Revealed Exchanges Show Epstein and Summers as Trusted Friends
A series of communications between adjudicated offender Jeffrey Epstein and one-time US treasury head Larry Summers came to light this week, revealing the pair served as close contacts.
Their correspondence, spanning 2013 to early 2019, reveal the two men discussing personal – and at times questionable – perspectives on political matters and relationships.
“I’m trying to figure why [the] American elite think if u kill your baby by violence and desertion it must be irrelevant to your admission 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 beating and neglect it must be unimportant to your acceptance to Harvard,”} Summers stated to Epstein in a 2017 communication. “But hit on a few women 10 years ago and are unable to work at a network or think tank. DO NOT SHARE THIS INSIGHT.”
At that time, Harvard University was wrestling with an admissions debate after a once incarcerated woman’s acceptance to a PhD program. Summers, a former president of the university who resigned amid a scandal after making sexist comments about women scholars, went on to say in the email to Epstein: “I observed that half of the IQ in [the] world was held by women without stating they are more than 51 percent of population.”
Summers was previously a prominent figure in liberal circles – a one-time treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the primary architects of Barack Obama’s handling to the market collapse, and a committed voice in the liberal commentariat. But concerns have remained about his connection with Epstein, a former associate of Donald Trump. Epstein was alleged to have run a extensive exploitation operation before his death in jail in 2019 in New York City.
Following disclosure of a earlier set of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 article, a spokesperson for Summers commented that he “deeply regrets being in contact with Epstein after his conviction”.
Democratic Party lawmakers disclosed emails from the Epstein estate this week that suggest Epstein was of the opinion Trump was aware of conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In response, Republican lawmakers issued a larger tranche of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
The released materials show that Summers continued amicable contact with the convicted child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the most recent email exchange happening only months before Epstein’s apprehension.
Trump stated on Truth Social on Friday that he would be asking the Department of Justice and the FBI to look into Epstein’s “involvement and association” with Summers, among other prominent liberal leaders and business leaders.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein discuss politics – particularly Summers’s dislike for Trump – as well as the aspects of non-profit social networking – and women. Summers, 70, confided in Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his overtures toward an unnamed woman, and being rebuffed.
“she's intelligent. holding you accountable for past mistakes,” Epstein replied in an exchange on 16 March. “disregard the 'daddy' comment, I'm going out with the motorcycle guy, you handled it well.. irritation indicates concern., no complaining demonstrated strength.”
Summers reiterated his remorse in a recent statement. “I have great regrets in my life,” he wrote. “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 educational background visiting fellows normally possess and his application proposed a course of study Epstein was not prepared to pursue”.
Harvard only stopped accepting Epstein’s donations after he confessed to child sex offenses in 2008.
At that point 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 left the White House, he began soliciting Epstein for charitable advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor developing a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made gifts to projects connected to Summers’s wife, and the two men got together a dozen times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.
After media coverage about Epstein’s donations emerged, New’s charity made a donation “in excess” of that received to anti-sex-trafficking organizations.
