Revealed Emails Illustrate Epstein and Larry Summers as Close Associates

A series of exchanges between found guilty offender Jeffrey Epstein and former US finance chief Larry Summers have emerged this week, revealing the pair acted as close contacts.

Their correspondence, spanning 2013 to early 2019, demonstrate the two men exchanging private – and at times unseemly – opinions on politics and personal connections.

“I’m trying to understand why [the] American elite think if u murder your baby by physical abuse and neglect it must be unimportant to your acceptance to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} understand why [the] American elite feel if u murder your baby by beating and neglect it must be not a factor to your entry to Harvard,”} Summers emailed to Epstein in a 2017 message. “But flirted with a few women 10 years ago and can’t work at a network or think tank. DO NOT REPEAT THIS OBSERVATION.”

Back then, Harvard University was dealing with an admissions discussion after a once incarcerated woman’s acceptance to a PhD program. Summers, a one-time president of the university who resigned amid a scandal after making sexist comments about women scholars, continued in the message to Epstein: “I observed that half of the IQ in [the] world was held by women without noting they are more than 51 percent of society.”

Summers was previously a prominent figure in the Democratic Party circles – a ex- treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the primary engineers of Barack Obama’s handling to the economic downturn, and a steadfast figure in the progressive media. But doubts have remained about his association with Epstein, a long-standing associate of Donald Trump. Epstein was charged with a broad child sex trafficking operation before his passing in prison in 2019 in New York City.

Following disclosure of a earlier set of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 report, a representative for Summers said that he “deeply regrets being in contact with Epstein after his guilty verdict”.

Democratic lawmakers disclosed emails from the Epstein estate this week that suggest Epstein was of the opinion Trump was aware of conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In retaliation, Conservative lawmakers released a more extensive collection of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.

The released materials show that Summers maintained amicable contact with the found guilty child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the last email exchange taking place 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 examine Epstein’s “role and relationship” with Summers, among other prominent Democratic figures and corporate executives.

In the emails, Summers and Epstein talk about politics – particularly Summers’s disdain for Trump – as well as the particulars of non-profit social networking – and women. Summers, 70, shared with 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. “overlook the 'daddy' remark, I'm dating the motorcycle guy, you responded appropriately.. frustration signals affection., no protests revealed fortitude.”

Summers restated his sorrow in a recent statement. “There are many things I regret in my life,” he wrote. “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 gave more than $9m to Harvard and its affiliated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was appointed a visiting fellow to conduct research. The university later determined Epstein “lacked the educational background visiting fellows usually possess and his application suggested a course of study Epstein was not prepared to pursue”.

Harvard only ceased accepting Epstein’s donations after he admitted guilt to child sex offenses in 2008.

At that point Obama’s profile was growing. 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 asking Epstein for charitable advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor pursuing a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made charitable contributions to projects associated with Summers’s wife, and the two men met a multiple times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.

After media coverage about Epstein’s donations surfaced, New’s charity made a donation “above and beyond” of that received to anti-exploitation organizations.