Disclosed Emails Show Epstein and Summers as Close Associates
Numerous messages between found guilty sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein and former US treasury head Larry Summers came to light this week, indicating the pair served as confidants.
Their correspondence, dating from 2013 to early 2019, show the two men sharing intimate – and at times improper – views on public affairs and personal connections.
I'm struggling to determine why [the] American elite believe if u take the life of your baby by physical abuse and neglect 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 think if u take the life of your baby by beating and abandonment it must be unimportant to your acceptance to Harvard,”} Summers wrote to Epstein in a 2017 message. However flirted with a few women 10 years ago and can’t work at a network or think tank. KEEP CONFIDENTIAL THIS IDEA.”
During that period, Harvard University was dealing with an acceptance controversy after a formerly incarcerated woman’s acceptance to a PhD program. Summers, a former president of the university who stepped down amid a controversy after making gender-biased comments about female academics, went on to say in the message to Epstein: “I observed that half of the IQ in [the] world was owned by women without noting 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 engineers of Barack Obama’s handling to the market collapse, and a stalwart figure in the liberal commentariat. But concerns have persisted about his relationship with Epstein, a long-standing connection of Donald Trump. Epstein was accused of a extensive child sex trafficking operation before his demise in custody in 2019 in New York City.
Following the release of a earlier set of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 piece, a representative for Summers commented that he “profoundly regrets being in contact with Epstein after his guilty verdict”.
Democratic Party lawmakers disclosed 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 reply, Republican lawmakers published a larger tranche of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
The released materials show that Summers maintained friendly contact with the convicted child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the final email exchange happening only months before Epstein’s arrest.
Trump stated on Truth Social on Friday that he would be instructing the Department of Justice and the FBI to examine Epstein’s “involvement and association” with Summers, among other well-known Democratic figures and business leaders.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein converse on politics – notably Summers’s dislike for Trump – as well as the details of non-profit social networking – and women. Summers, 70, confided in Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his overtures toward an unnamed woman, and being rebuffed.
“she's intelligent. holding you accountable for past mistakes,” 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. “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 affiliated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was designated a visiting fellow to conduct research. The university later found Epstein “was missing the educational background visiting fellows typically possess and his application proposed a course of study Epstein was ill-equipped to pursue”.
Harvard only stopped accepting Epstein’s donations after he admitted guilt to child sex offenses in 2008.
By then Obama’s star was rising. Summers would eventually secure appointment as director of the White House National Economic Council from January 2009 until November 2010.
After Summers departed the White House, he began requesting Epstein for charitable advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor working on a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made philanthropic donations to projects linked to Summers’s wife, and the two men got together 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 combatting sex trafficking organizations.
