Revealed Communications Illustrate Jeffrey Epstein and Summers as Trusted Friends
A series of messages between found guilty child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and ex- US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers were released this week, indicating the pair served as confidants.
Their correspondence, covering 2013 to early 2019, show the two men sharing personal – and at times unseemly – views on public affairs and interpersonal dynamics.
I am attempting to figure why [the] American elite believe if u take the life of your baby by physical abuse and abandonment it must be irrelevant to your entry 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 physical abuse and abandonment it must be irrelevant to your acceptance to Harvard,”} Summers wrote to Epstein in a 2017 communication. However flirted with a few women 10 years ago and can’t work at a network or think tank. DO NOT REPEAT THIS INSIGHT.”
During that period, Harvard University was dealing with an admissions debate after a previously incarcerated woman’s admission to a PhD program. Summers, a ex- president of the university who resigned amid a scandal after making sexist comments about female academics, added in the correspondence to Epstein: I noted that half of the IQ in [the] world was possessed by women without stating they are more than 51 percent of population.”
Summers was previously a key player in Democratic circles – a former treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the primary designers of Barack Obama’s handling to the economic downturn, and a steadfast presence in the progressive media. But questions have remained about his association with Epstein, a long-standing connection of Donald Trump. Epstein was accused of a extensive sex trafficking of minors operation before his demise in custody in 2019 in New York City.
Following publication of a prior tranche of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 report, a spokesperson for Summers said that he “deeply regrets being in contact with Epstein after his conviction”.
Left-leaning lawmakers made public emails from the Epstein estate this week that indicate Epstein believed Trump was knew about conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In retaliation, Republican lawmakers issued a larger batch of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
The released materials show that Summers maintained friendly contact with the adjudicated child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the final email exchange taking place only months before Epstein’s detention.
Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday that he would be instructing the Department of Justice and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s “involvement and relationship” with Summers, among other well-known Democratic figures and industry figures.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein converse on politics – particularly Summers’s dislike for Trump – as well as the details of charitable social networking – and women. Summers, 70, shared with Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his overtures toward an anonymous woman, and being rebuffed.
“shes smart. making you pay for past errors,” Epstein replied 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. “I harbor significant regrets in my lifetime,” he commented. “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 contributed more than $9m to Harvard and its related programs between 1998 and 2008, and was designated a visiting fellow to conduct research. The university later determined Epstein “did not have the scholarly credentials visiting fellows typically possess and his application proposed a course of study Epstein was not prepared to pursue”.
Harvard only stopped accepting Epstein’s donations after he confessed to child sex offenses in 2008.
At that point Obama’s star was rising. Summers would eventually receive appointment as director of the White House National Economic Council from January 2009 until November 2010.
After Summers exited the White House, he began soliciting Epstein for philanthropic advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor pursuing a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made gifts to projects associated with Summers’s wife, and the two men met a multiple times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.
After reporting about Epstein’s donations came out, New’s charity made a donation “more than” of that received to combatting sex trafficking organizations.
