Uncovered Emails Illustrate Jeffrey Epstein and Summers as Trusted Friends
A series of messages between convicted offender Jeffrey Epstein and ex- US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers came to light this week, revealing the pair were trusted allies.
The messages, covering 2013 to early 2019, show the two men discussing personal – and at times unseemly – views on public affairs and relationships.
I'm struggling to figure why [the] American elite believe if u kill your baby by violence and neglect it must be not a factor to your acceptance to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} determine why [the] American elite feel if u take the life of your baby by beating and abandonment it must be not a factor to your admission to Harvard,”} Summers emailed to Epstein in a 2017 message. “But made advances toward a few women 10 years ago and can’t work at a network or think tank. KEEP CONFIDENTIAL THIS IDEA.”
During that period, Harvard University was dealing with an admissions discussion after a once incarcerated woman’s enrollment to a PhD program. Summers, a one-time president of the university who resigned amid a scandal after making sexist comments about women scholars, added in the correspondence to Epstein: “I observed that half of the IQ in [the] world was held by women without noting they are more than 51 percent of the populace.”
Summers was once a key player in Democratic circles – a former treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the key engineers of Barack Obama’s handling to the market collapse, and a stalwart voice in the progressive media. But concerns have lingered about his relationship with Epstein, a long-standing associate of Donald Trump. Epstein was accused of a wide-ranging exploitation operation before his passing in prison in 2019 in New York City.
Following the release of a prior set of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 piece, a agent for Summers stated that he “profoundly regrets being in contact with Epstein after his legal finding”.
Democratic lawmakers released emails from the Epstein estate this week that imply Epstein was of the opinion Trump was had knowledge of conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In reply, Conservative lawmakers published a more extensive tranche of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.
The documents show that Summers continued congenial contact with the found guilty child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the last email exchange occurring only months before Epstein’s apprehension.
Trump stated on Truth Social on Friday that he would be requesting the Department of Justice and the FBI to examine Epstein’s “role and association” with Summers, among other prominent Democratic figures and business leaders.
In the emails, Summers and Epstein converse on politics – notably Summers’s disdain for Trump – as well as the aspects of non-profit social networking – and women. Summers, 70, confided in Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his overtures toward an unidentified woman, and being turned down.
“she's intelligent. holding you accountable for past mistakes,” Epstein replied 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 sorrow in a recent statement. “There are many things I regret 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 affiliated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was designated a visiting fellow to conduct research. The university later concluded Epstein “did not have the educational background visiting fellows typically possess and his application outlined a course of study Epstein was not prepared to pursue”.
Harvard only ceased accepting Epstein’s donations after he admitted guilt to child sex offenses in 2008.
At that point Obama’s career was advancing. Summers would later receive appointment as director of the White House economic advisory body from January 2009 until November 2010.
After Summers departed 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 charitable contributions to projects associated with Summers’s wife, and the two men saw each other a dozen times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.
After reporting about Epstein’s donations came out, New’s charity made a donation “more than” of that received to anti-sex-trafficking organizations.
