Uncovered Exchanges Show Epstein and Summers as Close Associates
Numerous exchanges between found guilty child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and ex- US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers came to light this week, indicating the pair were close contacts.
The messages, covering 2013 to early 2019, reveal the two men sharing intimate – and at times improper – opinions on politics and personal connections.
I'm struggling to understand why [the] American elite think if u murder your baby by violence and neglect it must be irrelevant to your admission 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 violence and neglect it must be not a factor to your entry to Harvard,”} Summers stated to Epstein in a 2017 communication. Yet hit on a few women 10 years ago and can’t work at a network or think tank. KEEP CONFIDENTIAL THIS IDEA.”
Back then, Harvard University was wrestling with an admissions debate after a previously incarcerated woman’s admission to a PhD program. Summers, a one-time president of the university who stepped down amid a controversy after making discriminatory 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 stating they are more than 51 percent of the populace.”
Summers was once a key player in Democratic circles – a one-time treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the key designers of Barack Obama’s approach to the economic downturn, and a stalwart voice in the progressive media. But questions have lingered about his association with Epstein, a long-standing contact of Donald Trump. Epstein was alleged to have run a broad exploitation operation before his death in prison in 2019 in New York City.
Following disclosure of a prior set of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 report, a agent for Summers commented that he “profoundly regrets being in contact with Epstein after his legal finding”.
Democratic lawmakers disclosed emails from the Epstein estate this week that indicate Epstein was of the opinion Trump was aware of conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In response, Conservative lawmakers issued a more extensive tranche of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
The released materials show that Summers maintained congenial contact with the found guilty child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the final email exchange happening only months before Epstein’s arrest.
Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday that he would be instructing the Department of Justice and the FBI to look into Epstein’s “involvement and association” with Summers, among other influential liberal leaders and corporate executives.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein talk about politics – notably 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 unidentified 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. “I have great regrets in my life,” he said. “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 associated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was named a visiting fellow to conduct research. The university later determined Epstein “was missing the academic qualifications visiting fellows normally possess and his application outlined a course of study Epstein was ill-equipped to pursue”.
Harvard only stopped accepting Epstein’s donations after he confessed to child sex offenses in 2008.
By that time Obama’s career was advancing. Summers would eventually 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 philanthropic advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor developing a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made philanthropic donations to projects linked to Summers’s wife, and the two men got together a twelve times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.
After news about Epstein’s donations came out, New’s charity made a donation “in excess” of that received to anti-exploitation organizations.
