Disclosed Exchanges Depict Epstein and Summers as Confidantes

Numerous exchanges between adjudicated sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein and former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers were released this week, indicating the pair acted as confidants.

Their correspondence, dating from 2013 to early 2019, demonstrate the two men exchanging private – and at times improper – views on public affairs and relationships.

I am attempting to determine why [the] American elite think if u kill your baby by violence and neglect it must be irrelevant 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 kill your baby by beating and abandonment it must be irrelevant to your admission to Harvard,”} Summers wrote to Epstein in a 2017 message. However made advances toward a few women 10 years ago and can’t work at a network or think tank. DO NOT SHARE THIS INSIGHT.”

During that period, Harvard University was grappling with an enrollment discussion after a previously incarcerated woman’s acceptance to a PhD program. Summers, a former president of the university who stepped down amid a scandal after making gender-biased comments about women in academia, continued in the message to Epstein: “I observed that half of the IQ in [the] world was possessed by women without noting they are more than 51 percent of population.”

Summers was at one time a leading light in Democratic circles – a former treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the primary architects of Barack Obama’s approach to the market collapse, and a steadfast voice in the liberal commentariat. But concerns have remained about his connection with Epstein, a longtime associate of Donald Trump. Epstein was accused of a broad child sex trafficking operation before his demise in jail in 2019 in New York City.

Following disclosure of a earlier set of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 article, a spokesperson for Summers stated that he “profoundly regrets being in contact with Epstein after his guilty verdict”.

Democratic Party lawmakers disclosed emails from the Epstein estate this week that imply Epstein thought Trump was knew about conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In response, Conservative lawmakers released a more extensive batch of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.

These records show that Summers maintained amicable contact with the convicted 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 asking the Department of Justice and the FBI to look into Epstein’s “participation and association” with Summers, among other prominent liberal leaders and industry figures.

In the emails, Summers and Epstein discuss politics – especially Summers’s contempt for Trump – as well as the particulars of philanthropic social networking – and women. Summers, 70, disclosed to Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his advances toward an anonymous woman, and being rejected.

“she's intelligent. holding you accountable for past mistakes,” Epstein responded 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 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 donated more than $9m to Harvard and its related 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 proposed a course of study Epstein was ill-equipped to pursue”.

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

At that point Obama’s star was rising. 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 asking Epstein for non-profit advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor pursuing a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made gifts to projects associated with Summers’s wife, and the two men saw each other a twelve times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.

After media coverage about Epstein’s donations came out, New’s charity made a donation “more than” of that received to anti-sex-trafficking organizations.