Uncovered Exchanges Show Epstein and Summers as Close Associates

Multiple messages between convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein and ex- US finance chief Larry Summers have emerged this week, revealing the pair acted as close contacts.

These exchanges, spanning 2013 to early 2019, demonstrate the two men sharing personal – and at times questionable – opinions on politics and personal connections.

I'm struggling to understand why [the] American elite believe if u take the life of your baby by violence and neglect it must be unimportant to your admission to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} figure why [the] American elite believe if u murder your baby by beating and abandonment it must be unimportant to your admission to Harvard,”} Summers wrote to Epstein in a 2017 message. “But hit on a few women 10 years ago and are unable to work at a network or think tank. DO NOT SHARE THIS OBSERVATION.”

Back then, Harvard University was wrestling with an enrollment controversy after a previously incarcerated woman’s admission to a PhD program. Summers, a former president of the university who resigned amid a scandal after making sexist comments about women scholars, added in the correspondence to Epstein: I pointed out that half of the IQ in [the] world was possessed by women without mentioning they are more than 51 percent of society.”

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 handling to the financial crisis, and a committed voice in the left-leaning punditry. But questions have persisted about his connection with Epstein, a longtime associate of Donald Trump. Epstein was charged with a wide-ranging sex trafficking of minors operation before his passing in jail in 2019 in New York City.

Following disclosure of a earlier tranche of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 piece, a agent for Summers commented that he “profoundly regrets being in contact with Epstein after his conviction”.

Left-leaning 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 response, Conservative lawmakers published a much bigger collection of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.

The documents show that Summers maintained amicable contact with the adjudicated child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the most recent email exchange taking place 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 look into Epstein’s “participation and association” with Summers, among other influential Democratic figures and business leaders.

In the emails, Summers and Epstein converse on politics – notably Summers’s contempt for Trump – as well as the aspects of non-profit social networking – and women. Summers, 70, disclosed to Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his overtures toward an unnamed woman, and being rebuffed.

“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. “I harbor significant regrets in my lifetime,” he said. “As I have said before, my association with Jeffrey Epstein was a major error of judgement.”

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 usually possess and his application suggested a course of study Epstein was unqualified to pursue”.

Harvard only stopped 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 National Economic Council from January 2009 until November 2010.

After Summers left the White House, he began soliciting Epstein for charitable advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor developing a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made philanthropic donations to projects associated with Summers’s wife, and the two men saw each other a multiple times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.

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