Disclosed Emails Depict Jeffrey Epstein and Summers as Confidantes
A series of communications between found guilty sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein and one-time US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers have emerged this week, indicating the pair served as confidants.
These exchanges, covering 2013 to early 2019, demonstrate the two men sharing personal – and at times questionable – perspectives on public affairs and relationships.
I'm struggling to determine why [the] American elite believe if u murder your baby by violence and neglect it must be irrelevant 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 take the life of your baby by physical abuse and abandonment it must be not a factor to your acceptance to Harvard,”} Summers wrote to Epstein in a 2017 message. “But made advances toward a few women 10 years ago and can’t work at a network or think tank. KEEP CONFIDENTIAL THIS IDEA.”
At that time, Harvard University was grappling with an acceptance discussion after a once incarcerated woman’s enrollment to a PhD program. Summers, a ex- president of the university who lost his position amid a controversy after making discriminatory comments about women in academia, added in the email to Epstein: I noted that half of the IQ in [the] world was held by women without mentioning they are more than 51 percent of the populace.”
Summers was at one time a leading light in liberal circles – a former treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the main designers of Barack Obama’s approach to the economic downturn, and a steadfast voice in the left-leaning punditry. But concerns have remained about his relationship with Epstein, a former connection of Donald Trump. Epstein was alleged to have run a wide-ranging exploitation operation before his death in jail in 2019 in New York City.
Following the release of a previous tranche of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 piece, a spokesperson for Summers commented that he “profoundly regrets being in contact with Epstein after his guilty verdict”.
Democratic lawmakers released emails from the Epstein estate this week that suggest Epstein thought Trump was knew about conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In response, Republican lawmakers released a much bigger collection of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
These records show that Summers kept up congenial contact with the convicted 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 requesting the Department of Justice and the FBI to look into Epstein’s “involvement and connection” with Summers, among other prominent Democrats and corporate executives.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein converse on politics – especially Summers’s disdain for Trump – as well as the details of philanthropic social networking – and women. Summers, 70, confided in Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his advances toward an unidentified woman, and being rebuffed.
“shes smart. making you pay for past errors,” Epstein replied 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 regret in a recent statement. “I harbor significant regrets in my lifetime,” 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 contributed more than $9m to Harvard and its associated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was appointed a visiting fellow to conduct research. The university later determined Epstein “did not have the educational background visiting fellows typically possess and his application proposed a course of study Epstein was unqualified to pursue”.
Harvard only discontinued accepting Epstein’s donations after he admitted guilt to child sex offenses in 2008.
By then Obama’s star was rising. Summers would ultimately receive 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 charitable advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor working on a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made gifts to projects linked to Summers’s wife, and the two men got together a twelve times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.
After media coverage about Epstein’s donations surfaced, New’s charity made a donation “in excess” of that received to anti-sex-trafficking organizations.
