Uncovered Communications Illustrate Jeffrey Epstein and Summers as Close Associates
Numerous communications between found guilty child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and one-time US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers came to light this week, revealing the pair acted as trusted allies.
The messages, covering 2013 to early 2019, reveal the two men discussing personal – and at times improper – views on politics and personal connections.
“I’m trying to determine why [the] American elite believe if u kill your baby by violence 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 believe if u murder your baby by physical abuse and abandonment it must be not a factor to your acceptance to Harvard,”} Summers emailed to Epstein in a 2017 email. Yet hit on a few women 10 years ago and are unable to work at a network or think tank. DO NOT SHARE THIS INSIGHT.”
During that period, Harvard University was grappling with an admissions controversy after a once incarcerated woman’s admission to a PhD program. Summers, a one-time president of the university who lost his position amid a controversy after making gender-biased comments about women in academia, continued in the message to Epstein: I pointed out that half of the IQ in [the] world was owned by women without stating they are more than 51 percent of population.”
Summers was at one time a key player in the Democratic Party circles – a one-time treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the key engineers of Barack Obama’s response to the market collapse, and a committed voice in the left-leaning punditry. But questions have remained about his relationship with Epstein, a longtime associate of Donald Trump. Epstein was accused of a extensive child sex trafficking operation before his passing in custody in 2019 in New York City.
Following the release of a earlier batch of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 report, a spokesperson for Summers commented that he “is very sorry for being in contact with Epstein after his conviction”.
Democratic Party lawmakers disclosed 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 reply, Conservative lawmakers issued a much bigger collection of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
The documents show that Summers kept up congenial contact with the found guilty child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the last email exchange taking place only months before Epstein’s apprehension.
Trump stated on Truth Social on Friday that he would be requesting the Department of Justice and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s “involvement and relationship” with Summers, among other prominent Democratic figures and industry figures.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein talk about politics – notably Summers’s contempt for Trump – as well as the particulars of philanthropic social networking – and women. Summers, 70, disclosed to Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his romantic gestures toward an unidentified woman, and being rejected.
“she's intelligent. holding you accountable for past mistakes,” Epstein responded 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 restated his regret in a recent statement. “I have great regrets in my life,” he said. “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 gave more than $9m to Harvard and its associated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was designated a visiting fellow to carry out research. The university later concluded Epstein “was missing the scholarly credentials visiting fellows typically possess and his application suggested a course of study Epstein was unqualified to pursue”.
Harvard only ceased accepting Epstein’s donations after he confessed to child sex offenses in 2008.
By then Obama’s star was rising. Summers would eventually secure appointment as director of the White House economic advisory body from January 2009 until November 2010.
After Summers exited the White House, he began soliciting Epstein for non-profit advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor developing a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made charitable contributions to projects connected to Summers’s wife, and the two men got together a multiple 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.