Uncovered Emails Show Epstein and Larry Summers as Confidantes
Multiple exchanges between found guilty offender Jeffrey Epstein and ex- US treasury head Larry Summers came to light this week, showing the pair served as trusted allies.
These exchanges, covering 2013 to early 2019, reveal the two men sharing intimate – and at times unseemly – opinions on politics and relationships.
“I’m trying to figure why [the] American elite believe if u take the life of your baby by beating and desertion it must be unimportant 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 take the life of your baby by violence and desertion it must be not a factor to your acceptance to Harvard,”} Summers emailed to Epstein in a 2017 email. “But flirted with a few women 10 years ago and cannot work at a network or think tank. KEEP CONFIDENTIAL THIS INSIGHT.”
During that period, Harvard University was dealing with an admissions debate after a previously incarcerated woman’s admission to a PhD program. Summers, a former president of the university who stepped down amid a scandal after making gender-biased comments about women scholars, went on to say in the correspondence to Epstein: “I observed that half of the IQ in [the] world was owned by women without noting they are more than 51 percent of the populace.”
Summers was previously a leading light in Democratic circles – a ex- treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the key engineers of Barack Obama’s approach to the market collapse, and a committed voice in the left-leaning punditry. But concerns have remained about his connection with Epstein, a long-standing contact of Donald Trump. Epstein was accused of a broad exploitation operation before his demise in jail in 2019 in New York City.
Following the release of a earlier tranche of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 article, a representative for Summers said that he “is very sorry for being in contact with Epstein after his conviction”.
Democratic lawmakers disclosed emails from the Epstein estate this week that indicate Epstein believed Trump was knew about conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In reply, Republican lawmakers issued a larger collection of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
The documents show that Summers continued congenial contact with the convicted child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the final email exchange happening only months before Epstein’s apprehension.
Trump stated on Truth Social on Friday that he would be instructing the Department of Justice and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s “role and connection” with Summers, among other prominent liberal leaders and business leaders.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein converse on politics – especially Summers’s disdain for Trump – as well as the aspects of philanthropic social networking – and women. Summers, 70, confided in Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his romantic gestures toward an unnamed woman, and being rebuffed.
“she's intelligent. holding you accountable for past mistakes,” Epstein replied in an exchange on 16 March. “overlook the 'daddy' remark, I'm dating the motorcycle guy, you responded appropriately.. frustration signals affection., no protests revealed fortitude.”
Summers reiterated his remorse in a recent statement. “I have great regrets in my life,” he wrote. “I’ve expressed this previously: my relationship with Jeffrey Epstein was a grave mistake.”
Summers was president of Harvard University from 2001 to 2006. Epstein contributed more than $9m to Harvard and its affiliated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was appointed a visiting fellow to conduct research. The university later determined Epstein “was missing the scholarly credentials visiting fellows normally possess and his application suggested a course of study Epstein was ill-equipped to pursue”.
Harvard only ceased accepting Epstein’s donations after he admitted guilt 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 economic advisory body 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 working on a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made philanthropic donations to projects connected to Summers’s wife, and the two men met a dozen times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.
After news about Epstein’s donations surfaced, New’s charity made a donation “more than” of that received to anti-exploitation organizations.
