Revealed Exchanges Depict Jeffrey Epstein and Summers as Trusted Friends

Numerous communications between adjudicated child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers came to light this week, showing the pair were trusted allies.

Their correspondence, covering 2013 to early 2019, demonstrate the two men sharing personal – and at times unseemly – views on political matters and relationships.

I am attempting to determine why [the] American elite think if u kill your baby by beating and abandonment it must be irrelevant to your admission to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} understand why [the] American elite think if u take the life of your baby by physical abuse and abandonment it must be unimportant to your admission to Harvard,”} Summers stated to Epstein in a 2017 email. “But flirted with a few women 10 years ago and are unable to work at a network or think tank. DO NOT REPEAT THIS IDEA.”

Back then, Harvard University was grappling with an acceptance controversy after a previously incarcerated woman’s acceptance to a PhD program. Summers, a former president of the university who lost his position amid a uproar after making sexist comments about women scholars, continued in the email to Epstein: I pointed out that half of the IQ in [the] world was held by women without mentioning they are more than 51 percent of the populace.”

Summers was at one time a key player in liberal circles – a former 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 liberal commentariat. But doubts have remained about his connection with Epstein, a longtime contact of Donald Trump. Epstein was alleged to have run a wide-ranging exploitation operation before his demise in custody in 2019 in New York City.

Following publication of a prior batch of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 article, a representative for Summers stated that he “deeply regrets being in contact with Epstein after his legal finding”.

Left-leaning lawmakers made public emails from the Epstein estate this week that imply Epstein thought Trump was had knowledge of conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In retaliation, Conservative lawmakers released a much bigger batch of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.

The released materials show that Summers continued amicable contact with the convicted child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the last email exchange taking place 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 look into Epstein’s “involvement and connection” with Summers, among other prominent Democrats and corporate executives.

In the emails, Summers and Epstein discuss politics – especially Summers’s disdain for Trump – as well as the aspects of philanthropic social networking – and women. Summers, 70, confided in Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his overtures toward an anonymous woman, and being turned down.

“she's intelligent. holding you accountable for past mistakes,” 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 sorrow in a recent statement. “I harbor significant regrets in my lifetime,” he wrote. “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 contributed more than $9m to Harvard and its related programs between 1998 and 2008, and was named a visiting fellow to conduct research. The university later concluded Epstein “did not have the academic qualifications visiting fellows typically possess and his application outlined a course of study Epstein was unqualified to pursue”.

Harvard only discontinued accepting Epstein’s donations after he confessed to child sex offenses in 2008.

At that point Obama’s career was advancing. Summers would eventually secure appointment as director of the White House NEC from January 2009 until November 2010.

After Summers left the White House, he began asking Epstein for philanthropic advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor working on a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made charitable contributions to projects linked to Summers’s wife, and the two men met a dozen times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.

After news about Epstein’s donations emerged, New’s charity made a donation “more than” of that received to combatting sex trafficking organizations.