Disclosed Exchanges Illustrate Epstein and Larry Summers as Confidantes
Numerous communications between convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and one-time US finance chief Larry Summers have emerged this week, revealing the pair served as close contacts.
Their correspondence, dating from 2013 to early 2019, show the two men sharing intimate – and at times unseemly – perspectives on public affairs and personal connections.
“I’m trying to understand why [the] American elite think if u kill your baby by violence and neglect it must be not a factor to your entry to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} determine why [the] American elite think if u take the life of your baby by physical abuse and abandonment it must be irrelevant to your admission to Harvard,”} Summers wrote to Epstein in a 2017 communication. Yet hit on a few women 10 years ago and cannot work at a network or think tank. DO NOT SHARE THIS OBSERVATION.”
During that period, Harvard University was grappling with an enrollment debate after a once incarcerated woman’s acceptance to a PhD program. Summers, a ex- president of the university who stepped down amid a controversy after making discriminatory comments about women scholars, added in the email to Epstein: “I observed that half of the IQ in [the] world was possessed by women without stating they are more than 51 percent of society.”
Summers was previously a prominent figure in liberal circles – a one-time treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the main designers of Barack Obama’s response to the economic downturn, and a committed voice in the liberal commentariat. But questions have lingered about his connection with Epstein, a longtime associate of Donald Trump. Epstein was alleged to have run a extensive child sex trafficking operation before his demise in jail in 2019 in New York City.
Following disclosure of a previous set of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 piece, a representative for Summers commented that he “is very sorry for being in contact with Epstein after his conviction”.
Democratic Party lawmakers disclosed emails from the Epstein estate this week that indicate Epstein was of the opinion Trump was had knowledge of conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In reply, GOP lawmakers released a larger tranche of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
These records show that Summers continued amicable contact with the found guilty child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the most recent email exchange happening only months before Epstein’s apprehension.
Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday that he would be asking the Department of Justice and the FBI to look into Epstein’s “role and relationship” with Summers, among other influential liberal leaders and industry figures.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein discuss politics – notably Summers’s contempt for Trump – as well as the particulars of non-profit social networking – and women. Summers, 70, disclosed to Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his advances toward an unnamed woman, and being turned down.
“she is clever. ensuring you atone for previous missteps,” Epstein responded in an exchange on 16 March. “ignore the daddy im going to go out with the motorcycle guy, you reacted well.. annoyed shows caring., no whining showed strentgh.”
Summers restated his sorrow 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 associated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was appointed a visiting fellow to perform research. The university later found Epstein “was missing the scholarly credentials visiting fellows typically possess and his application outlined 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 that time Obama’s career was advancing. Summers would eventually win 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 philanthropic donations to projects linked to Summers’s wife, and the two men met a multiple times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.
After reporting about Epstein’s donations surfaced, New’s charity made a donation “above and beyond” of that received to combatting sex trafficking organizations.
