Disclosed Communications Illustrate Jeffrey Epstein and Larry Summers as Close Associates
Numerous messages between adjudicated sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein and former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers have emerged this week, indicating the pair acted as confidants.
These exchanges, dating from 2013 to early 2019, demonstrate the two men discussing private – and at times questionable – views on political matters and personal connections.
“I’m trying to understand why [the] American elite believe if u kill your baby by violence and abandonment it must be irrelevant to your acceptance 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 violence and abandonment it must be irrelevant to your entry to Harvard,”} Summers emailed to Epstein in a 2017 email. “But made advances toward a few women 10 years ago and cannot work at a network or think tank. DO NOT REPEAT THIS IDEA.”
During that period, Harvard University was dealing with an enrollment discussion after a formerly 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 women in academia, went on to say in the message to Epstein: I noted that half of the IQ in [the] world was owned by women without noting they are more than 51 percent of the populace.”
Summers was at one time a leading light in liberal circles – a one-time treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the key designers of Barack Obama’s approach to the economic downturn, and a steadfast voice in the progressive media. But concerns have lingered about his association with Epstein, a former associate of Donald Trump. Epstein was charged with a extensive child sex trafficking operation before his passing in jail in 2019 in New York City.
Following publication of a previous batch of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 report, a representative for Summers said that he “profoundly regrets being in contact with Epstein after his guilty verdict”.
Left-leaning lawmakers disclosed emails from the Epstein estate this week that indicate Epstein was of the opinion Trump was knew about conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In response, Republican lawmakers released a much bigger batch of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
The documents show that Summers continued amicable contact with the adjudicated child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the final email exchange happening only months before Epstein’s apprehension.
Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday that he would be instructing the Department of Justice and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s “involvement and connection” with Summers, among other influential liberal leaders and business leaders.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein converse on politics – especially Summers’s contempt 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 replied 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 affirmed his remorse in a recent statement. “I have great regrets 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 gave more than $9m to Harvard and its associated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was named a visiting fellow to perform research. The university later determined Epstein “did not have the academic qualifications visiting fellows normally possess and his application outlined a course of study Epstein was not prepared to pursue”.
Harvard only ceased accepting Epstein’s donations after he admitted guilt to child sex offenses in 2008.
By that time Obama’s star was rising. Summers would eventually receive appointment as director of the White House economic advisory body from January 2009 until November 2010.
After Summers exited 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 got together a multiple times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.
After media coverage about Epstein’s donations surfaced, New’s charity made a donation “more than” of that received to anti-sex-trafficking organizations.
