Uncovered Emails Illustrate Jeffrey Epstein and Summers as Confidantes

A series of messages between convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and ex- US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers were released this week, showing the pair were close contacts.

These exchanges, spanning 2013 to early 2019, demonstrate the two men exchanging personal – and at times unseemly – perspectives on political matters and interpersonal dynamics.

“I’m trying to determine why [the] American elite believe if u take the life of your baby by physical abuse and neglect it must be irrelevant to your acceptance to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} understand why [the] American elite believe if u take the life of your baby by physical abuse and abandonment it must be irrelevant to your admission to Harvard,”} Summers stated to Epstein in a 2017 email. “But hit on a few women 10 years ago and cannot work at a network or think tank. DO NOT REPEAT THIS INSIGHT.”

During that period, Harvard University was wrestling with an enrollment discussion after a formerly incarcerated woman’s admission to a PhD program. Summers, a ex- 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 noting they are more than 51 percent of society.”

Summers was previously a key player in Democratic circles – a one-time treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the main architects of Barack Obama’s approach to the market collapse, and a committed voice in the liberal commentariat. But doubts have persisted about his relationship with Epstein, a longtime connection of Donald Trump. Epstein was alleged to have run a broad child sex trafficking operation before his passing in prison in 2019 in New York City.

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

Left-leaning lawmakers made public emails from the Epstein estate this week that suggest Epstein thought Trump was knew about conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In retaliation, GOP lawmakers issued a larger batch of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.

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

Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday that he would be requesting the Department of Justice and the FBI to look into Epstein’s “involvement and association” with Summers, among other prominent Democratic figures and corporate executives.

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

“shes smart. making you pay for past errors,” 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 sorrow in a recent statement. “I harbor significant regrets in my lifetime,” 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 contributed more than $9m to Harvard and its affiliated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was named a visiting fellow to carry out research. The university later concluded Epstein “did not have the scholarly credentials visiting fellows normally 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 that time Obama’s star was rising. 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 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 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 “in excess” of that received to anti-exploitation organizations.