Uncovered Communications Illustrate Jeffrey Epstein and Summers as Trusted Friends

Multiple exchanges between convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein and former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers have emerged this week, showing the pair acted as confidants.

Their correspondence, covering 2013 to early 2019, show the two men discussing intimate – and at times questionable – opinions on politics and personal connections.

I'm struggling to figure why [the] American elite feel if u murder your baby by violence and abandonment it must be not a factor to your admission to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} determine why [the] American elite think if u murder your baby by violence and neglect it must be irrelevant to your admission to Harvard,”} Summers wrote to Epstein in a 2017 communication. However flirted with a few women 10 years ago and can’t work at a network or think tank. KEEP CONFIDENTIAL THIS INSIGHT.”

Back then, Harvard University was dealing with an admissions controversy after a previously incarcerated woman’s enrollment to a PhD program. Summers, a former president of the university who stepped down amid a scandal after making gender-biased comments about female academics, added in the email 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 once a leading light in liberal circles – a former treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the main designers of Barack Obama’s handling to the economic downturn, and a steadfast figure in the left-leaning punditry. But concerns have persisted about his relationship with Epstein, a former contact of Donald Trump. Epstein was alleged to have run a broad child sex trafficking operation before his demise in custody in 2019 in New York City.

Following disclosure of a prior batch of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 article, a agent for Summers said that he “deeply regrets being in contact with Epstein after his conviction”.

Democratic Party lawmakers made public emails from the Epstein estate this week that imply Epstein was of the opinion Trump was knew about conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In retaliation, Republican lawmakers issued a much bigger batch of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.

The documents show that Summers continued amicable contact with the convicted child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the final email exchange occurring only months before Epstein’s apprehension.

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

In the emails, Summers and Epstein talk about politics – particularly Summers’s contempt for Trump – as well as the aspects of philanthropic social networking – and women. Summers, 70, disclosed to Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his advances toward an unnamed woman, and being turned down.

“she's intelligent. holding you accountable for past mistakes,” Epstein wrote in an exchange on 16 March. “overlook the 'daddy' remark, I'm dating the motorcycle guy, you responded appropriately.. frustration signals affection., no protests revealed fortitude.”

Summers affirmed his remorse in a recent statement. “There are many things I regret in my life,” he said. “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 donated more than $9m to Harvard and its associated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was named a visiting fellow to conduct research. The university later determined Epstein “was missing the scholarly credentials visiting fellows typically possess and his application proposed a course of study Epstein was not prepared to pursue”.

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

At that point Obama’s profile was growing. Summers would later receive appointment as director of the White House NEC from January 2009 until November 2010.

After Summers exited the White House, he began soliciting Epstein for charitable advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor working on a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made gifts to projects linked to Summers’s wife, and the two men met a dozen times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.

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