Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, a prominent economist and public intellectual, is facing renewed scrutiny over his ties to deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein after new emails provided a window into the depth of their friendship.
Harvard opened a fresh investigation into Summers, first reported by the Harvard Crimson, after lawmakers released a trove of documents which included emails Epstein exchanged with Summers in which the former Harvard president and economics professor asks Epstein for advice on seducing a younger female economist. The emails continued until Epstein’s arrest in July 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges. Summers is also being investigated by the Trump Justice Department and stepped down from the board of Open AI Wednesday.
Earlier this week, Summers released an apology for his conduct and said he is stepping back from public commitments. Summers’s affiliations with the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, and the New York Times opinion section also appear to have been terminated.
“I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they have caused. I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein,” Summers said.
The Harvard Crimson first reported on Summers’s lengthy correspondence with Epstein on his attempts to seduce a female mentee. Summers and Epstein texted and emailed regularly from November 2018 to July 2019 about Summers’s pursuit of the woman. Epstein regularly gave Summers advice on how he should communicate with a younger female economist.
At one point, Epstein called himself Summers’s “wing man” during their correspondence. Summers has been married since 2005. The correspondence occurred long after Epstein’s 2008 conviction on state-level sex crimes charges in Florida.
The emails were part of a batch of 20,000 emails the House Oversight Committee released last week as part of its ongoing investigation into Epstein’s activities. Epstein’s estate turned over the emails to the congressional panel in response to a subpoena.
Summers’s association with Epstein was already public knowledge before the emails came out. But it was not previously known the extent to which Summers and Epstein communicated. Epstein was given a generous plea agreement by prosecutors after being charged with soliciting underage prostitutes. The lead federal prosecutor in south Florida who authorized the non-prosecution agreement, Alexander Acosta, told the Oversight Committee that a lack of victim cooperation had the potential to derail a federal prosecution against Epstein.
Summers is best known for serving as Treasury Secretary under Clinton and as the director of President Obama’s National Economic Council. He was president of Harvard from 2001 to 2006 until he resigned due to several scandals, including controversial comments he made about the lack of women in science and engineering.
Progressive Democrats have long criticized Summers’s moderate economic views and influence within the party. Summers notably criticized the Biden administration’s 2021 economic stimulus and accurately predicted the inflation that followed.
Epstein died in August 2019 while awaiting trial on the federal charges in Manhattan. His death was officially ruled a suicide, a determination the Trump administration reasserted when it decided not to release the government’s files on Epstein earlier this year. The Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files has brought fresh scrutiny onto Epstein’s sex trafficking and his relationships with Trump and other powerful individuals. Trump was friends with Epstein in the 1990s until the mid-2000s. Trump has not been accused of misconduct during his friendship with Epstein.
Trump directed the Justice Department last week to investigate prominent Democrats linked to Epstein. He specifically mentioned Summers, former President Bill Clinton, and billionaire Democratic donor Reid Hoffman. Attorney General Pam Bondi quickly assigned the investigation to Manhattan’s lead federal prosecutor upon receiving Trump’s order.
Epstein visited Clinton’s White House multiple times and Clinton repeatedly flew on Epstein’s infamous private plane. Hoffman visited Epstein’s infamous estate in the U.S. Virgin Islands and helped facilitate Epstein’s donations to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s media lab.
Hoffman previously apologized for his affiliation with Epstein and came out in favor of releasing the Epstein files. A spokesman for Clinton dismissed the Trump administration’s investigation and said Clinton did nothing wrong. Clinton has not been credibly accused of wrongdoing in connection with his friendship with Epstein, which ended around 2003.
The House and Senate passed a measure Tuesday compelling the Trump administration to release all of the Epstein files. Meanwhile, the House Oversight Committee’s investigation continues to move forward.