Disclosed Exchanges Show Epstein and Summers as Confidantes

Numerous messages between convicted offender Jeffrey Epstein and former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers came to light this week, indicating the pair were trusted allies.

These exchanges, covering 2013 to early 2019, show the two men discussing intimate – and at times unseemly – perspectives on political matters and interpersonal dynamics.

I'm struggling to determine why [the] American elite think if u murder 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 think if u kill your baby by physical abuse and neglect it must be irrelevant to your entry to Harvard,”} Summers emailed to Epstein in a 2017 email. “But flirted with a few women 10 years ago and are unable to work at a network or think tank. DO NOT REPEAT THIS IDEA.”

Back then, 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 resigned amid a scandal after making gender-biased comments about women in academia, went on to say in the message to Epstein: I noted that half of the IQ in [the] world was owned by women without mentioning they are more than 51 percent of society.”

Summers was at one time a key player in liberal circles – a ex- treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the primary designers of Barack Obama’s response to the financial crisis, and a committed presence in the liberal commentariat. But questions have persisted about his relationship with Epstein, a long-standing contact of Donald Trump. Epstein was alleged to have run a wide-ranging child sex trafficking operation before his passing in jail in 2019 in New York City.

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

Left-leaning lawmakers released emails from the Epstein estate this week that indicate Epstein believed Trump was knew about conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In reply, Conservative lawmakers issued a more extensive tranche of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.

The documents show that Summers maintained friendly contact with the adjudicated child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the last email exchange taking place only months before Epstein’s detention.

Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday that he would be instructing the Department of Justice and the FBI to look into Epstein’s “role and association” with Summers, among other influential Democrats and business leaders.

In the emails, Summers and Epstein discuss politics – particularly Summers’s disdain for Trump – as well as the particulars of philanthropic social networking – and women. Summers, 70, confided in 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 replied 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 contributed more than $9m to Harvard and its associated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was designated a visiting fellow to carry out research. The university later determined Epstein “was missing the academic qualifications visiting fellows normally possess and his application suggested a course of study Epstein was not prepared to pursue”.

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

At that point Obama’s career was advancing. Summers would eventually win appointment as director of the White House economic advisory body from January 2009 until November 2010.

After Summers departed the White House, he began requesting Epstein for charitable advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor working on a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made philanthropic donations to projects associated with Summers’s wife, and the two men got together a twelve times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.

After reporting about Epstein’s donations emerged, New’s charity made a donation “above and beyond” of that received to anti-exploitation organizations.