Disclosed Exchanges Depict Epstein and Larry Summers as Confidantes

A series of messages between found guilty child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and ex- US treasury head Larry Summers were released this week, indicating the pair served as trusted allies.

These exchanges, dating from 2013 to early 2019, demonstrate the two men sharing private – and at times unseemly – views on political matters and interpersonal dynamics.

I'm struggling to understand why [the] American elite believe if u murder your baby by violence and desertion it must be irrelevant to your entry to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} determine why [the] American elite believe if u take the life of your baby by violence and abandonment it must be unimportant to your entry to Harvard,”} Summers wrote 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 SHARE THIS IDEA.”

During that period, Harvard University was grappling with an admissions controversy after a once incarcerated woman’s enrollment to a PhD program. Summers, a one-time president of the university who resigned amid a scandal after making sexist comments about female academics, went on to say in the email to Epstein: I pointed out that half of the IQ in [the] world was possessed by women without noting they are more than 51 percent of the populace.”

Summers was once a key player in the Democratic Party circles – a former treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the primary architects of Barack Obama’s response to the financial crisis, and a steadfast voice in the progressive media. But concerns have persisted about his relationship with Epstein, a former connection of Donald Trump. Epstein was accused of a wide-ranging child sex trafficking operation before his demise in prison in 2019 in New York City.

Following publication of a prior batch of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 report, a spokesperson for Summers said 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 thought Trump was aware of conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In reply, GOP lawmakers released a much bigger batch of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.

The documents show that Summers maintained congenial contact with the found guilty child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the last email exchange occurring only months before Epstein’s detention.

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 influential Democrats and corporate executives.

In the emails, Summers and Epstein discuss politics – notably Summers’s disdain for Trump – as well as the aspects of philanthropic social networking – and women. Summers, 70, disclosed to Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his romantic gestures toward an anonymous woman, and being turned down.

“she's intelligent. holding you accountable for past mistakes,” Epstein responded 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. “There are many things I regret 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 contributed more than $9m to Harvard and its associated 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 normally 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 star was rising. Summers would ultimately receive appointment as director of the White House NEC from January 2009 until November 2010.

After Summers left the White House, he began soliciting Epstein for philanthropic advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor pursuing a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made gifts 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 emerged, New’s charity made a donation “in excess” of that received to anti-sex-trafficking organizations.