Disclosed Exchanges Illustrate Jeffrey Epstein and Summers as Close Associates
Multiple communications between adjudicated offender Jeffrey Epstein and one-time US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers came to light this week, indicating the pair were close contacts.
These exchanges, spanning 2013 to early 2019, show the two men discussing private – and at times unseemly – opinions on politics and personal connections.
“I’m trying to understand why [the] American elite think if u kill your baby by violence and neglect it must be not a factor to your admission 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 beating and abandonment it must be unimportant to your entry to Harvard,”} Summers emailed to Epstein in a 2017 communication. However made advances toward a few women 10 years ago and can’t work at a network or think tank. KEEP CONFIDENTIAL THIS INSIGHT.”
At that time, Harvard University was wrestling with an enrollment controversy after a formerly incarcerated woman’s acceptance to a PhD program. Summers, a former president of the university who stepped down amid a uproar after making gender-biased comments about women scholars, continued in the email to Epstein: I pointed out 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 key player in the Democratic Party circles – a former treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the main designers of Barack Obama’s handling to the financial crisis, and a committed figure in the progressive media. But questions have persisted about his relationship with Epstein, a longtime connection of Donald Trump. Epstein was accused of a wide-ranging sex trafficking of minors operation before his passing in jail in 2019 in New York City.
Following disclosure of a prior set of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 report, a agent for Summers stated that he “is very sorry for being in contact with Epstein after his conviction”.
Left-leaning lawmakers made public emails from the Epstein estate this week that imply Epstein believed Trump was knew about conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In reply, Republican lawmakers issued a more extensive batch of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
The released materials show that Summers maintained congenial contact with the found guilty child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the most recent email exchange occurring only months before Epstein’s arrest.
Trump posted 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 well-known Democrats and business leaders.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein talk about politics – particularly Summers’s disdain for Trump – as well as the aspects of philanthropic social networking – and women. Summers, 70, shared with Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his overtures toward an anonymous woman, and being rebuffed.
“shes smart. making you pay for past errors,” 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 affirmed his regret in a recent statement. “I have great regrets in my life,” 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 affiliated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was designated a visiting fellow to conduct research. The university later concluded Epstein “lacked the educational background visiting fellows normally possess and his application outlined a course of study Epstein was not prepared to pursue”.
Harvard only ceased accepting Epstein’s donations after he confessed to child sex offenses in 2008.
By then Obama’s star was rising. Summers would eventually secure appointment as director of the White House NEC from January 2009 until November 2010.
After Summers left the White House, he began requesting Epstein for philanthropic advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor developing a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made gifts to projects associated with Summers’s wife, and the two men met a multiple times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.
After reporting about Epstein’s donations came out, New’s charity made a donation “in excess” of that received to anti-exploitation organizations.