Uncovered Emails Illustrate Epstein and Summers as Confidantes

Multiple messages between adjudicated child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and one-time US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers came to light this week, showing the pair were trusted allies.

These exchanges, spanning 2013 to early 2019, demonstrate the two men sharing personal – and at times questionable – views on public affairs and personal connections.

I'm struggling to figure why [the] American elite believe if u murder your baby by violence and abandonment it must be not a factor to your entry to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} understand why [the] American elite feel if u kill your baby by violence and desertion it must be not a factor to your admission to Harvard,”} Summers wrote to Epstein in a 2017 email. Yet hit on a few women 10 years ago and are unable to work at a network or think tank. DO NOT SHARE THIS IDEA.”

During that period, Harvard University was grappling with an enrollment controversy after a once incarcerated woman’s admission to a PhD program. Summers, a former president of the university who resigned amid a controversy after making discriminatory comments about women in academia, continued in the message to Epstein: I pointed out that half of the IQ in [the] world was owned by women without mentioning they are more than 51 percent of society.”

Summers was once a leading light in the Democratic Party circles – a one-time treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the key designers of Barack Obama’s response to the economic downturn, and a stalwart figure in the progressive media. But questions have persisted about his connection with Epstein, a longtime associate of Donald Trump. Epstein was charged with a wide-ranging child sex trafficking operation before his passing in prison in 2019 in New York City.

Following the release of a previous set of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 article, a spokesperson for Summers said that he “is very sorry for being in contact with Epstein after his legal finding”.

Democratic lawmakers released emails from the Epstein estate this week that suggest Epstein was of the opinion Trump was had knowledge of conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In response, GOP lawmakers released a larger batch of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.

The released materials show that Summers kept up friendly contact with the convicted child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the final email exchange occurring only months before Epstein’s apprehension.

Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday that he would be instructing the Department of Justice and the FBI to look into Epstein’s “participation and connection” with Summers, among other prominent Democratic figures and industry figures.

In the emails, Summers and Epstein talk about politics – particularly Summers’s dislike 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 overtures toward an unnamed woman, and being turned down.

“she's intelligent. holding you accountable for past mistakes,” 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 reiterated his regret in a recent statement. “There are many things I regret in my life,” he commented. “As previously stated, my connection to Jeffrey Epstein represented a serious lapse in judgment.”

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 academic qualifications 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 admitted guilt to child sex offenses in 2008.

By then Obama’s profile was growing. Summers would ultimately win appointment as director of the White House NEC from January 2009 until November 2010.

After Summers departed the White House, he began soliciting Epstein for non-profit advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor working on a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made philanthropic donations to projects linked to 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 “in excess” of that received to anti-sex-trafficking organizations.