Uncovered Emails Illustrate Epstein and Summers as Confidantes

Multiple messages between convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and one-time US finance chief Larry Summers have emerged this week, showing the pair acted as close contacts.

These exchanges, spanning 2013 to early 2019, show the two men discussing personal – and at times questionable – views on political matters and interpersonal dynamics.

“I’m trying to understand why [the] American elite believe if u murder your baby by beating and desertion it must be not a factor to your admission to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} understand why [the] American elite believe if u murder your baby by beating and desertion it must be unimportant to your admission to Harvard,”} Summers stated to Epstein in a 2017 communication. “But flirted with a few women 10 years ago and can’t work at a network or think tank. DO NOT REPEAT THIS OBSERVATION.”

Back then, Harvard University was wrestling with an admissions debate after a once incarcerated woman’s acceptance to a PhD program. Summers, a one-time president of the university who stepped down amid a scandal after making sexist comments about female academics, went on to say in the correspondence to Epstein: I noted that half of the IQ in [the] world was held by women without stating they are more than 51 percent of the populace.”

Summers was previously a leading light in Democratic circles – a former treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the main designers of Barack Obama’s approach to the economic downturn, and a steadfast voice in the left-leaning punditry. But questions have remained about his association with Epstein, a long-standing connection of Donald Trump. Epstein was accused of a wide-ranging sex trafficking of minors operation before his death in jail in 2019 in New York City.

Following disclosure of a prior batch of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 article, a representative for Summers stated that he “is very sorry for being in contact with Epstein after his legal finding”.

Democratic lawmakers disclosed emails from the Epstein estate this week that indicate Epstein was of the opinion Trump was had knowledge of conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In response, Republican lawmakers released a more extensive batch of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.

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

Trump stated on Truth Social on Friday that he would be asking the Department of Justice and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s “participation and relationship” with Summers, among other prominent Democrats and industry figures.

In the emails, Summers and Epstein talk about politics – particularly Summers’s contempt for Trump – as well as the aspects of charitable social networking – and women. Summers, 70, shared with Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his advances toward an anonymous woman, and being rejected.

“she is clever. ensuring you atone for previous missteps,” 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 reiterated his sorrow 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 donated more than $9m to Harvard and its affiliated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was appointed a visiting fellow to carry out research. The university later found Epstein “did not have the academic qualifications visiting fellows usually possess and his application proposed a course of study Epstein was unqualified to pursue”.

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

By then 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 left the White House, he began requesting Epstein for philanthropic advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor working on a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made philanthropic donations to projects linked to Summers’s wife, and the two men saw each other 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 anti-sex-trafficking organizations.