Uncovered Exchanges Illustrate Jeffrey Epstein and Larry Summers as Confidantes

Multiple exchanges between found guilty sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein and ex- US finance chief Larry Summers came to light this week, indicating the pair were close contacts.

The messages, covering 2013 to early 2019, demonstrate the two men discussing personal – and at times unseemly – views on public affairs and personal connections.

“I’m trying to figure why [the] American elite think if u kill your baby by violence and desertion it must be irrelevant to your entry to Harvard,”|“I’m trying to|I am attempting to|I'm struggling to} understand why [the] American elite feel if u kill your baby by violence and abandonment it must be not a factor to your acceptance to Harvard,”} Summers wrote to Epstein in a 2017 communication. Yet flirted with a few women 10 years ago and are unable to work at a network or think tank. DO NOT REPEAT THIS IDEA.”

During that period, Harvard University was grappling with an enrollment controversy after a formerly incarcerated woman’s enrollment to a PhD program. Summers, a ex- president of the university who stepped down amid a scandal after making discriminatory comments about women scholars, added in the correspondence to Epstein: “I observed that half of the IQ in [the] world was possessed by women without mentioning they are more than 51 percent of population.”

Summers was once a key player in liberal circles – a former treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the main architects of Barack Obama’s approach to the economic downturn, and a committed voice in the liberal commentariat. But concerns have persisted about his relationship with Epstein, a former contact of Donald Trump. Epstein was accused of a broad exploitation operation before his passing in jail in 2019 in New York City.

Following the release of a prior batch of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 article, a spokesperson for Summers stated that he “profoundly regrets being in contact with Epstein after his guilty verdict”.

Democratic lawmakers disclosed emails from the Epstein estate this week that imply Epstein was of the opinion Trump was aware of conduct by the now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In response, Conservative lawmakers published a more extensive collection 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 arrest.

Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday that he would be requesting the Department of Justice and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s “role and association” with Summers, among other prominent Democrats and industry figures.

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

“shes smart. making you pay for past errors,” 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. “I harbor significant regrets in my lifetime,” he said. “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 contributed more than $9m to Harvard and its associated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was designated a visiting fellow to perform research. The university later found Epstein “was missing the academic qualifications visiting fellows normally possess and his application suggested a course of study Epstein was ill-equipped to pursue”.

Harvard only stopped accepting Epstein’s donations after he pleaded guilty to child sex offenses in 2008.

By then Obama’s profile was growing. Summers would eventually receive appointment as director of the White House National Economic Council 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 gifts to projects connected to Summers’s wife, and the two men met a twelve times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.

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