Uncovered Exchanges Show Epstein and Larry Summers as Close Associates
A series of exchanges between adjudicated offender Jeffrey Epstein and former US finance chief Larry Summers have emerged this week, revealing the pair served as confidants.
The messages, spanning 2013 to early 2019, reveal the two men exchanging private – and at times questionable – opinions on politics and personal connections.
I am attempting to figure why [the] American elite think if u murder your baby by beating and abandonment 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 think if u murder your baby by beating and neglect it must be not a factor to your admission to Harvard,”} Summers wrote to Epstein in a 2017 email. Yet made advances toward a few women 10 years ago and cannot work at a network or think tank. DO NOT SHARE THIS OBSERVATION.”
At that time, Harvard University was grappling with an enrollment discussion after a formerly 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 in academia, continued in the message to Epstein: “I observed that half of the IQ in [the] world was possessed by women without stating they are more than 51 percent of the populace.”
Summers was previously a prominent figure in liberal circles – a one-time treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the main engineers of Barack Obama’s handling to the financial crisis, and a steadfast presence in the liberal commentariat. But questions have remained about his relationship with Epstein, a long-standing associate of Donald Trump. Epstein was alleged to have run a extensive child sex trafficking operation before his death in jail in 2019 in New York City.
Following the release of a earlier set of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 piece, a agent for Summers said that he “deeply regrets being in contact with Epstein after his guilty verdict”.
Left-leaning lawmakers disclosed emails from the Epstein estate this week that suggest Epstein thought Trump was knew about conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In response, GOP lawmakers released a larger batch of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
These records show that Summers maintained congenial contact with the convicted child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the last email exchange occurring only months before Epstein’s detention.
Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday that he would be instructing the Department of Justice and the FBI to look into Epstein’s “role and connection” with Summers, among other prominent Democrats 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 advances toward an unidentified woman, and being turned down.
“shes smart. making you pay for past errors,” Epstein replied 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 sorrow in a recent statement. “There are many things I regret in my life,” he commented. “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 donated 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 “lacked the academic qualifications visiting fellows usually possess and his application outlined a course of study Epstein was ill-equipped to pursue”.
Harvard only ceased accepting Epstein’s donations after he confessed to child sex offenses in 2008.
By that time Obama’s star was rising. Summers would ultimately receive appointment as director of the White House National Economic Council from January 2009 until November 2010.
After Summers exited 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 met a dozen times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.
After reporting about Epstein’s donations surfaced, New’s charity made a donation “in excess” of that received to anti-sex-trafficking organizations.
