Uncovered Communications Show Jeffrey Epstein and Summers as Confidantes
Numerous messages between adjudicated offender Jeffrey Epstein and ex- US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers came to light this week, revealing the pair acted as close contacts.
Their correspondence, dating from 2013 to early 2019, reveal the two men exchanging private – and at times unseemly – opinions on politics and interpersonal dynamics.
“I’m trying to figure why [the] American elite think if u murder your baby by beating 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} understand why [the] American elite feel if u take the life of your baby by violence and desertion it must be unimportant to your admission to Harvard,”} Summers stated to Epstein in a 2017 communication. Yet made advances toward 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 wrestling with an enrollment debate after a previously incarcerated woman’s acceptance to a PhD program. Summers, a former president of the university who stepped down amid a scandal after making gender-biased comments about women in academia, continued 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 the populace.”
Summers was once a key player in Democratic circles – a former treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the main designers of Barack Obama’s response to the market collapse, and a steadfast voice in the progressive media. But concerns have persisted about his connection with Epstein, a former connection of Donald Trump. Epstein was alleged to have run a extensive child sex trafficking operation before his passing in prison in 2019 in New York City.
Following the release of a previous batch of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 piece, a spokesperson for Summers said that he “is very sorry for being in contact with Epstein after his conviction”.
Democratic Party lawmakers made public 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 larger batch of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
These records show that Summers maintained congenial contact with the convicted child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the most recent email exchange happening only months before Epstein’s arrest.
Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday that he would be requesting the Department of Justice and the FBI to examine Epstein’s “role and connection” with Summers, among other prominent Democratic figures and corporate executives.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein converse on politics – especially Summers’s dislike for Trump – as well as the details of philanthropic social networking – and women. Summers, 70, shared with Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his romantic gestures toward an unnamed woman, and being rebuffed.
“shes smart. making you pay for past errors,” 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 affirmed his regret in a recent statement. “There are many things I regret 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 named a visiting fellow to carry out research. The university later found Epstein “did not have the scholarly credentials visiting fellows typically possess and his application outlined a course of study Epstein was not prepared to pursue”.
Harvard only discontinued accepting Epstein’s donations after he admitted guilt to child sex offenses in 2008.
At that point Obama’s star was rising. Summers would eventually win 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 developing a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made philanthropic donations to projects linked to Summers’s wife, and the two men met a twelve times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.
After news about Epstein’s donations surfaced, New’s charity made a donation “above and beyond” of that received to anti-exploitation organizations.
