Uncovered Emails Illustrate Epstein and Summers as Trusted Friends

Multiple communications between convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein and one-time US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers were released this week, revealing the pair were trusted allies.

These exchanges, dating from 2013 to early 2019, show the two men discussing intimate – and at times questionable – perspectives on political matters and relationships.

I'm struggling to determine why [the] American elite believe if u take the life of your baby by beating and neglect it must be irrelevant 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 take the life of your baby by beating and neglect it must be unimportant to your entry to Harvard,”} Summers stated to Epstein in a 2017 email. However made advances toward a few women 10 years ago and can’t work at a network or think tank. DO NOT REPEAT THIS INSIGHT.”

At that time, Harvard University was grappling with an acceptance debate after a formerly incarcerated woman’s admission to a PhD program. Summers, a former president of the university who lost his position amid a controversy after making discriminatory comments about women scholars, went on to say in the correspondence to Epstein: “I observed that half of the IQ in [the] world was owned by women without mentioning they are more than 51 percent of society.”

Summers was previously a leading light in the Democratic Party circles – a former treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, one of the main designers of Barack Obama’s approach to the economic downturn, and a committed presence in the liberal commentariat. But questions have persisted about his connection with Epstein, a former contact of Donald Trump. Epstein was accused of a wide-ranging sex trafficking of minors operation before his passing in prison in 2019 in New York City.

Following the release of a prior tranche of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 piece, a spokesperson for Summers said that he “deeply regrets being in contact with Epstein after his guilty verdict”.

Democratic Party lawmakers made public 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, Republican lawmakers issued a more extensive batch of 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate.

The released materials show that Summers kept up amicable contact with the convicted child sex trafficker well into 2019, with the last email exchange occurring only months before Epstein’s apprehension.

Trump posted 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 influential liberal leaders and industry figures.

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

“she is clever. ensuring you atone for previous missteps,” 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 reiterated his sorrow in a recent statement. “There are many things I regret in my life,” he commented. “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 gave more than $9m to Harvard and its associated programs between 1998 and 2008, and was named a visiting fellow to perform research. The university later concluded Epstein “lacked the educational background visiting fellows normally possess and his application proposed 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.

At that point Obama’s profile was growing. Summers would eventually win appointment as director of the White House economic advisory body from January 2009 until November 2010.

After Summers left the White House, he began requesting Epstein for philanthropic advice for his wife, Elisa New, a Harvard professor working on a poetry project. Epstein and his foundations made philanthropic donations to projects associated with Summers’s wife, and the two men met a dozen times between 2013 and 2016, often for dinner.

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