Revealed Emails Show Jeffrey Epstein and Summers as Close Associates
A series of messages between convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein and one-time US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers have emerged this week, indicating the pair were trusted allies.
The messages, covering 2013 to early 2019, show the two men discussing personal – and at times unseemly – perspectives on political matters and personal connections.
“I’m trying to figure why [the] American elite feel if u kill your baby by physical abuse and neglect it must be not a factor to your admission to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} understand why [the] American elite believe if u kill your baby by physical abuse and neglect it must be unimportant to your acceptance to Harvard,”} Summers emailed to Epstein in a 2017 email. Yet hit on a few women 10 years ago and can’t work at a network or think tank. KEEP CONFIDENTIAL THIS OBSERVATION.”
Back then, Harvard University was wrestling with an enrollment discussion after a previously incarcerated woman’s admission to a PhD program. Summers, a one-time president of the university who stepped down amid a scandal after making gender-biased comments about female academics, continued in the email to Epstein: “I observed that half of the IQ in [the] world was held by women without mentioning they are more than 51 percent of society.”
Summers was previously a leading light in Democratic circles – a former treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the key architects of Barack Obama’s handling to the financial crisis, and a steadfast presence in the progressive media. But concerns have persisted about his association with Epstein, a long-standing connection of Donald Trump. Epstein was accused of a broad exploitation operation before his demise in jail in 2019 in New York City.
Following disclosure of a prior tranche of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 piece, a spokesperson for Summers said that he “profoundly regrets being in contact with Epstein after his legal finding”.
Democratic 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 more extensive tranche of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
These records show that Summers maintained congenial contact with the adjudicated child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the last email exchange happening only months before Epstein’s arrest.
Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday that he would be instructing the Department of Justice and the FBI to look into Epstein’s “involvement and connection” with Summers, among other well-known Democratic figures and corporate executives.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein discuss politics – particularly Summers’s disdain for Trump – as well as the details of philanthropic social networking – and women. Summers, 70, disclosed to Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his romantic gestures toward an unidentified woman, and being rebuffed.
“she's intelligent. holding you accountable for past mistakes,” Epstein replied 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. “There are many things I regret 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 donated more than $9m to Harvard and its related programs between 1998 and 2008, and was appointed a visiting fellow to carry out research. The university later determined Epstein “lacked the scholarly credentials visiting fellows usually possess and his application suggested a course of study Epstein was not prepared to pursue”.
Harvard only stopped accepting Epstein’s donations after he admitted guilt to child sex offenses in 2008.
By then Obama’s career was advancing. Summers would ultimately secure appointment as director of the White House economic advisory body from January 2009 until November 2010.
After Summers departed the White House, he began soliciting Epstein for non-profit 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 got together a dozen times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.
After news about Epstein’s donations emerged, New’s charity made a donation “above and beyond” of that received to combatting sex trafficking organizations.