Uncovered Exchanges Illustrate Epstein and Larry Summers as Trusted Friends

Multiple messages between adjudicated sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein and ex- US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers were released this week, revealing the pair acted as trusted allies.

Their correspondence, dating from 2013 to early 2019, demonstrate the two men discussing intimate – and at times improper – perspectives on politics and interpersonal dynamics.

I'm struggling to determine why [the] American elite believe if u murder your baby by violence and abandonment it must be irrelevant 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 murder your baby by violence and abandonment it must be irrelevant to your entry to Harvard,”} Summers emailed to Epstein in a 2017 message. “But flirted with a few women 10 years ago and cannot work at a network or think tank. DO NOT SHARE THIS IDEA.”

During that period, Harvard University was grappling with an admissions discussion after a formerly incarcerated woman’s enrollment to a PhD program. Summers, a former president of the university who resigned amid a scandal after making discriminatory comments about women scholars, added in the message to Epstein: “I observed that half of the IQ in [the] world was owned by women without mentioning they are more than 51 percent of population.”

Summers was previously a prominent figure in the Democratic Party circles – a former treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the main architects of Barack Obama’s response to the economic downturn, and a steadfast figure in the left-leaning punditry. But concerns have lingered about his connection with Epstein, a long-standing associate of Donald Trump. Epstein was accused of a wide-ranging sex trafficking of minors operation before his passing in jail in 2019 in New York City.

Following publication of a previous tranche of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 article, a agent for Summers commented that he “is very sorry for being in contact with Epstein after his legal finding”.

Democratic Party lawmakers made public 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 retaliation, Conservative lawmakers published a larger tranche of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.

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

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

In the emails, Summers and Epstein converse on politics – particularly Summers’s disdain for Trump – as well as the particulars of non-profit social networking – and women. Summers, 70, shared with Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his romantic gestures toward an unidentified woman, and being rebuffed.

“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 restated his regret in a recent statement. “There are many things I regret in my life,” 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 contributed more than $9m to Harvard and its associated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was appointed a visiting fellow to carry out research. The university later found Epstein “lacked the academic qualifications visiting fellows normally possess and his application outlined a course of study Epstein was unqualified to pursue”.

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

At that point Obama’s career was advancing. Summers would later secure appointment as director of the White House economic advisory body from January 2009 until November 2010.

After Summers departed 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 charitable contributions to projects connected to 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 emerged, New’s charity made a donation “above and beyond” of that received to anti-exploitation organizations.