Uncovered Emails Depict Jeffrey Epstein and Larry Summers as Trusted Friends

Numerous messages between adjudicated sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein and one-time US finance chief Larry Summers were released this week, revealing the pair acted as trusted allies.

These exchanges, dating from 2013 to early 2019, reveal the two men exchanging personal – and at times questionable – perspectives on public affairs and interpersonal dynamics.

I'm struggling to determine why [the] American elite feel if u take the life of 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} figure why [the] American elite feel if u take the life of your baby by physical abuse and neglect it must be unimportant to your admission to Harvard,”} Summers emailed to Epstein in a 2017 message. Yet flirted with a few women 10 years ago and are unable to work at a network or think tank. KEEP CONFIDENTIAL THIS INSIGHT.”

During that period, Harvard University was grappling with an acceptance debate after a once incarcerated woman’s admission to a PhD program. Summers, a former president of the university who stepped down amid a controversy after making discriminatory comments about women in academia, continued in the email to Epstein: “I observed that half of the IQ in [the] world was owned by women without stating they are more than 51 percent of society.”

Summers was once a key player in the Democratic Party circles – a one-time treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the key architects of Barack Obama’s approach to the economic downturn, and a steadfast voice in the progressive media. But questions have lingered about his association with Epstein, a former contact of Donald Trump. Epstein was charged with a broad sex trafficking of minors operation before his passing in prison in 2019 in New York City.

Following disclosure of a previous batch of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 piece, a spokesperson for Summers commented that he “profoundly regrets being in contact with Epstein after his guilty verdict”.

Democratic Party lawmakers released emails from the Epstein estate this week that suggest Epstein was of the opinion Trump was knew about conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In response, Conservative lawmakers released a much bigger collection of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.

The released materials show that Summers kept up amicable contact with the found guilty child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the last email exchange happening only months before Epstein’s arrest.

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

In the emails, Summers and Epstein discuss politics – particularly Summers’s dislike for Trump – as well as the details of philanthropic social networking – and women. Summers, 70, shared with Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his romantic gestures toward an unnamed woman, and being rejected.

“shes smart. making you pay for past errors,” 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 reiterated his sorrow in a recent statement. “I harbor significant regrets in my lifetime,” he commented. “I’ve expressed this previously: my relationship with Jeffrey Epstein was a grave mistake.”

Summers was president of Harvard University from 2001 to 2006. Epstein contributed more than $9m to Harvard and its affiliated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was appointed a visiting fellow to conduct research. The university later concluded Epstein “lacked the educational background visiting fellows typically possess and his application proposed a course of study Epstein was not prepared to pursue”.

Harvard only stopped accepting Epstein’s donations after he admitted guilt 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 left the White House, he began requesting Epstein for philanthropic advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor working on a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made charitable contributions to projects linked to Summers’s wife, and the two men saw each other a twelve times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.

After media coverage about Epstein’s donations came out, New’s charity made a donation “more than” of that received to combatting sex trafficking organizations.