Revealed Communications Depict Jeffrey Epstein and Summers as Trusted Friends

Multiple communications between convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein and ex- US finance chief Larry Summers have emerged this week, indicating the pair were trusted allies.

These exchanges, dating from 2013 to early 2019, reveal the two men sharing personal – and at times questionable – perspectives on political matters and relationships.

I'm struggling to figure why [the] American elite feel if u take the life of your baby by violence 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 kill your baby by beating and abandonment it must be not a factor to your acceptance to Harvard,”} Summers emailed to Epstein in a 2017 communication. “But hit on a few women 10 years ago and are unable to work at a network or think tank. KEEP CONFIDENTIAL THIS IDEA.”

At that time, Harvard University was wrestling with an acceptance controversy after a previously incarcerated woman’s admission to a PhD program. Summers, a one-time president of the university who stepped down amid a scandal after making sexist comments about women scholars, went on to say in the message to Epstein: I pointed out that half of the IQ in [the] world was held by women without noting they are more than 51 percent of society.”

Summers was at one time a key player in liberal circles – a former treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the key architects of Barack Obama’s handling to the financial crisis, and a steadfast figure in the liberal commentariat. But doubts have lingered about his relationship with Epstein, a longtime connection of Donald Trump. Epstein was charged with a broad child sex trafficking operation before his death 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 stated that he “profoundly regrets being in contact with Epstein after his guilty verdict”.

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

These records show that Summers kept up congenial contact with the adjudicated child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the most recent email exchange occurring 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 examine Epstein’s “participation and relationship” with Summers, among other well-known liberal leaders and corporate executives.

In the emails, Summers and Epstein converse on politics – notably Summers’s disdain for Trump – as well as the details of charitable social networking – and women. Summers, 70, disclosed to Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his romantic gestures toward an unnamed woman, and being rebuffed.

“she is clever. ensuring you atone for previous missteps,” Epstein wrote 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 reiterated his remorse in a recent statement. “There are many things I regret in my life,” he wrote. “As previously stated, my connection to Jeffrey Epstein represented a serious lapse in judgment.”

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 designated a visiting fellow to carry out research. The university later found Epstein “did not have the scholarly credentials visiting fellows typically possess and his application suggested a course of study Epstein was unqualified 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 later win appointment as director of the White House NEC from January 2009 until November 2010.

After Summers left 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 gifts to projects associated with Summers’s wife, and the two men met a twelve times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.

After news about Epstein’s donations came out, New’s charity made a donation “above and beyond” of that received to combatting sex trafficking organizations.