Uncovered Emails Illustrate Epstein and Larry Summers as Trusted Friends
Numerous messages between found guilty sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein and ex- US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers were released this week, indicating the pair were trusted allies.
The messages, dating from 2013 to early 2019, reveal the two men discussing intimate – and at times unseemly – views on politics and relationships.
I'm struggling to determine why [the] American elite think if u take the life of your baby by beating and abandonment it must be not a factor to your entry to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} figure why [the] American elite think if u take the life of your baby by beating and desertion it must be irrelevant to your admission to Harvard,”} Summers stated to Epstein in a 2017 communication. “But hit on a few women 10 years ago and can’t work at a network or think tank. DO NOT SHARE THIS OBSERVATION.”
During that period, Harvard University was grappling with an acceptance discussion after a formerly incarcerated woman’s acceptance to a PhD program. Summers, a former president of the university who lost his position amid a controversy after making discriminatory comments about women in academia, added in the email to Epstein: I noted that half of the IQ in [the] world was possessed by women without mentioning they are more than 51 percent of society.”
Summers was previously a prominent figure in the Democratic Party circles – a former treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the primary designers of Barack Obama’s approach to the market collapse, and a committed voice in the left-leaning punditry. But questions have remained about his connection with Epstein, a long-standing associate of Donald Trump. Epstein was accused of a wide-ranging exploitation operation before his passing in prison in 2019 in New York City.
Following the release of a previous set of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 report, a agent for Summers said that he “deeply regrets being in contact with Epstein after his guilty verdict”.
Democratic lawmakers made public emails from the Epstein estate this week that suggest Epstein thought Trump was aware of conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In reply, Conservative lawmakers published a larger collection of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
The documents show that Summers continued congenial contact with the adjudicated child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the last email exchange happening only months before Epstein’s arrest.
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 connection” with Summers, among other influential liberal leaders and corporate executives.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein converse on politics – particularly Summers’s contempt for Trump – as well as the details of philanthropic social networking – and women. Summers, 70, shared with Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his advances toward an unidentified woman, and being turned down.
“she is clever. ensuring you atone for previous missteps,” Epstein replied 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 reiterated his remorse in a recent statement. “I harbor significant regrets in my lifetime,” 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 contributed more than $9m to Harvard and its affiliated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was appointed a visiting fellow to perform research. The university later concluded Epstein “lacked the educational background visiting fellows typically possess and his application suggested a course of study Epstein was ill-equipped to pursue”.
Harvard only stopped accepting Epstein’s donations after he pleaded guilty to child sex offenses in 2008.
By then Obama’s profile was growing. Summers would eventually secure appointment as director of the White House NEC from January 2009 until November 2010.
After Summers exited the White House, he began soliciting Epstein for charitable advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor working on a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made philanthropic donations to projects associated with Summers’s wife, and the two men met a dozen times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.
After news about Epstein’s donations emerged, New’s charity made a donation “more than” of that received to anti-exploitation organizations.
