Disclosed Exchanges Illustrate Epstein and Summers as Close Associates
Numerous communications between convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and one-time US treasury head Larry Summers have emerged this week, indicating the pair were trusted allies.
These exchanges, spanning 2013 to early 2019, show the two men discussing private – and at times unseemly – views on public affairs and personal connections.
“I’m trying to determine why [the] American elite believe if u take the life of your baby by beating and desertion 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 believe if u murder your baby by physical abuse and abandonment it must be not a factor to your admission to Harvard,”} Summers wrote to Epstein in a 2017 message. “But flirted with a few women 10 years ago and can’t work at a network or think tank. KEEP CONFIDENTIAL THIS INSIGHT.”
Back then, Harvard University was grappling with an acceptance discussion after a once incarcerated woman’s acceptance to a PhD program. Summers, a ex- president of the university who stepped down amid a scandal after making sexist 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 mentioning they are more than 51 percent of society.”
Summers was once a key player in liberal circles – a one-time treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the key designers of Barack Obama’s response to the economic downturn, and a committed voice in the left-leaning punditry. But concerns have persisted about his connection with Epstein, a longtime contact of Donald Trump. Epstein was accused of a extensive sex trafficking of minors operation before his passing in jail in 2019 in New York City.
Following disclosure of a earlier tranche of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 article, a spokesperson for Summers said that he “profoundly regrets being in contact with Epstein after his guilty verdict”.
Left-leaning lawmakers released emails from the Epstein estate this week that indicate Epstein thought Trump was aware of conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In reply, GOP lawmakers published a much bigger collection of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
These records show that Summers continued friendly contact with the convicted child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the final email exchange occurring only months before Epstein’s apprehension.
Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday that he would be instructing the Department of Justice and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s “role and association” 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 charitable social networking – and women. Summers, 70, disclosed to Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his romantic gestures toward an unnamed woman, and being turned down.
“she is clever. ensuring you atone for previous missteps,” Epstein replied 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 affirmed his regret in a recent statement. “I harbor significant regrets in my lifetime,” he commented. “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 related programs between 1998 and 2008, and was appointed a visiting fellow to conduct research. The university later found Epstein “was missing the scholarly credentials visiting fellows normally possess and his application outlined a course of study Epstein was unqualified to pursue”.
Harvard only stopped accepting Epstein’s donations after he confessed to child sex offenses in 2008.
By then Obama’s career was advancing. Summers would later 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 asking Epstein for philanthropic advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor pursuing 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 emerged, New’s charity made a donation “more than” of that received to anti-exploitation organizations.
