Revealed Communications Show Jeffrey Epstein and Larry Summers as Close Associates

Multiple exchanges between adjudicated offender Jeffrey Epstein and one-time US finance chief Larry Summers were released this week, revealing the pair were close contacts.

Their correspondence, covering 2013 to early 2019, show the two men discussing intimate – and at times improper – perspectives on public affairs and interpersonal dynamics.

I am attempting to understand why [the] American elite think if u kill your baby by beating 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 believe if u kill your baby by physical abuse and desertion it must be unimportant to your acceptance to Harvard,”} Summers wrote to Epstein in a 2017 email. However made advances toward a few women 10 years ago and cannot work at a network or think tank. KEEP CONFIDENTIAL THIS INSIGHT.”

At that time, Harvard University was grappling with an enrollment debate after a previously incarcerated woman’s admission to a PhD program. Summers, a former president of the university who lost his position amid a uproar after making discriminatory comments about female academics, added 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 population.”

Summers was previously a leading light in the Democratic Party circles – a former treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the primary designers of Barack Obama’s approach to the economic downturn, and a committed presence in the progressive media. But concerns have remained about his relationship with Epstein, a former connection of Donald Trump. Epstein was alleged to have run a broad exploitation operation before his passing in jail in 2019 in New York City.

Following disclosure of a earlier batch of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 piece, a spokesperson for Summers commented that he “profoundly regrets being in contact with Epstein after his guilty verdict”.

Democratic Party lawmakers made public emails from the Epstein estate this week that suggest Epstein thought Trump was aware of conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In retaliation, Republican lawmakers issued a larger tranche of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.

These records show that Summers kept up friendly contact with the found guilty 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 examine Epstein’s “role and association” with Summers, among other influential liberal leaders and corporate executives.

In the emails, Summers and Epstein converse on politics – particularly Summers’s disdain for Trump – as well as the details of non-profit social networking – and women. Summers, 70, disclosed to Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his romantic gestures toward an unidentified 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 sorrow in a recent statement. “There are many things I regret in my life,” 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 gave more than $9m to Harvard and its associated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was appointed a visiting fellow to perform research. The university later found Epstein “was missing the educational background visiting fellows usually possess and his application proposed a course of study Epstein was unqualified to pursue”.

Harvard only stopped accepting Epstein’s donations after he pleaded guilty to child sex offenses in 2008.

At that point Obama’s star was rising. Summers would ultimately receive appointment as director of the White House National Economic Council from January 2009 until November 2010.

After Summers departed the White House, he began requesting Epstein for charitable advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor pursuing 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 came out, New’s charity made a donation “more than” of that received to anti-exploitation organizations.