Uncovered Exchanges Show Jeffrey Epstein and Summers as Close Associates
Multiple exchanges between convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and former US treasury head Larry Summers have emerged this week, showing the pair were close contacts.
Their correspondence, spanning 2013 to early 2019, reveal the two men discussing private – and at times questionable – opinions on political matters and interpersonal dynamics.
“I’m trying to determine why [the] American elite feel if u kill your baby by violence and abandonment it must be unimportant to your admission to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} determine why [the] American elite think if u take the life of your baby by beating and desertion it must be unimportant to your entry to Harvard,”} Summers stated to Epstein in a 2017 communication. Yet hit on a few women 10 years ago and are unable to work at a network or think tank. DO NOT SHARE THIS OBSERVATION.”
During that period, Harvard University was dealing with an admissions controversy after a formerly incarcerated woman’s admission to a PhD program. Summers, a ex- president of the university who resigned amid a scandal after making discriminatory comments about female academics, went on to say in the message to Epstein: I pointed out that half of the IQ in [the] world was possessed by women without stating they are more than 51 percent of the populace.”
Summers was previously a key player in liberal circles – a ex- treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the primary engineers of Barack Obama’s handling to the financial crisis, and a steadfast figure in the left-leaning punditry. But questions have remained about his relationship with Epstein, a longtime connection of Donald Trump. Epstein was charged with a broad child sex trafficking operation before his demise in jail in 2019 in New York City.
Following the release of a earlier tranche of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 report, a spokesperson for Summers stated that he “deeply regrets being in contact with Epstein after his conviction”.
Democratic lawmakers disclosed emails from the Epstein estate this week that suggest Epstein was of the opinion Trump was knew about conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In response, Republican lawmakers released a more extensive batch of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
The documents show that Summers continued friendly contact with the found guilty child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the last email exchange happening only months before Epstein’s arrest.
Trump stated on Truth Social on Friday that he would be requesting the Department of Justice and the FBI to look into Epstein’s “participation and association” with Summers, among other well-known Democrats and business leaders.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein converse on politics – especially Summers’s contempt 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 unnamed woman, and being rejected.
“shes smart. making you pay for past errors,” Epstein responded 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 reiterated his regret in a recent statement. “I have great regrets in my life,” he said. “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 designated a visiting fellow to carry out research. The university later concluded Epstein “lacked the scholarly credentials visiting fellows typically possess and his application proposed a course of study Epstein was not prepared to pursue”.
Harvard only ceased accepting Epstein’s donations after he pleaded guilty to child sex offenses in 2008.
By that time Obama’s star was rising. Summers would later win 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 philanthropic advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor pursuing a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made philanthropic donations to projects associated with Summers’s wife, and the two men got together a multiple times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.
After news about Epstein’s donations surfaced, New’s charity made a donation “in excess” of that received to combatting sex trafficking organizations.