Uncovered Communications Illustrate Epstein and Summers as Close Associates

A series of communications between adjudicated offender Jeffrey Epstein and one-time US treasury head Larry Summers were released this week, indicating the pair acted as close contacts.

These exchanges, covering 2013 to early 2019, reveal the two men sharing personal – and at times questionable – views on public affairs and relationships.

I am attempting to determine why [the] American elite think if u murder your baby by beating and abandonment it must be not a factor to your admission 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 beating and abandonment it must be not a factor to your admission to Harvard,”} Summers stated to Epstein in a 2017 message. “But made advances toward a few women 10 years ago and are unable to work at a network or think tank. DO NOT SHARE THIS OBSERVATION.”

At that time, Harvard University was wrestling with an enrollment debate after a previously incarcerated woman’s acceptance to a PhD program. Summers, a one-time president of the university who lost his position amid a scandal after making sexist comments about female academics, continued in the correspondence to Epstein: I noted that half of the IQ in [the] world was owned by women without stating they are more than 51 percent of the populace.”

Summers was once a key player in the Democratic Party circles – a ex- treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the main designers of Barack Obama’s approach to the financial crisis, and a committed presence in the liberal commentariat. But questions have lingered about his association with Epstein, a former associate of Donald Trump. Epstein was alleged to have run a extensive exploitation operation before his death in jail in 2019 in New York City.

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

Democratic lawmakers released emails from the Epstein estate this week that suggest Epstein believed Trump was knew about conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In response, GOP lawmakers issued a larger tranche of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.

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

Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday that he would be requesting the Department of Justice and the FBI to look into Epstein’s “role and connection” with Summers, among other prominent Democrats and industry figures.

In the emails, Summers and Epstein converse on politics – particularly Summers’s dislike for Trump – as well as the details 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.

“she's intelligent. holding you accountable for past mistakes,” Epstein replied 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 regret in a recent statement. “I have great regrets 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 donated 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 determined Epstein “was missing the educational background visiting fellows typically possess and his application suggested a course of study Epstein was unqualified to pursue”.

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

By that time Obama’s profile was growing. Summers would later receive appointment as director of the White House NEC from January 2009 until November 2010.

After Summers departed the White House, he began asking Epstein for charitable advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor developing a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made philanthropic donations to projects associated with Summers’s wife, and the two men met a dozen 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-sex-trafficking organizations.