Revealed Communications Depict Jeffrey Epstein and Larry Summers as Trusted Friends

A series of communications between adjudicated offender Jeffrey Epstein and ex- US treasury head Larry Summers were released this week, revealing the pair served as trusted allies.

Their correspondence, dating from 2013 to early 2019, show the two men discussing private – and at times improper – opinions on public affairs and personal connections.

“I’m trying to determine why [the] American elite feel if u kill your baby by physical abuse and abandonment 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 believe if u murder your baby by beating and abandonment it must be unimportant to your acceptance to Harvard,”} Summers emailed to Epstein in a 2017 email. However hit on a few women 10 years ago and cannot work at a network or think tank. KEEP CONFIDENTIAL THIS INSIGHT.”

Back then, Harvard University was dealing with an enrollment controversy after a once incarcerated woman’s admission to a PhD program. Summers, a former president of the university who stepped down amid a scandal after making gender-biased comments about women in academia, went on to say in the message to Epstein: “I observed that half of the IQ in [the] world was possessed by women without stating they are more than 51 percent of population.”

Summers was previously a leading light in liberal circles – a ex- treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the main designers of Barack Obama’s response to the market collapse, and a committed presence in the left-leaning punditry. But questions have persisted about his association with Epstein, a former connection of Donald Trump. Epstein was accused of a wide-ranging exploitation operation before his death in jail in 2019 in New York City.

Following disclosure of a previous batch of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 article, a representative for Summers said that he “is very sorry for being in contact with Epstein after his guilty verdict”.

Democratic lawmakers released emails from the Epstein estate this week that indicate Epstein was of the opinion Trump was aware of conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In response, Conservative lawmakers released a larger collection of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.

These records show that Summers maintained friendly contact with the convicted child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the final email exchange happening only months before Epstein’s apprehension.

Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday that he would be asking the Department of Justice and the FBI to examine Epstein’s “involvement and relationship” with Summers, among other well-known Democratic figures and business leaders.

In the emails, Summers and Epstein talk about politics – notably Summers’s contempt for Trump – as well as the particulars of charitable social networking – and women. Summers, 70, confided in Epstein in a 2019 exchange about his overtures toward an unidentified woman, and being rebuffed.

“she is clever. ensuring you atone for previous missteps,” Epstein responded 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 affirmed his remorse 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 gave more than $9m to Harvard and its related programs between 1998 and 2008, and was designated a visiting fellow to carry out research. The university later determined 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 stopped accepting Epstein’s donations after he pleaded guilty to child sex offenses in 2008.

At that point Obama’s career was advancing. Summers would ultimately secure appointment as director of the White House economic advisory body from January 2009 until November 2010.

After Summers exited the White House, he began soliciting Epstein for charitable advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor pursuing a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made gifts to projects linked to Summers’s wife, and the two men met a dozen times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.

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