Disclosed Emails Depict Jeffrey Epstein and Summers as Trusted Friends
Numerous exchanges between found guilty child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and one-time US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers came to light this week, revealing the pair were close contacts.
Their correspondence, spanning 2013 to early 2019, show the two men exchanging personal – and at times improper – opinions on public affairs and personal connections.
I am attempting to understand why [the] American elite believe if u murder your baby by beating 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 believe if u kill your baby by physical abuse and desertion it must be unimportant to your acceptance to Harvard,”} Summers emailed to Epstein in a 2017 communication. Yet hit on a few women 10 years ago and cannot work at a network or think tank. KEEP CONFIDENTIAL THIS IDEA.”
Back then, Harvard University was grappling with an admissions debate 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 discriminatory comments about women scholars, went on to say in the email to Epstein: I pointed out that half of the IQ in [the] world was owned by women without stating they are more than 51 percent of society.”
Summers was at one time a key player 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 committed voice in the left-leaning punditry. But doubts have lingered about his association with Epstein, a longtime connection of Donald Trump. Epstein was charged with a broad sex trafficking of minors operation before his death in prison in 2019 in New York City.
Following publication of a prior batch of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 report, a agent for Summers stated that he “deeply regrets being in contact with Epstein after his guilty verdict”.
Democratic lawmakers released emails from the Epstein estate this week that suggest Epstein was of the opinion Trump was knew about conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In reply, GOP lawmakers issued a larger tranche of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
The documents show that Summers continued friendly contact with the found guilty child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the final email exchange occurring only months before Epstein’s apprehension.
Trump stated on Truth Social on Friday that he would be requesting the Department of Justice and the FBI to look into Epstein’s “role and association” with Summers, among other influential Democrats and business leaders.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein converse on politics – notably Summers’s dislike for Trump – as well as the aspects of charitable social networking – and women. Summers, 70, confided in Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his romantic gestures toward an anonymous woman, and being rebuffed.
“shes smart. making you pay for past errors,” Epstein wrote 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 restated his remorse in a recent statement. “I harbor significant regrets in my lifetime,” he commented. “As previously stated, my connection to Jeffrey Epstein represented a serious lapse in judgment.”
Summers was president of Harvard University from 2001 to 2006. Epstein donated more than $9m to Harvard and its associated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was named a visiting fellow to carry out research. The university later concluded Epstein “did not have 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 star was rising. Summers would later receive appointment as director of the White House NEC from January 2009 until November 2010.
After Summers exited the White House, he began requesting 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 associated with Summers’s wife, and the two men got together a twelve times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.
After media coverage about Epstein’s donations emerged, New’s charity made a donation “above and beyond” of that received to combatting sex trafficking organizations.