Disclosed Emails Illustrate Jeffrey Epstein and Summers as Trusted Friends

Numerous messages between adjudicated child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and former US finance chief Larry Summers came to light this week, indicating the pair served as confidants.

Their correspondence, spanning 2013 to early 2019, show the two men discussing personal – and at times unseemly – views on political matters and relationships.

“I’m trying to understand why [the] American elite feel if u kill your baby by physical abuse and neglect it must be unimportant to your acceptance to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} determine why [the] American elite feel if u kill your baby by physical abuse and abandonment it must be not a factor to your entry to Harvard,”} Summers stated to Epstein in a 2017 communication. “But flirted with a few women 10 years ago and are unable to work at a network or think tank. DO NOT REPEAT THIS INSIGHT.”

Back then, Harvard University was grappling with an acceptance discussion after a previously incarcerated woman’s admission to a PhD program. Summers, a former president of the university who resigned amid a scandal after making gender-biased comments about women in academia, added in the message to Epstein: I pointed out that half of the IQ in [the] world was owned by women without noting they are more than 51 percent of the populace.”

Summers was at one time a key player in liberal circles – a former treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the primary architects of Barack Obama’s approach to the financial crisis, and a steadfast voice in the left-leaning punditry. But questions have persisted about his relationship with Epstein, a former associate of Donald Trump. Epstein was alleged to have run a extensive exploitation operation before his death in prison in 2019 in New York City.

Following publication of a earlier batch of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 piece, a spokesperson for Summers commented that he “deeply regrets being in contact with Epstein after his legal finding”.

Democratic lawmakers made public emails from the Epstein estate this week that indicate Epstein was of the opinion Trump was knew about conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In response, Conservative lawmakers published a much bigger batch of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.

The documents show that Summers continued friendly contact with the adjudicated child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the most recent email exchange happening only months before Epstein’s arrest.

Trump stated on Truth Social on Friday that he would be instructing the Department of Justice and the FBI to look into Epstein’s “role and connection” with Summers, among other influential liberal leaders and business leaders.

In the emails, Summers and Epstein discuss politics – especially Summers’s contempt for Trump – as well as the aspects of charitable 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. “ignore the daddy im going to go out with the motorcycle guy, you reacted well.. annoyed shows caring., no whining showed strentgh.”

Summers reiterated his remorse in a recent statement. “There are many things I regret in my life,” he wrote. “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 associated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was named a visiting fellow to perform research. The university later found Epstein “lacked the educational background visiting fellows normally possess and his application suggested a course of study Epstein was not prepared to pursue”.

Harvard only discontinued accepting Epstein’s donations after he admitted guilt to child sex offenses in 2008.

By then Obama’s profile was growing. Summers would eventually 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 soliciting Epstein for non-profit advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor developing a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made philanthropic donations to projects connected to Summers’s wife, and the two men met a twelve times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.

After news about Epstein’s donations came out, New’s charity made a donation “above and beyond” of that received to anti-sex-trafficking organizations.