Uncovered Exchanges Illustrate Jeffrey Epstein and Larry Summers as Close Associates

Multiple exchanges between adjudicated sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein and ex- US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers came to light this week, indicating the pair served as confidants.

These exchanges, covering 2013 to early 2019, reveal the two men sharing private – and at times unseemly – opinions on public affairs and personal connections.

I'm struggling to figure why [the] American elite believe if u kill your baby by physical abuse and neglect it must be unimportant to your entry to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} figure why [the] American elite feel if u take the life of your baby by beating and neglect it must be irrelevant to your admission to Harvard,”} Summers stated to Epstein in a 2017 message. “But made advances toward a few women 10 years ago and cannot work at a network or think tank. DO NOT REPEAT THIS INSIGHT.”

During that period, Harvard University was grappling with an acceptance debate after a once incarcerated woman’s acceptance to a PhD program. Summers, a one-time president of the university who resigned amid a controversy after making gender-biased comments about women in academia, continued in the email to Epstein: “I observed that half of the IQ in [the] world was held by women without stating they are more than 51 percent of the populace.”

Summers was previously a key player in Democratic circles – a one-time treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the primary engineers of Barack Obama’s approach to the economic downturn, and a stalwart voice in the liberal commentariat. But concerns have remained about his relationship with Epstein, a long-standing associate 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 the release of a prior set of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 article, a agent for Summers said that he “is very sorry for being in contact with Epstein after his legal finding”.

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

These records show that Summers maintained amicable contact with the adjudicated child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the last email exchange occurring only months before Epstein’s detention.

Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday that he would be requesting the Department of Justice and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s “role and relationship” with Summers, among other well-known Democrats and business leaders.

In the emails, Summers and Epstein talk about politics – especially Summers’s contempt for Trump – as well as the aspects of non-profit social networking – and women. Summers, 70, confided in Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his advances toward an anonymous woman, and being rebuffed.

“shes smart. making you pay for past errors,” Epstein wrote 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 affirmed his remorse in a recent statement. “I have great regrets in my life,” he commented. “I’ve expressed this previously: my relationship with Jeffrey Epstein was a grave mistake.”

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 designated a visiting fellow to carry out research. The university later found Epstein “did not have the academic qualifications visiting fellows usually possess and his application proposed a course of study Epstein was unqualified 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 ultimately win appointment as director of the White House NEC from January 2009 until November 2010.

After Summers exited the White House, he began soliciting 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 associated with Summers’s wife, and the two men met a dozen times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.

After reporting about Epstein’s donations emerged, New’s charity made a donation “more than” of that received to anti-exploitation organizations.