Disclosed Communications Depict Epstein and Larry Summers as Confidantes

A series of communications between adjudicated offender Jeffrey Epstein and ex- US finance chief Larry Summers came to light this week, showing the pair served as trusted allies.

The messages, dating from 2013 to early 2019, reveal the two men exchanging private – and at times unseemly – perspectives on political matters and interpersonal dynamics.

I'm struggling to understand why [the] American elite think if u take the life of your baby by beating and neglect it must be irrelevant to your admission to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} understand why [the] American elite think if u take the life of your baby by beating and desertion it must be unimportant to your acceptance to Harvard,”} Summers stated to Epstein in a 2017 communication. “But hit on a few women 10 years ago and cannot work at a network or think tank. DO NOT REPEAT THIS IDEA.”

At that time, Harvard University was dealing with an acceptance discussion after a once incarcerated woman’s enrollment to a PhD program. Summers, a one-time president of the university who stepped down amid a controversy after making sexist comments about women in academia, added 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 population.”

Summers was once a key player in the Democratic Party circles – a ex- treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the primary designers of Barack Obama’s response to the economic downturn, and a committed figure in the liberal commentariat. But concerns have persisted about his connection with Epstein, a longtime associate of Donald Trump. Epstein was alleged to have run a extensive sex trafficking of minors operation before his passing in jail in 2019 in New York City.

Following the release of a prior tranche of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 report, a spokesperson for Summers commented that he “is very sorry for being in contact with Epstein after his legal finding”.

Democratic Party 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 retaliation, Conservative lawmakers released a much bigger batch of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.

The released materials show that Summers continued congenial contact with the adjudicated child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the final 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 association” with Summers, among other prominent Democrats and business leaders.

In the emails, Summers and Epstein converse on politics – especially Summers’s dislike for Trump – as well as the aspects of non-profit social networking – and women. Summers, 70, confided in Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his advances toward an unidentified woman, and being rebuffed.

“she's intelligent. holding you accountable for past mistakes,” Epstein wrote in an exchange on 16 March. “ignore the daddy im going to go out with the motorcycle guy, you reacted well.. annoyed shows caring., no whining showed strentgh.”

Summers restated his remorse in a recent statement. “I have great regrets in my life,” he commented. “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 gave more than $9m to Harvard and its related programs between 1998 and 2008, and was named a visiting fellow to conduct research. The university later concluded Epstein “was missing the educational background visiting fellows usually possess and his application outlined a course of study Epstein was not prepared to pursue”.

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

By that time Obama’s career was advancing. Summers would ultimately receive appointment as director of the White House economic advisory body from January 2009 until November 2010.

After Summers left the White House, he began soliciting Epstein for non-profit advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor pursuing a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made charitable contributions to projects linked to Summers’s wife, and the two men saw each other a multiple times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.

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