Uncovered Communications Depict Jeffrey Epstein and Summers as Confidantes
Numerous messages between convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein and former US finance chief Larry Summers came to light this week, showing the pair acted as trusted allies.
These exchanges, spanning 2013 to early 2019, demonstrate the two men exchanging intimate – and at times questionable – views on politics and interpersonal dynamics.
I'm struggling to understand why [the] American elite feel if u take the life of your baby by beating and abandonment 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 feel if u kill your baby by physical abuse and desertion it must be irrelevant to your acceptance to Harvard,”} Summers stated to Epstein in a 2017 message. “But made advances toward a few women 10 years ago and are unable to work at a network or think tank. DO NOT SHARE THIS OBSERVATION.”
During that period, Harvard University was wrestling with an admissions discussion after a formerly incarcerated woman’s acceptance to a PhD program. Summers, a ex- president of the university who stepped down amid a controversy after making sexist comments about female academics, added in the correspondence 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 at one time a prominent figure in liberal circles – a former treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the main engineers of Barack Obama’s handling to the economic downturn, and a steadfast presence in the left-leaning punditry. But concerns have remained about his association with Epstein, a long-standing associate of Donald Trump. Epstein was charged with a broad 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 article, a spokesperson for Summers said that he “deeply regrets being in contact with Epstein after his legal finding”.
Democratic Party lawmakers made public emails from the Epstein estate this week that suggest Epstein believed Trump was had knowledge of conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In reply, Republican lawmakers released a larger tranche of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
The released materials show that Summers continued friendly contact with the found guilty child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the last email exchange taking place only months before Epstein’s detention.
Trump stated 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 influential liberal leaders and corporate executives.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein talk about politics – notably Summers’s dislike for Trump – as well as the particulars of charitable social networking – and women. Summers, 70, disclosed to Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his advances toward an unidentified 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 reiterated his remorse in a recent statement. “There are many things I regret in my life,” 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 donated more than $9m to Harvard and its affiliated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was named a visiting fellow to conduct research. The university later determined Epstein “did not have the scholarly credentials visiting fellows normally possess and his application outlined a course of study Epstein was not prepared to pursue”.
Harvard only discontinued accepting Epstein’s donations after he pleaded guilty to child sex offenses in 2008.
By then Obama’s star was rising. Summers would later win appointment as director of the White House National Economic Council from January 2009 until November 2010.
After Summers exited the White House, he began asking Epstein for philanthropic advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor working on a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made philanthropic donations to projects connected to Summers’s wife, and the two men met a dozen times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.
After reporting about Epstein’s donations came out, New’s charity made a donation “more than” of that received to anti-exploitation organizations.
