was rising. Summers would eventually secure appointment as director of the White House economic advisory body from January 2009 until November 2010.
After Summers exited the White House, he began asking Epstein for non-profit advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor developing 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 twelve times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.
After media coverage about Epstein’s donations emerged, New’s charity made a donation “more than” of that received to anti-sex-trafficking organizations.
