Disclosed Communications Illustrate Jeffrey Epstein and Summers as Trusted Friends
A series of communications between adjudicated sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein and one-time US treasury head Larry Summers have emerged this week, revealing the pair were close contacts.
Their correspondence, spanning 2013 to early 2019, show the two men sharing intimate – and at times unseemly – perspectives on political matters and interpersonal dynamics.
“I’m trying to determine why [the] American elite believe if u murder your baby by beating and neglect it must be unimportant to your admission to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} understand why [the] American elite believe if u kill your baby by violence and abandonment it must be unimportant to your entry to Harvard,”} Summers wrote to Epstein in a 2017 communication. However made advances toward a few women 10 years ago and cannot work at a network or think tank. KEEP CONFIDENTIAL THIS INSIGHT.”
Back then, Harvard University was grappling with an enrollment debate after a formerly incarcerated woman’s enrollment to a PhD program. Summers, a ex- president of the university who resigned amid a uproar after making gender-biased comments about female academics, went on to say in the message to Epstein: I noted that half of the IQ in [the] world was owned by women without stating they are more than 51 percent of society.”
Summers was previously a key player in liberal circles – a one-time treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the main designers of Barack Obama’s handling to the market collapse, and a steadfast presence in the liberal commentariat. But doubts have lingered about his association with Epstein, a former contact of Donald Trump. Epstein was accused of a extensive sex trafficking of minors operation before his demise in jail in 2019 in New York City.
Following the release of a earlier set of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 piece, a spokesperson for Summers stated that he “is very sorry for being in contact with Epstein after his conviction”.
Democratic lawmakers released emails from the Epstein estate this week that indicate Epstein was of the opinion Trump was had knowledge of conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In response, Conservative lawmakers released a larger batch of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
These records show that Summers continued friendly contact with the adjudicated child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the last email exchange occurring only months before Epstein’s detention.
Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday that he would be requesting the Department of Justice and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s “involvement and connection” with Summers, among other influential Democratic figures and business leaders.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein converse on politics – particularly 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 advances toward an unidentified woman, and being turned down.
“shes smart. making you pay for past errors,” Epstein wrote 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 affirmed his regret in a recent statement. “There are many things I regret in my life,” he said. “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 donated more than $9m to Harvard and its related programs between 1998 and 2008, and was appointed a visiting fellow to carry out research. The university later found Epstein “was missing the scholarly credentials visiting fellows typically possess and his application suggested a course of study Epstein was ill-equipped to pursue”.
Harvard only ceased accepting Epstein’s donations after he confessed to child sex offenses in 2008.
By that time Obama’s profile was growing. Summers would later receive appointment as director of the White House economic advisory body from January 2009 until November 2010.
After Summers exited the White House, he began soliciting Epstein for non-profit advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor pursuing a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made charitable contributions to projects connected to Summers’s wife, and the two men got together a multiple times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.
After media coverage about Epstein’s donations came out, New’s charity made a donation “above and beyond” of that received to anti-exploitation organizations.
