Revealed Communications Illustrate Epstein and Summers as Close Associates

A series of messages between convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein and former US finance chief Larry Summers were released this week, revealing the pair were trusted allies.

These exchanges, dating from 2013 to early 2019, reveal the two men exchanging intimate – and at times questionable – opinions on public affairs and personal connections.

“I’m trying to understand why [the] American elite think if u murder your baby by violence and neglect it must be not a factor to your acceptance to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} understand why [the] American elite think if u kill your baby by physical abuse and neglect it must be irrelevant to your admission to Harvard,”} Summers emailed to Epstein in a 2017 email. “But flirted with 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 dealing with an enrollment controversy after a previously incarcerated woman’s enrollment to a PhD program. Summers, a former president of the university who lost his position amid a uproar after making discriminatory comments about women in academia, continued in the email to Epstein: I pointed out that half of the IQ in [the] world was held by women without stating they are more than 51 percent of population.”

Summers was previously a leading light in liberal circles – a former treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the main designers of Barack Obama’s response to the market collapse, and a stalwart voice in the liberal commentariat. But concerns have remained about his association with Epstein, a former contact of Donald Trump. Epstein was charged with a wide-ranging sex trafficking of minors operation before his demise in custody in 2019 in New York City.

Following the release of a previous batch of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 piece, a spokesperson for Summers said that he “profoundly regrets being in contact with Epstein after his conviction”.

Left-leaning lawmakers released emails from the Epstein estate this week that imply Epstein believed Trump was had knowledge of conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In response, Conservative lawmakers released a much bigger collection of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.

The released materials show that Summers maintained friendly contact with the adjudicated child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the most recent email exchange taking place only months before Epstein’s detention.

Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday that he would be asking the Department of Justice and the FBI to look into Epstein’s “participation and connection” with Summers, among other well-known liberal leaders and industry figures.

In the emails, Summers and Epstein discuss politics – especially Summers’s contempt for Trump – as well as the particulars of charitable social networking – and women. Summers, 70, shared with Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his romantic gestures toward an unidentified woman, and being rejected.

“shes smart. making you pay for past errors,” 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 affirmed his remorse in a recent statement. “I have great regrets 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 contributed more than $9m to Harvard and its affiliated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was designated a visiting fellow to conduct research. The university later concluded Epstein “was missing the scholarly credentials visiting fellows usually possess and his application suggested a course of study Epstein was not prepared to pursue”.

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

By then Obama’s star was rising. Summers would later receive appointment as director of the White House National Economic Council from January 2009 until November 2010.

After Summers left the White House, he began asking Epstein for non-profit advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor working on a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made charitable contributions to projects associated with Summers’s wife, and the two men got together a dozen times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.

After media coverage about Epstein’s donations came out, New’s charity made a donation “in excess” of that received to anti-exploitation organizations.