Revealed Exchanges Illustrate Jeffrey Epstein and Larry Summers as Trusted Friends
A series of exchanges between adjudicated child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and ex- US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers were released this week, revealing the pair were trusted allies.
Their correspondence, dating from 2013 to early 2019, reveal the two men exchanging intimate – and at times improper – perspectives on politics and personal connections.
I'm struggling to understand why [the] American elite believe if u kill your baby by violence and desertion it must be not a factor to your acceptance to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} determine why [the] American elite think if u kill your baby by beating and abandonment it must be unimportant to your entry to Harvard,”} Summers emailed to Epstein in a 2017 email. However hit on a few women 10 years ago and can’t work at a network or think tank. DO NOT REPEAT THIS INSIGHT.”
Back then, 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 uproar after making sexist comments about women scholars, went on to say in the email to Epstein: “I observed that half of the IQ in [the] world was owned by women without stating they are more than 51 percent of population.”
Summers was once a prominent figure in Democratic circles – a former treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the primary architects of Barack Obama’s approach to the market collapse, and a committed presence in the progressive media. But questions have remained about his relationship with Epstein, a former associate of Donald Trump. Epstein was alleged to have run a extensive child sex trafficking operation before his passing in jail in 2019 in New York City.
Following disclosure of a previous tranche of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 report, a agent for Summers stated that he “profoundly regrets being in contact with Epstein after his legal finding”.
Left-leaning lawmakers made public emails from the Epstein estate this week that imply Epstein thought Trump was had knowledge of conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In retaliation, Republican lawmakers issued a larger collection of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
The released materials show that Summers kept up amicable contact with the adjudicated child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the final email exchange happening only months before Epstein’s arrest.
Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday that he would be asking the Department of Justice and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s “involvement and connection” with Summers, among other prominent liberal leaders and corporate executives.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein talk about politics – notably Summers’s disdain for Trump – as well as the details of charitable social networking – and women. Summers, 70, confided in Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his advances toward an unidentified 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 reiterated 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 donated more than $9m to Harvard and its related programs between 1998 and 2008, and was designated a visiting fellow to conduct research. The university later concluded 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 discontinued accepting Epstein’s donations after he pleaded guilty to child sex offenses in 2008.
By then Obama’s profile was growing. Summers would later receive appointment as director of the White House National Economic Council from January 2009 until November 2010.
After Summers exited the White House, he began requesting 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 connected to Summers’s wife, and the two men saw each other a multiple times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.
After news about Epstein’s donations emerged, New’s charity made a donation “in excess” of that received to combatting sex trafficking organizations.
