Revealed Exchanges Depict Epstein and Larry Summers as Confidantes

Multiple communications between adjudicated offender Jeffrey Epstein and ex- US finance chief Larry Summers were released this week, revealing the pair served as close contacts.

Their correspondence, spanning 2013 to early 2019, reveal the two men exchanging personal – and at times unseemly – views on politics and relationships.

I am attempting 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 admission to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} figure why [the] American elite feel if u kill your baby by violence and abandonment it must be not a factor to your entry to Harvard,”} Summers emailed to Epstein in a 2017 email. “But hit on a few women 10 years ago and cannot work at a network or think tank. DO NOT SHARE THIS INSIGHT.”

At that time, Harvard University was grappling with an enrollment debate after a formerly incarcerated woman’s admission to a PhD program. Summers, a one-time president of the university who stepped down amid a uproar after making sexist comments about women scholars, went on to say in the correspondence to Epstein: “I observed that half of the IQ in [the] world was owned by women without mentioning they are more than 51 percent of population.”

Summers was at one time a prominent figure in liberal circles – a former treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the key designers of Barack Obama’s handling to the market collapse, and a stalwart presence in the left-leaning punditry. But questions have lingered about his connection with Epstein, a former connection of Donald Trump. Epstein was accused of a extensive exploitation operation before his passing in jail in 2019 in New York City.

Following publication of a prior set of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 article, a representative for Summers said that he “profoundly regrets being in contact with Epstein after his legal finding”.

Democratic Party lawmakers released 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 response, Conservative lawmakers published a much bigger batch of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.

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

Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday that he would be requesting the Department of Justice and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s “role and connection” with Summers, among other well-known Democrats and industry figures.

In the emails, Summers and Epstein discuss politics – especially Summers’s dislike for Trump – as well as the particulars of philanthropic social networking – and women. Summers, 70, disclosed to Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his overtures toward an anonymous woman, and being turned down.

“shes smart. making you pay for past errors,” Epstein responded 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 restated his remorse in a recent statement. “There are many things I regret in my life,” he commented. “As previously stated, my connection to Jeffrey Epstein represented a serious lapse in judgment.”

Summers was president of Harvard University from 2001 to 2006. Epstein contributed more than $9m to Harvard and its associated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was appointed a visiting fellow to carry out research. The university later determined Epstein “did not have the scholarly credentials visiting fellows normally possess and his application suggested a course of study Epstein was not prepared to pursue”.

Harvard only stopped accepting Epstein’s donations after he confessed to child sex offenses in 2008.

At that point Obama’s star was rising. Summers would ultimately secure appointment as director of the White House NEC from January 2009 until November 2010.

After Summers left 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 gifts to projects linked to Summers’s wife, and the two men got together a twelve times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.

After media coverage about Epstein’s donations emerged, New’s charity made a donation “more than” of that received to anti-exploitation organizations.