Uncovered Communications Illustrate Epstein and Summers as Close Associates

Multiple messages between adjudicated sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein and former US treasury head Larry Summers came to light this week, showing the pair acted as confidants.

Their correspondence, covering 2013 to early 2019, show the two men discussing private – and at times unseemly – opinions on politics and interpersonal dynamics.

“I’m trying to figure why [the] American elite believe if u murder your baby by beating and abandonment it must be not a factor to your acceptance to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} figure why [the] American elite feel if u take the life of your baby by beating and desertion it must be not a factor to your acceptance to Harvard,”} Summers stated to Epstein in a 2017 message. However flirted with a few women 10 years ago and are unable to work at a network or think tank. DO NOT REPEAT THIS IDEA.”

Back then, Harvard University was wrestling with an acceptance debate after a formerly incarcerated woman’s acceptance to a PhD program. Summers, a one-time president of the university who resigned amid a controversy after making sexist comments about women scholars, added in the correspondence to Epstein: I noted that half of the IQ in [the] world was held by women without mentioning they are more than 51 percent of society.”

Summers was previously a prominent figure in liberal circles – a one-time treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the primary architects of Barack Obama’s handling to the financial crisis, and a committed voice in the liberal commentariat. But concerns have persisted about his relationship with Epstein, a long-standing associate of Donald Trump. Epstein was charged with a wide-ranging child sex trafficking operation before his passing in custody in 2019 in New York City.

Following disclosure of a earlier set of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 article, a representative for Summers commented that he “is very sorry for being in contact with Epstein after his guilty verdict”.

Democratic lawmakers released emails from the Epstein estate this week that indicate Epstein believed Trump was aware of conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In retaliation, Republican lawmakers issued a larger batch of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.

The released materials show that Summers maintained congenial contact with the adjudicated child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the last email exchange happening only months before Epstein’s detention.

Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday that he would be asking the Department of Justice and the FBI to examine Epstein’s “participation and connection” with Summers, among other prominent Democrats and industry figures.

In the emails, Summers and Epstein converse on politics – particularly Summers’s disdain 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 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 reiterated his regret 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 gave more than $9m to Harvard and its affiliated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was designated a visiting fellow to carry out research. The university later found Epstein “lacked the educational background visiting fellows normally possess and his application proposed a course of study Epstein was unqualified to pursue”.

Harvard only ceased accepting Epstein’s donations after he pleaded guilty to child sex offenses in 2008.

At that point Obama’s career was advancing. Summers would ultimately win appointment as director of the White House National Economic Council from January 2009 until November 2010.

After Summers left the White House, he began asking 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 associated with Summers’s wife, and the two men met a multiple times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.

After reporting about Epstein’s donations came out, New’s charity made a donation “above and beyond” of that received to anti-exploitation organizations.