Disclosed Emails Show Jeffrey Epstein and Summers as Confidantes
Multiple messages between adjudicated sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein and former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers have emerged this week, indicating the pair served as close contacts.
The messages, spanning 2013 to early 2019, reveal the two men discussing intimate – and at times improper – views on political matters and relationships.
“I’m trying to understand why [the] American elite believe if u kill your baby by violence and neglect 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 think if u take the life of your baby by physical abuse and abandonment it must be not a factor to your acceptance to Harvard,”} Summers emailed to Epstein in a 2017 message. Yet made advances toward a few women 10 years ago and cannot work at a network or think tank. DO NOT REPEAT THIS INSIGHT.”
At that time, Harvard University was wrestling 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 controversy after making gender-biased comments about female academics, added in the correspondence to Epstein: I noted that half of the IQ in [the] world was held by women without noting they are more than 51 percent of the populace.”
Summers was previously a prominent figure in the Democratic Party circles – a ex- treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the key architects of Barack Obama’s approach to the economic downturn, and a steadfast presence in the left-leaning punditry. But concerns have remained about his connection with Epstein, a former associate of Donald Trump. Epstein was alleged to have run a extensive sex trafficking of minors operation before his passing in prison in 2019 in New York City.
Following disclosure of a prior tranche of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 report, a agent for Summers commented that he “is very sorry for being in contact with Epstein after his conviction”.
Left-leaning lawmakers made public emails from the Epstein estate this week that suggest Epstein believed Trump was knew about conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In response, Conservative lawmakers released a much bigger tranche of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
The documents show that Summers continued amicable contact with the adjudicated child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the final email exchange taking place only months before Epstein’s arrest.
Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday that he would be requesting the Department of Justice and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s “involvement and association” with Summers, among other prominent Democratic figures and corporate executives.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein talk about politics – especially Summers’s contempt for Trump – as well as the details of non-profit social networking – and women. Summers, 70, disclosed to Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his overtures toward an unidentified woman, and being turned down.
“she is clever. ensuring you atone for previous missteps,” Epstein wrote in an exchange on 16 March. “disregard the 'daddy' comment, I'm going out with the motorcycle guy, you handled it well.. irritation indicates concern., no complaining demonstrated strength.”
Summers reiterated his remorse in a recent statement. “I harbor significant regrets in my lifetime,” he wrote. “I’ve expressed this previously: my relationship with Jeffrey Epstein was a grave mistake.”
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 “did not have the academic qualifications visiting fellows normally possess and his application outlined a course of study Epstein was ill-equipped to pursue”.
Harvard only ceased accepting Epstein’s donations after he pleaded guilty to child sex offenses in 2008.
At that point Obama’s career was advancing. Summers would ultimately receive appointment as director of the White House NEC from January 2009 until November 2010.
After Summers exited the White House, he began asking Epstein for charitable advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor working on 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 twelve times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.
After media coverage about Epstein’s donations came out, New’s charity made a donation “in excess” of that received to anti-sex-trafficking organizations.
