Uncovered Exchanges Depict Epstein and Larry Summers as Trusted Friends
A series of exchanges between found guilty child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and one-time US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers came to light this week, indicating the pair were close contacts.
The messages, covering 2013 to early 2019, reveal the two men sharing private – and at times questionable – views on political matters and interpersonal dynamics.
I am attempting to understand why [the] American elite feel if u take the life of your baby by violence and neglect it must be irrelevant 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 desertion it must be unimportant to your acceptance to Harvard,”} Summers wrote to Epstein in a 2017 message. “But hit on a few women 10 years ago and are unable to work at a network or think tank. KEEP CONFIDENTIAL THIS OBSERVATION.”
At that time, Harvard University was dealing with an enrollment controversy after a formerly incarcerated woman’s acceptance to a PhD program. Summers, a former president of the university who lost his position amid a controversy after making discriminatory comments about women scholars, continued in the correspondence to Epstein: I pointed out that half of the IQ in [the] world was owned by women without mentioning they are more than 51 percent of the populace.”
Summers was once a key player in the Democratic Party circles – a former treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the primary designers of Barack Obama’s handling to the financial crisis, and a committed figure in the liberal commentariat. But concerns have lingered about his association with Epstein, a longtime contact of Donald Trump. Epstein was accused of a extensive child sex trafficking operation before his demise in jail in 2019 in New York City.
Following the release of a earlier tranche of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 report, a agent for Summers stated that he “is very sorry for being in contact with Epstein after his conviction”.
Democratic lawmakers disclosed emails from the Epstein estate this week that imply Epstein believed Trump was knew about conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In response, Republican lawmakers published a much bigger batch of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
The documents show that Summers maintained congenial 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 asking the Department of Justice and the FBI to examine Epstein’s “involvement and association” with Summers, among other well-known Democrats and industry figures.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein converse on politics – notably Summers’s disdain for Trump – as well as the aspects 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 is clever. ensuring you atone for previous missteps,” Epstein responded 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 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 gave more than $9m to Harvard and its associated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was appointed a visiting fellow to carry out research. The university later found Epstein “lacked the academic qualifications visiting fellows usually possess and his application outlined a course of study Epstein was unqualified to pursue”.
Harvard only stopped accepting Epstein’s donations after he admitted guilt to child sex offenses in 2008.
At that point Obama’s career was advancing. Summers would later secure 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 non-profit advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor pursuing a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made charitable contributions to projects connected to Summers’s wife, and the two men met a dozen 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 anti-sex-trafficking organizations.