Revealed Communications Illustrate Jeffrey Epstein and Larry Summers as Trusted Friends
A series of messages between adjudicated child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and ex- US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers came to light this week, revealing the pair were close contacts.
Their correspondence, dating from 2013 to early 2019, reveal the two men exchanging personal – and at times improper – opinions on political matters and personal connections.
I am attempting to determine why [the] American elite feel if u take the life of your baby by beating and desertion it must be irrelevant to your entry to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} understand why [the] American elite believe if u take the life of your baby by physical abuse and abandonment it must be not a factor to your admission to Harvard,”} Summers stated to Epstein in a 2017 email. “But made advances toward a few women 10 years ago and are unable to work at a network or think tank. DO NOT REPEAT THIS OBSERVATION.”
During that period, Harvard University was wrestling with an acceptance controversy after a once incarcerated woman’s admission to a PhD program. Summers, a ex- president of the university who stepped down amid a scandal after making sexist 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 possessed by women without noting they are more than 51 percent of population.”
Summers was at one time a prominent figure in liberal circles – a ex- treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the primary designers of Barack Obama’s handling to the market collapse, and a steadfast voice in the liberal commentariat. But doubts have remained about his connection with Epstein, a long-standing contact of Donald Trump. Epstein was alleged to have run a extensive exploitation operation before his passing in jail in 2019 in New York City.
Following the release of a prior batch of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 piece, a agent for Summers stated that he “deeply regrets being in contact with Epstein after his legal finding”.
Left-leaning lawmakers released emails from the Epstein estate this week that imply Epstein was of the opinion Trump was aware of conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In retaliation, Republican lawmakers released a larger batch of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
The documents show that Summers maintained congenial contact with the adjudicated child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the most recent email exchange occurring only months before Epstein’s detention.
Trump stated on Truth Social on Friday that he would be instructing the Department of Justice and the FBI to examine Epstein’s “involvement and connection” with Summers, among other prominent liberal leaders and industry figures.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein discuss politics – particularly Summers’s disdain for Trump – as well as the details of philanthropic social networking – and women. Summers, 70, disclosed to Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his romantic gestures toward an unnamed woman, and being rejected.
“shes smart. making you pay for past errors,” Epstein wrote 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 restated his sorrow in a recent statement. “There are many things I regret 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 associated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was designated a visiting fellow to perform research. The university later found Epstein “did not have the educational background visiting fellows typically possess and his application proposed a course of study Epstein was unqualified to pursue”.
Harvard only discontinued accepting Epstein’s donations after he pleaded guilty to child sex offenses in 2008.
At that point Obama’s profile was growing. Summers would ultimately win appointment as director of the White House NEC from January 2009 until November 2010.
After Summers departed the White House, he began asking Epstein for charitable advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor pursuing a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made philanthropic donations to projects associated with Summers’s wife, and the two men saw each other a twelve times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.
After media coverage about Epstein’s donations surfaced, New’s charity made a donation “above and beyond” of that received to anti-exploitation organizations.
