Revealed Emails Depict Jeffrey Epstein and Larry Summers as Confidantes
Numerous messages between found guilty child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and one-time US finance chief Larry Summers came to light this week, showing the pair served as trusted allies.
The messages, covering 2013 to early 2019, demonstrate the two men sharing private – and at times unseemly – opinions on politics and personal connections.
I'm struggling to determine why [the] American elite think if u kill your baby by beating 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 take the life of your baby by physical abuse and desertion it must be not a factor to your acceptance to Harvard,”} Summers wrote to Epstein in a 2017 message. Yet flirted with a few women 10 years ago and are unable to work at a network or think tank. KEEP CONFIDENTIAL THIS OBSERVATION.”
At that time, Harvard University was dealing with an acceptance discussion after a formerly incarcerated woman’s acceptance to a PhD program. Summers, a former president of the university who resigned amid a controversy after making sexist comments about female academics, continued in the correspondence to Epstein: I pointed out that half of the IQ in [the] world was possessed by women without mentioning they are more than 51 percent of population.”
Summers was at one time a key player in liberal circles – a one-time treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the primary architects of Barack Obama’s response to the financial crisis, and a steadfast voice in the liberal commentariat. But concerns have remained about his association with Epstein, a longtime connection of Donald Trump. Epstein was charged with a extensive child sex trafficking operation before his demise in prison in 2019 in New York City.
Following publication of a earlier batch of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 piece, a representative for Summers said that he “is very sorry for being in contact with Epstein after his conviction”.
Democratic lawmakers released emails from the Epstein estate this week that imply Epstein believed Trump was aware of conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In response, Republican lawmakers issued a much bigger batch of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
These records show that Summers continued friendly contact with the adjudicated child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the most recent email exchange occurring only months before Epstein’s detention.
Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday that he would be asking the Department of Justice and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s “involvement and relationship” with Summers, among other influential Democrats and industry figures.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein converse on politics – especially Summers’s disdain for Trump – as well as the particulars of philanthropic social networking – and women. Summers, 70, shared with Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his advances toward an unnamed woman, and being turned down.
“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 restated his regret in a recent statement. “I have great regrets in my life,” he commented. “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 gave 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 found Epstein “was missing the scholarly credentials visiting fellows typically possess and his application outlined 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.
By then Obama’s career was advancing. Summers would later win appointment as director of the White House NEC from January 2009 until November 2010.
After Summers left the White House, he began asking 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 saw each other a twelve times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.
After media coverage about Epstein’s donations came out, New’s charity made a donation “more than” of that received to combatting sex trafficking organizations.
