Disclosed Communications Depict Epstein and Summers as Close Associates

Numerous exchanges between adjudicated offender Jeffrey Epstein and one-time US treasury head Larry Summers have emerged this week, indicating the pair were close contacts.

Their correspondence, spanning 2013 to early 2019, demonstrate the two men discussing personal – and at times questionable – opinions on politics and interpersonal dynamics.

I'm struggling to determine why [the] American elite believe if u kill your baby by beating and neglect it must be irrelevant to your entry to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} determine why [the] American elite think if u take the life of your baby by violence and abandonment it must be unimportant to your acceptance to Harvard,”} Summers emailed to Epstein in a 2017 email. Yet flirted with a few women 10 years ago and cannot work at a network or think tank. KEEP CONFIDENTIAL THIS IDEA.”

Back then, Harvard University was grappling with an enrollment controversy after a previously incarcerated woman’s enrollment to a PhD program. Summers, a one-time president of the university who lost his position amid a uproar after making gender-biased comments about women in academia, went on to say in the email to Epstein: I noted that half of the IQ in [the] world was held by women without stating they are more than 51 percent of population.”

Summers was at one time a leading light in Democratic circles – a ex- treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the primary engineers of Barack Obama’s handling to the economic downturn, and a committed presence in the liberal commentariat. But doubts have lingered about his connection with Epstein, a former connection of Donald Trump. Epstein was accused of a extensive sex trafficking of minors 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 spokesperson for Summers said that he “is very sorry for being in contact with Epstein after his legal finding”.

Democratic Party lawmakers released 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 released a much bigger batch of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.

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

Trump stated on Truth Social on Friday that he would be asking the Department of Justice and the FBI to examine Epstein’s “role and relationship” with Summers, among other influential Democrats and corporate executives.

In the emails, Summers and Epstein talk about politics – especially Summers’s disdain for Trump – as well as the details of charitable social networking – and women. Summers, 70, confided in Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his romantic gestures toward an anonymous woman, and being rejected.

“she is clever. ensuring you atone for previous missteps,” 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 affirmed his regret in a recent statement. “I harbor significant regrets in my lifetime,” he wrote. “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 related programs between 1998 and 2008, and was designated a visiting fellow to conduct research. The university later concluded Epstein “was missing the educational background visiting fellows normally 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 eventually 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 non-profit advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor working on a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made philanthropic donations 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 combatting sex trafficking organizations.