Disclosed Communications Show Epstein and Summers as Confidantes

A series of messages between convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein and ex- US finance chief Larry Summers came to light this week, showing the pair were confidants.

These exchanges, spanning 2013 to early 2019, reveal the two men exchanging private – and at times unseemly – views on political matters and personal connections.

“I’m trying to understand why [the] American elite feel if u kill your baby by beating and desertion 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 feel if u kill your baby by physical abuse and neglect it must be irrelevant to your admission to Harvard,”} Summers wrote to Epstein in a 2017 email. “But flirted with a few women 10 years ago and cannot work at a network or think tank. KEEP CONFIDENTIAL THIS IDEA.”

At that time, Harvard University was wrestling with an enrollment discussion after a previously incarcerated woman’s enrollment to a PhD program. Summers, a former president of the university who resigned amid a uproar after making sexist comments about female academics, added in the email to Epstein: I pointed out that half of the IQ in [the] world was owned by women without mentioning they are more than 51 percent of society.”

Summers was previously a leading light in liberal circles – a one-time treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the main engineers of Barack Obama’s handling to the economic downturn, and a stalwart voice in the left-leaning punditry. But questions have remained about his association with Epstein, a longtime connection of Donald Trump. Epstein was accused of a wide-ranging child sex trafficking operation before his passing in prison in 2019 in New York City.

Following publication of a earlier set of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 piece, a representative for Summers commented that he “profoundly regrets being in contact with Epstein after his guilty verdict”.

Democratic lawmakers released emails from the Epstein estate this week that imply Epstein believed Trump was had knowledge of conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In retaliation, Conservative lawmakers released a more extensive tranche of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.

These records show that Summers continued congenial contact with the found guilty child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the final email exchange happening 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 examine Epstein’s “role and relationship” with Summers, among other well-known Democrats and industry figures.

In the emails, Summers and Epstein talk about politics – particularly Summers’s disdain for Trump – as well as the aspects of non-profit social networking – and women. Summers, 70, shared with Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his overtures toward an unnamed woman, and being rejected.

“she's intelligent. holding you accountable for past mistakes,” Epstein wrote 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 reiterated his remorse in a recent statement. “I have great regrets in my life,” he wrote. “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 gave more than $9m to Harvard and its related programs between 1998 and 2008, and was appointed a visiting fellow to conduct research. The university later concluded Epstein “did not have the educational background visiting fellows usually possess and his application proposed a course of study Epstein was unqualified to pursue”.

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

By then Obama’s profile was growing. Summers would ultimately win appointment as director of the White House NEC 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 got together a dozen times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.

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