Revealed Emails Show Jeffrey Epstein and Summers as Close Associates
Numerous exchanges between found guilty sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein and one-time US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers have emerged this week, revealing the pair were confidants.
These exchanges, covering 2013 to early 2019, show the two men discussing personal – and at times unseemly – opinions on political matters and interpersonal dynamics.
I am attempting to determine why [the] American elite believe if u take the life of your baby by violence and desertion 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 beating and neglect it must be irrelevant to your acceptance 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. KEEP CONFIDENTIAL THIS INSIGHT.”
At that time, Harvard University was wrestling with an acceptance controversy after a formerly incarcerated woman’s admission to a PhD program. Summers, a one-time president of the university who stepped down amid a uproar after making gender-biased comments about women in academia, continued 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 society.”
Summers was previously a leading light in liberal circles – a one-time treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the primary designers of Barack Obama’s handling to the financial crisis, and a stalwart figure in the left-leaning punditry. But questions have remained about his association with Epstein, a longtime contact of Donald Trump. Epstein was charged with a extensive exploitation operation before his passing in jail in 2019 in New York City.
Following disclosure of a earlier tranche of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 article, a representative for Summers said that he “profoundly regrets being in contact with Epstein after his legal finding”.
Left-leaning lawmakers made public emails from the Epstein estate this week that indicate Epstein thought Trump was knew about conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In reply, Conservative lawmakers released a more extensive batch of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
These records show that Summers kept up friendly contact with the found guilty child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the final email exchange happening only months before Epstein’s arrest.
Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday that he would be asking the Department of Justice and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s “participation and relationship” with Summers, among other prominent Democrats and industry figures.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein discuss politics – notably Summers’s disdain for Trump – as well as the details of charitable social networking – and women. Summers, 70, disclosed to Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his advances toward an unnamed woman, and being rebuffed.
“she is clever. ensuring you atone for previous missteps,” 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 sorrow 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 gave more than $9m to Harvard and its affiliated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was designated a visiting fellow to conduct research. The university later determined Epstein “lacked the academic qualifications visiting fellows normally possess and his application suggested 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 later receive 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 working on a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made gifts to projects associated with Summers’s wife, and the two men saw each other a multiple times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.
After news about Epstein’s donations emerged, New’s charity made a donation “more than” of that received to combatting sex trafficking organizations.
