Revealed Communications Illustrate Epstein and Larry Summers as Confidantes

Numerous communications between adjudicated sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein and former US finance chief Larry Summers were released this week, revealing the pair served as close contacts.

These exchanges, dating from 2013 to early 2019, show the two men exchanging personal – and at times improper – perspectives on public affairs and personal connections.

“I’m trying to figure why [the] American elite feel if u kill your baby by violence and abandonment it must be irrelevant to your admission to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} understand why [the] American elite feel if u kill your baby by physical abuse and desertion it must be irrelevant to your acceptance to Harvard,”} Summers emailed to Epstein in a 2017 communication. Yet made advances toward a few women 10 years ago and are unable to work at a network or think tank. DO NOT SHARE THIS INSIGHT.”

At that time, Harvard University was dealing with an admissions controversy after a formerly incarcerated woman’s admission to a PhD program. Summers, a ex- president of the university who resigned amid a controversy after making discriminatory comments about women in academia, went on to say in the email 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 the populace.”

Summers was previously a prominent figure in liberal circles – a ex- treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the primary designers of Barack Obama’s handling to the economic downturn, and a stalwart voice in the left-leaning punditry. But doubts have lingered about his connection with Epstein, a longtime contact of Donald Trump. Epstein was accused of a wide-ranging child sex trafficking operation before his passing in custody in 2019 in New York City.

Following disclosure of a previous batch of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 report, a agent for Summers commented that he “deeply regrets being in contact with Epstein after his legal finding”.

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

The released materials show that Summers continued congenial contact with the found guilty child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the final email exchange taking place only months before Epstein’s arrest.

Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday that he would be instructing the Department of Justice and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s “involvement and connection” with Summers, among other prominent liberal leaders and business leaders.

In the emails, Summers and Epstein converse on politics – notably Summers’s dislike for Trump – as well as the particulars of non-profit social networking – and women. Summers, 70, confided in Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his romantic gestures toward an unnamed woman, and being rejected.

“she's intelligent. holding you accountable for past mistakes,” 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 restated his regret 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 named a visiting fellow to conduct research. The university later found Epstein “did not have the educational background visiting fellows typically possess and his application suggested a course of study Epstein was not prepared to pursue”.

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

By then Obama’s star was rising. Summers would ultimately secure appointment as director of the White House National Economic Council from January 2009 until November 2010.

After Summers left the White House, he began requesting Epstein for charitable advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor developing a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made philanthropic donations to projects associated with 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 came out, New’s charity made a donation “above and beyond” of that received to anti-sex-trafficking organizations.