Disclosed Exchanges Show Epstein and Larry Summers as Confidantes

A series of messages between adjudicated offender Jeffrey Epstein and ex- US finance chief Larry Summers were released this week, indicating the pair served as confidants.

These exchanges, dating from 2013 to early 2019, show the two men discussing personal – and at times improper – views on politics and personal connections.

I'm struggling to understand why [the] American elite believe if u take the life of your baby by beating 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} figure why [the] American elite believe if u kill your baby by beating and neglect it must be not a factor to your entry to Harvard,”} Summers emailed to Epstein in a 2017 message. However made advances toward a few women 10 years ago and cannot work at a network or think tank. DO NOT SHARE THIS IDEA.”

During that period, Harvard University was wrestling with an enrollment controversy after a once incarcerated woman’s acceptance to a PhD program. Summers, a ex- president of the university who lost his position amid a controversy after making discriminatory comments about women scholars, added in the email to Epstein: I noted that half of the IQ in [the] world was held by women without mentioning they are more than 51 percent of population.”

Summers was previously a leading light in Democratic circles – a ex- treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the main engineers of Barack Obama’s approach to the financial crisis, and a committed presence in the progressive media. But concerns have remained about his association with Epstein, a former contact of Donald Trump. Epstein was accused of a wide-ranging sex trafficking of minors operation before his demise in prison in 2019 in New York City.

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

Democratic 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 reply, Republican lawmakers issued a much bigger collection of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.

The released materials show that Summers maintained friendly contact with the adjudicated 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 “participation and association” with Summers, among other well-known Democrats and business leaders.

In the emails, Summers and Epstein discuss politics – especially Summers’s dislike for Trump – as well as the particulars of non-profit social networking – and women. Summers, 70, shared with Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his romantic gestures toward an unidentified woman, and being rejected.

“she's intelligent. holding you accountable for past mistakes,” Epstein wrote in an exchange on 16 March. “overlook the 'daddy' remark, I'm dating the motorcycle guy, you responded appropriately.. frustration signals affection., no protests revealed fortitude.”

Summers restated his remorse 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 donated more than $9m to Harvard and its related programs between 1998 and 2008, and was named a visiting fellow to conduct research. The university later determined Epstein “lacked the academic qualifications visiting fellows typically possess and his application suggested 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.

By that time Obama’s career was advancing. Summers would ultimately secure 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 charitable advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor developing 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 multiple times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.

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