Uncovered Emails Depict Jeffrey Epstein and Summers as Confidantes
A series of messages between convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein and one-time US treasury head Larry Summers came to light this week, showing the pair served as confidants.
Their correspondence, spanning 2013 to early 2019, reveal the two men sharing private – and at times unseemly – opinions on political matters and relationships.
I'm struggling to understand why [the] American elite think if u take the life of your baby by violence and abandonment it must be irrelevant 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 neglect it must be unimportant to your entry to Harvard,”} Summers emailed to Epstein in a 2017 message. However hit on a few women 10 years ago and cannot work at a network or think tank. DO NOT SHARE THIS IDEA.”
Back then, Harvard University was wrestling with an admissions discussion after a once incarcerated woman’s admission to a PhD program. Summers, a ex- president of the university who resigned amid a scandal after making discriminatory comments about female academics, added in the message to Epstein: I pointed out that half of the IQ in [the] world was possessed by women without noting they are more than 51 percent of society.”
Summers was once a leading light in Democratic circles – a one-time treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the key engineers of Barack Obama’s handling to the market collapse, and a committed presence in the left-leaning punditry. But doubts have remained about his relationship with Epstein, a former contact of Donald Trump. Epstein was charged with a extensive sex trafficking of minors operation before his demise in prison in 2019 in New York City.
Following the release of a prior set of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 article, a spokesperson for Summers said that he “deeply regrets being in contact with Epstein after his guilty verdict”.
Democratic Party lawmakers released emails from the Epstein estate this week that imply Epstein believed Trump was knew about conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In retaliation, GOP lawmakers released a more extensive collection of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
The released materials show that Summers kept up congenial contact with the convicted child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the most recent email exchange occurring only months before Epstein’s detention.
Trump stated on Truth Social on Friday that he would be asking the Department of Justice and the FBI to look into Epstein’s “role and connection” with Summers, among other prominent Democratic figures and industry figures.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein discuss politics – especially Summers’s dislike for Trump – as well as the aspects of charitable social networking – and women. Summers, 70, disclosed to Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his romantic gestures toward an anonymous woman, and being rejected.
“she's intelligent. holding you accountable for past mistakes,” 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 affirmed his sorrow in a recent statement. “I have great regrets in my life,” he wrote. “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 contributed more than $9m to Harvard and its affiliated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was designated a visiting fellow to perform research. The university later found Epstein “lacked the educational background visiting fellows typically possess and his application outlined a course of study Epstein was not prepared to pursue”.
Harvard only ceased accepting Epstein’s donations after he pleaded guilty to child sex offenses in 2008.
At that point Obama’s profile was growing. Summers would ultimately win appointment as director of the White House NEC from January 2009 until November 2010.
After Summers departed the White House, he began requesting Epstein for philanthropic advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor pursuing a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made gifts to projects linked to Summers’s wife, and the two men got together a multiple times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.
After media coverage about Epstein’s donations emerged, New’s charity made a donation “above and beyond” of that received to anti-sex-trafficking organizations.
