Uncovered Exchanges Show Epstein and Larry Summers as Confidantes

Multiple communications between convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein and former US finance chief Larry Summers were released this week, indicating the pair were close contacts.

These exchanges, covering 2013 to early 2019, show the two men sharing intimate – and at times improper – opinions on political matters and personal connections.

“I’m trying to determine why [the] American elite believe if u take the life of your baby by physical abuse and abandonment it must be unimportant to your entry to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} understand why [the] American elite think if u murder your baby by violence and neglect it must be unimportant to your entry to Harvard,”} Summers emailed to Epstein in a 2017 message. “But hit on a few women 10 years ago and can’t work at a network or think tank. DO NOT SHARE THIS IDEA.”

During that period, Harvard University was wrestling with an admissions discussion after a previously incarcerated woman’s enrollment to a PhD program. Summers, a former president of the university who lost his position amid a controversy after making discriminatory comments about women in academia, went on to say in the email to Epstein: I noted that half of the IQ in [the] world was held by women without stating they are more than 51 percent of society.”

Summers was once a key player in liberal circles – a former treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the primary designers of Barack Obama’s response to the market collapse, and a committed voice in the left-leaning punditry. But concerns have remained about his relationship with Epstein, a former connection of Donald Trump. Epstein was accused of a broad exploitation operation before his passing in jail in 2019 in New York City.

Following disclosure of a prior batch of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 report, a representative for Summers stated that he “is very sorry for being in contact with Epstein after his conviction”.

Democratic Party lawmakers disclosed emails from the Epstein estate this week that imply Epstein was of the opinion Trump was knew about conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In response, Conservative lawmakers published a more extensive batch of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.

The released materials show that Summers continued friendly contact with the adjudicated child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the final email exchange occurring 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 “involvement and connection” with Summers, among other prominent Democrats and business leaders.

In the emails, Summers and Epstein discuss politics – particularly Summers’s dislike for Trump – as well as the particulars of charitable social networking – and women. Summers, 70, disclosed to Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his advances toward an unnamed woman, and being rebuffed.

“shes smart. making you pay for past errors,” Epstein wrote 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 restated his regret 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 donated more than $9m to Harvard and its associated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was named a visiting fellow to conduct research. The university later determined Epstein “was missing the academic qualifications 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 admitted guilt to child sex offenses in 2008.

By then Obama’s career was advancing. Summers would later receive appointment as director of the White House NEC from January 2009 until November 2010.

After Summers left the White House, he began soliciting Epstein for charitable 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 saw each other a multiple times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.

After reporting about Epstein’s donations emerged, New’s charity made a donation “in excess” of that received to combatting sex trafficking organizations.