Revealed Emails Illustrate Jeffrey Epstein and Summers as Trusted Friends
Numerous messages between found guilty child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and ex- US treasury head Larry Summers have emerged this week, revealing the pair served as confidants.
Their correspondence, dating from 2013 to early 2019, demonstrate the two men exchanging personal – and at times improper – perspectives on political matters and interpersonal dynamics.
I am attempting to determine why [the] American elite think if u murder your baby by beating and abandonment it must be irrelevant to your acceptance to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} determine why [the] American elite think if u kill your baby by violence and desertion it must be unimportant to your acceptance to Harvard,”} Summers emailed to Epstein in a 2017 email. “But hit on a few women 10 years ago and can’t work at a network or think tank. DO NOT REPEAT THIS IDEA.”
Back then, Harvard University was wrestling with an enrollment discussion after a once incarcerated woman’s acceptance to a PhD program. Summers, a former president of the university who resigned amid a uproar after making sexist comments about women in academia, went on to say in the correspondence to Epstein: I noted that half of the IQ in [the] world was owned by women without mentioning 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 main designers of Barack Obama’s response to the economic downturn, and a steadfast presence in the liberal commentariat. But concerns have persisted about his relationship with Epstein, a longtime connection of Donald Trump. Epstein was accused of a extensive child sex trafficking operation before his passing in custody in 2019 in New York City.
Following publication of a earlier tranche of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 report, a representative for Summers stated that he “deeply regrets being in contact with Epstein after his guilty verdict”.
Democratic lawmakers disclosed emails from the Epstein estate this week that indicate Epstein believed Trump was had knowledge of conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In retaliation, Republican lawmakers released a more extensive 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 occurring only months before Epstein’s arrest.
Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday that he would be instructing the Department of Justice and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s “role and relationship” with Summers, among other well-known Democrats and industry figures.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein converse on politics – notably Summers’s disdain for Trump – as well as the details of charitable social networking – and women. Summers, 70, confided in Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his advances toward an unnamed woman, and being rejected.
“she is clever. ensuring you atone for previous missteps,” Epstein responded in an exchange on 16 March. “ignore the daddy im going to go out with the motorcycle guy, you reacted well.. annoyed shows caring., no whining showed strentgh.”
Summers affirmed his remorse 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 gave more than $9m to Harvard and its related programs between 1998 and 2008, and was designated a visiting fellow to perform research. The university later concluded Epstein “was missing the scholarly credentials visiting fellows usually possess and his application suggested a course of study Epstein was unqualified 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 later 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 working on a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made philanthropic donations to projects connected to 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 came out, New’s charity made a donation “in excess” of that received to combatting sex trafficking organizations.