Revealed Emails Illustrate Jeffrey Epstein and Summers as Trusted Friends
Multiple communications between adjudicated offender Jeffrey Epstein and ex- US treasury head Larry Summers came to light this week, indicating the pair served as close contacts.
These exchanges, covering 2013 to early 2019, show the two men exchanging personal – and at times improper – perspectives on politics and relationships.
I am attempting to understand why [the] American elite feel if u murder your baby by physical abuse and neglect it must be unimportant to your entry to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} understand why [the] American elite feel if u murder your baby by physical abuse and neglect it must be unimportant to your admission to Harvard,”} Summers emailed to Epstein in a 2017 communication. Yet flirted with a few women 10 years ago and are unable to work at a network or think tank. DO NOT SHARE THIS IDEA.”
At that time, Harvard University was dealing with an admissions discussion after a previously incarcerated woman’s enrollment to a PhD program. Summers, a one-time president of the university who resigned amid a scandal after making discriminatory comments about women scholars, went on to say in the message 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 the Democratic Party circles – a ex- treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the key designers of Barack Obama’s handling to the financial crisis, and a steadfast figure in the progressive media. But concerns have lingered about his connection with Epstein, a former contact of Donald Trump. Epstein was accused of a wide-ranging child sex trafficking operation before his demise in jail in 2019 in New York City.
Following the release of a earlier batch of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 article, a agent for Summers stated that he “deeply regrets being in contact with Epstein after his conviction”.
Left-leaning lawmakers released 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 retaliation, Conservative lawmakers published a much bigger batch of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
The documents show that Summers maintained congenial contact with the convicted child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the most recent email exchange happening only months before Epstein’s detention.
Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday that he would be instructing the Department of Justice and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s “role and relationship” with Summers, among other influential Democrats and corporate executives.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein converse on politics – especially Summers’s dislike for Trump – as well as the aspects 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.
“shes smart. making you pay for past errors,” Epstein wrote in an exchange on 16 March. “overlook the 'daddy' remark, I'm dating the motorcycle guy, you responded appropriately.. frustration signals affection., no protests revealed fortitude.”
Summers reiterated his regret in a recent statement. “I have great regrets 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 gave more than $9m to Harvard and its affiliated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was designated a visiting fellow to carry out research. The university later found Epstein “was missing the academic qualifications visiting fellows typically possess and his application outlined a course of study Epstein was ill-equipped to pursue”.
Harvard only discontinued accepting Epstein’s donations after he confessed to child sex offenses in 2008.
By that time Obama’s career was advancing. 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 pursuing a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made charitable contributions to projects connected to Summers’s wife, and the two men saw each other a twelve times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.
After reporting about Epstein’s donations emerged, New’s charity made a donation “in excess” of that received to anti-exploitation organizations.