Revealed Communications Depict Epstein and Larry Summers as Confidantes

Multiple communications between adjudicated child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and former US finance chief Larry Summers were released this week, indicating the pair served as confidants.

The messages, spanning 2013 to early 2019, demonstrate the two men discussing personal – and at times improper – views on political matters and interpersonal dynamics.

“I’m trying to understand why [the] American elite believe if u murder your baby by violence 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 believe if u murder your baby by violence and abandonment 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 cannot work at a network or think tank. KEEP CONFIDENTIAL THIS OBSERVATION.”

At that time, Harvard University was dealing with an acceptance discussion after a previously incarcerated woman’s enrollment to a PhD program. Summers, a ex- president of the university who lost his position amid a uproar after making sexist comments about women scholars, added in the message to Epstein: I noted that half of the IQ in [the] world was possessed by women without noting they are more than 51 percent of society.”

Summers was previously a leading light in Democratic circles – a one-time treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the primary architects of Barack Obama’s handling to the financial crisis, and a steadfast presence in the progressive media. But doubts have lingered about his relationship with Epstein, a former associate of Donald Trump. Epstein was charged with a broad sex trafficking of minors operation before his demise in custody in 2019 in New York City.

Following publication of a prior tranche of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 report, a spokesperson for Summers said that he “is very sorry for being in contact with Epstein after his conviction”.

Left-leaning lawmakers disclosed emails from the Epstein estate this week that suggest Epstein thought Trump was aware of conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In response, GOP lawmakers published a larger batch of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.

The released materials show that Summers kept up amicable contact with the found guilty child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the final email exchange happening 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 look into Epstein’s “role and association” with Summers, among other influential Democrats and business leaders.

In the emails, Summers and Epstein talk about politics – particularly Summers’s disdain 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.

“she's intelligent. holding you accountable for past mistakes,” Epstein responded in an exchange on 16 March. “overlook the 'daddy' remark, I'm dating the motorcycle guy, you responded appropriately.. frustration signals affection., no protests revealed fortitude.”

Summers restated his remorse in a recent statement. “I harbor significant regrets in my lifetime,” he wrote. “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 affiliated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was named a visiting fellow to conduct research. The university later concluded Epstein “did not have the academic qualifications visiting fellows usually possess and his application proposed a course of study Epstein was ill-equipped to pursue”.

Harvard only ceased accepting Epstein’s donations after he confessed to child sex offenses in 2008.

By then Obama’s career was advancing. Summers would eventually secure appointment as director of the White House economic advisory body from January 2009 until November 2010.

After Summers exited the White House, he began requesting Epstein for philanthropic advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor developing a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made charitable contributions to projects associated with Summers’s wife, and the two men got together a twelve times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.

After media coverage about Epstein’s donations came out, New’s charity made a donation “more than” of that received to combatting sex trafficking organizations.